On Plans and Their Execution

Hello friends and family! A very merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas around here is especially merry, which is part of the reason I haven't blogged in so long... sorry about that! Here's what happened: About six hours after getting back from Egypt (pictures coming soon--I promise!), I hopped on a plane to Amsterdam and then to Minnesota! This plan has been in the works with my dad for several weeks now, but was definitely a surprise to my mom and Sarah. I showed up just in time for my dad's birthday dinner at the St Paul Grill. Family friend Marlene Larson collected me at the airport and brought me to the restaurant. Mom and Sarah were, as anticipated, surprised. Sarah almost died, I think, but was propped up in the corner of the booth. The biggest surprise to me was the wait staff--several different ladies were just so excited to hear what was going on and kept saying that we were making them cry. I probably could have cried myself; the end of the Egypt trip plus the long journey to the US meant that I had not slept much in 4 days, so I was ready to crash. And crash I did--Mom woke me up the next day at 12:45. The past two weeks have been filled to the brim: spending time with family, catching up with friends, cooking, shopping, packing, wrapping, etc. I'm only home for 19 days--I leave the 28th--so pretty much every moment is used up. My parents are coming to visit me in Israel, so I will be returning to JUC on a different flight that gets me back to Jerusalem about 10 hours before them. I'll have 10 days with them and then another 2 weeks or so on my own before spring semester classes start. I am so excited to show my parents around Israel, and I know they are looking forward to it as well.

Again, I apologize for how long-overdue this blog is! I will get pictures from Egypt and my visit here posted as soon as possible. Until then, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!