The Churches Go On a Very Long Holiday: Part 1

Let me just start by saying that I am not a committed photographer. I would love to be one, but more often than not I just can’t convince myself that it’s worth it to haul another bag full of my camera with me wherever I am going. Thus, there is a weird array of pictures from our trip back to the States. I didn’t have a camera for the first 5 weeks while Ian was at Rutgers (Oh! But I don’t even think I have told you about that yet..), so I used various cameras available, which means I will probably never see some of the pictures I took. Then there was a little stint where I took some pictures using my own camera, but also lots of pictures were taken by other people, so I will probably never see those either (unless a certain brother-in-law comes through for me! :). THEN, Ian got an iPod Touch for Christmas, and so that became our camera for a while (handy, that thing!), but the pictures are really low quality.

So. That’s the only way I can explain myself.

Now, we were in the States for a long time. Two months, actually. And it was not without purpose! Ian had the opportunity to go to Rutgers University in lovely New Jersey to study with a great epistemologist for 5 weeks. We couldn’t believe how perfect the timing was for his thesis, as he was working on a chapter about the work of this particular guy, and the timing in the semester – right before the holidays during a semester when Ian did not have teaching commitments. So, we decided to go for it, and then just had to iron out a few details.

Like, for instance, what was I going to do for those 5 weeks? I was a little uncertain about going back to the States because that is a long time, and I do do things here that I wasn’t sure I wanted to just leave behind in the middle of the semester. But in the end I decided to just go for it and enjoy some time with some of my long lost family. We were very glad we had decided on this after we got a bit of news that changed the course of our futures forever (!), but also being on this side of it, I am forever grateful for that special time with my parents and my sister’s family because now that they (my sister’s family) have taken up residence in america del sur, we will be seeing them even less frequently.

So off we went. Ian being studious, me being helped by my family :). Then we decided to just go ahead and stay right through the holidays and make a big to-do out of it.

Before we left, Aed had a stint of injuring himself. After we got there, he kept at it! His best injury, in my humble opinion, was the goose egg on his forehead. He somehow managed to stand up just right underneath my parents’ dining room table and really knocked his head. Thus, this was his appearance for a while..


He also had a great time playing with his cute cuzzies! He was a good in between for them.. Ben is approaching 3 and enjoyed that Aed could run around the house with him. Bella is two months younger than Aed, so they were interested in and excited by very similar things. And they all loved sharing toys and attention whenever they could! Not so much.. :)


But, they are all adorable and for the most part really enjoyed playing together. I know I enjoyed watching them :)

One of the many firsts Aed experienced while Stateside was playing in the snow! We went out a few times and he seemed to gradually warm up to the idea, but the first experience he was not convinced it was such a good idea.


It started out pretty well, but didn’t take long to become this..


He was much happier being held because it was hard to walk in the boots, even harder in the snow! But we are looking forward to many a snowy winter to enjoy in the years to come :)

I managed to pull out a little culinary creativity while we were there as well. I didn’t do as much cooking as I do at home (and though I’m glad to be at it again, a break is always nice!), but I did some, including a birthday cake for my dear old dad.


The theme is: golf. I know, shocking.

And, as you know if you decided to risk stopping by this quiet blog during the month of November, Ian came to my parents’ at Thanksgiving and we got to see some family members we haven’t seen for several years! That is something to be thankful for :).

Up next, Christmas and California!