The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of December 2010

THE GOOD:
-spending 10 days, from Dec. 9-19, with my mom and two sisters in Minneapolis laughing, shopping, going to a play, & making Christmas candy
-receiving wonderful Christmas cards from dear friends
-buying presents for family
-visiting with Tommy, Hunter's brother, in Florida
-traveling to St. Augustine, Florida and sharing a house on the beach with our three grown children, their spouses, and three active grandsons from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day. We walked the beach gathering seashells, made sand castles, built & eventually destroyed a gingerbread house, played cards and a trivia game, ate, spent an afternoon competing for the Stall trophy in a miniature golf game, ate some more, solved a murder mystery in costume, visited a playground with an antique carousel that the grandsons loved, and ate yet more! (family photo coming)

THE BAD:
-experienced the Minneapolis 16 inch snow storm and below zero wind chills!
-colder than normal temps in Florida requiring winter wear while walking the beach the first three days of our visit

THE UGLY:
-two days in the hospital, Dec. 23rd and 24th, with a bowel obstruction which was cleared BUT medication triggered 30 hours of violent nausea and vomiting & a 10 pound weight loss

Now I'm looking forward to God's blessings in 2011: anticipating new MMAP projects in January and February, a scuba trip to Bonaire the end of February, touring Florida with our German friends in March, two more MMAP projects in April and May, welcoming a granddaughter into the world in May, spending the summer in the Quad Cities and the fall in Italy and wrapping up the year somewhere on the east coast.

Praying your new year is filled with meaningful activities keeping you busy and friends & family keeping you happy!