It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Christmas lights, Christmas trees, Christmas carols, Christmas cookies, the Christmas story...we would write more about why this is "the most wonderful time of the year," but this is also "the most busy time of the year." In fact, we have been so busy that we have neglected to tell you about our trips to Brugge, Belgium; Frankfurt, Germany; and the great state of Texas, U.S.A. All of these trips have taken place in the last 3 1/2 weeks.

No one in the U.S. has heard for Brugge, but it's a small town in Belgium that many call the "Venice of Northern Europe." While it is not quite Venice, it is an extremely charming medieval town. Seeing the popular horse-drawn carriages carting tourists around looks quite natural in Brugge. The cobblestone streets, quaint squares, lake, medieval buildings, and quiet beguinage (kind of like a nunnery) make this a fabulous town to visit. We highly recommend the hotel we stayed in: Hotel Ter Duinen. Practically everything served in the restaurant for breakfast was home-grown in the garden of one of the proprietors. We had the smallest kiwi's ever known to man and some really good pastries. We enjoyed a short, but satisfying weekend in Brugge.

The Frankfurt trip was over Thanksgiving. We went with the Coopers because John and Jacob had training to attend in Frankfurt the Friday after Thanksgiving day. So, we all drove to the Frankfurt Marriott on Thanksgiving Day and got there just in time to have some Thanksgiving dinner in the restaurant there. Unfortunately Annette, Jacob's wife, gave us all a scare when she passed out for a couple minutes immediately following our Thanksgiving dinner. Two doctors in the restaurant came to the resuce and the ambulance guys ran some tests, all with no conclusion. There has been no fainting since that time, but the doctors still don't seem to know what caused this. Needless to say, this was a very scary situation, especially since we had just arrived in a foreign country. (Foreign as in more foreign than the country we live in!) We are thankful we were staying at the Marriott - a really big, fancy hotel - because they took good care of us. Most of the rest of the weekend was spent visiting the Christmas markets and doing lots of Christmas shopping.

The trip to the U.S. was last week. Erin took her National Counseling Exam and passed! The rest of the week was absolutely crammed packed with seeing friends, visiting family, and running errands. We are still a bit jet-lagged, but getting over it quickly. The next couple weeks before Christmas will be busy for both of us. John is working very hard right now and will definitely be ready for another break from work by the time Christmas gets here. The holiday season is always pretty busy in the area of counseling, so Erin will also be working hard in the next couple weeks trying to squeeze everybody in for appointments. Erin's parents will come to see us for Christmas, and our next big trip will be going with them to London the week following Christmas. We can't promise we'll have time to write before, but we'll be sure to share the London adventures with everybody after we get back.

Even though this time of year is busy, we wish you all a joyful and blessed Christmas!