Hey faithful readers!! Sorry so much for the long delay. Long story short - our mac had a couple issues installing the new operating system - Leopard - so our computer was rendered inoperable for 2 weeks. But thanks to my friend Lee who happens to work at a Mac store and his genius friend - our computer is up and running!!
So - last time we wrote - we were getting ready to go home for our Holiday visit. The visit was AWESOME! We got to split it down the middle and spend 8 days in Harrisburg and 8 in Pittsburgh. We even got to go to a wedding - the wedding of Deb's bestest friend ever Natalie. It was a great celebration. It was so refreshing to spend time with family and friends. Of course - it was way too short. But we're so thankful to be blessed with such wonderful friends and families and the means to return to visit when we need!
We got back to Pasadena late the 18th and returned to work on the 20th. I'll be honest, when Christmas day rolled around - it was actually quite weird. Deb had to work and I was left alone for most of the day. It just didn't feel like Christmas. Deb and I got to celebrate a lovely Christmas together on Christmas eve - so that was nice! When I picked Deb up after work on Christmas night - we drove around San Marino and looked at some of the Christmas lights on the HUGE houses. We were half tempted to walk up to one of the houses and ask if we could come in and hang out - haha. We just missed being with our families a whole lot. It's interesting how Christmas in our culture has become the family climax of the year. So not being with our families was sad. But we bounced back! :)
Deb and I had an AMAZING new years. We decided that we were going to rough it and camp out on Colorado Avenue - the main drag of the Rose Parade (which happens to be just two and a half blocks up from where we live!). We decided to scope out the territory around 1:30 on New Years Eve and it was already filling up. We were talking with one family that was camped out and part of the family happened to be from PA! Well - they just took us under their wing and told us to go get our stuff and camp out with them. it was AWESOME! They gave us their food, they gave us cots to sleep on, they even let us borrow marshmallows to throw at oncoming traffic (a pre-rose parade tradition). We were literally part of the family. IT WAS SOOOO FUN! There wasn't any organized New Years count down - we kinda all the sudden just started cheering and throwing more stuff. We didn't, or course, get much sleep and when we woke up at 6AM - there were 10x more people all around us then when we went to sleep. The parade was awesome! We had front row seats and could actually smell the floats. Debbie and I both felt that it was just so worth it! AND we made some new friends! Enjoy the some of the pictures!
So who knows what 2008 holds for us - but we'll certainly keep posted on everything! We love you all! God Bless you in this new year!
love,
timmy and deb
