Waking up to snow

Waking up to snow
Originally uploaded by the gladdings

Maggie and Seth (and us too) were excited to wake up to their first snow ever. They insisted on going outside to play in the 1/4" of snow. Watching them revel in scraping up enough snow for a snow-peanut, and making a snow angel on the pavement (learned from a book, of course) was a delight - oh to be thrilled by such simple things...

Cousins - Thanksgiving 09

Cousins - Thanksgiving 09
Originally uploaded by the gladdings

See below for details!

Thanksgiving 2009

We've had a wonderful week with family, and have been mindful of all we have to be thankful for. Our sister-in-law Erin's parents came down from Minnesota, and we shared several meals with them, and a hike in Red River Gorge to Gray's Arch on a stunning autumn day. The litluns held up remarkably well, and had a big time scrambling up rocks and climbing along narrow ledges and through small spaces to reach the base of the arch (see more photos at our Flickr account).

In preparation for Rebecca's family driving in from Illinois, we spent 3 days turning the third bedroom from the 'holding area' for all our unpacked boxes into an actual guest room. We also hung pictures and photos, swept floors, cleaned - partnering with God in the ongoing work of bringing order to chaos! It's quite astounding the difference having an ordered space makes to our overall sense of well-being.

We joined the Martin/Bailey/Watterson clan for brunch on Thanksgiving morning before driving back to Lexington for Will & Lisa Samson's community Thanksgiving feast, enjoying time with them, their friends and neighbours, and Communality friends and family. The food was quite spectacular, and we finally got to meet Claudia Burney and her family, who are good friends with the Samsons, and who Sean connected with somewhat randomly through Facebook before both our families moved here.

Friday saw the Martin clan descend on our home for brunch burritos, books and games before a hike at McConnell Springs, and then heading downtown for the Lexington Christmas parade. We drove out to Wilmore on Saturday for one last meal together, and began to make plans for Christmas in Greenville - the first time the cousins will be together for Christmas. But between here and there is Advent, which we began in darkness at the High Street House on Sunday night, as once more we wait for the Light of the world to be born in us anew...