Vint Vibe: We Had a Whole Week Off & We Stayed Home!

Another blessing of our jobs at Cornerstone is that we have the whole week off between Christmas and New Years! Working in ministry we naturally work with people. Joel is well, 120% extroverted. He can never get enough and I well, my people-meter blows at around say 80% (don't worry, its not because of you of course). Sometimes I feel bad when I just want to stay at home because I am all peopled-out, but I LOVED this week. LOVED IT (until the end of the week I was all ready to have a good ol' time)! We spent a record 10 nights not doing a single activity besides staying home (that was partly due to sickness). Joel also read A LOT for his seminary classes (yes, he is getting his Masters... cool, huh?).

That said, I will recount to you most of what we did this week (backwards).

We had a New Year's Day party. Ah friends, food, football... and a little Grumpy Old Men to boot! Did I mention that Joel gave me my fav movie selection for Christmas? Love these movies!

Did I mention footballl... yep, we've certainly watched (are watching) our fair share of that lately! In my second life I think I'm going to work for ESPN as a sports analyst. =)

Joel was a well, a little under the weather on New Year's Eve so we hit the hay about 9:00p. I wanted to show my love and devotion to Joel and stay home with him, even though I was throwing a pity party for myself on the inside. I was sad to not be ringing in the new year with friends and fun. I soon got over myself (thanks to the Holy Spirit)... oh yes, and because I was the one who got sick earlier in the week and probably gave it to Joel.

Wah-lah! A little somthin' I threw down on New Year's Eve (while Joel was sick). Window transformation (in reverse... hah). The one set of windows we had yet to paint white in our home. This was one of those..."why didn't we do this a long time ago" type things. I like it way better!

The day before this I did come down with the awesome 24/48 hour flu. I am a huge baby when I am sick and want all the care Joel will offer, while Joel hates all personal contact while he is sick. We are so opposites sometimes! Who knew?!

Don't you love when the trees are like this? For an instant I really like it (and then I step outside and freeze my toes off). Our God really was the originator of beauty. Our fake flashy lights do not compare to days like this. On this day we were on our way to Des Moines to do some exchanging and returning.... and we picked out some tile for a project Joel has been working on all month and much of this week. That will require a post of it's own in a month or so!

Somewhere in here Joel and I did celebrate Christmas together. We got to attend the Cornerstone service (which I have never done), make our own special Christmas Eve and Christmas morning meals, and enjoy one another. SUPER FUN! We also spent most of Christmas day with Joel's family enjoying food, opening gifts, and playing games.

We shared the Sunday before Christmas with the Vint side of the family. Notice I only like pictures of young children and beautiful aged women (I'm so weird with photo taking).

Love Joel's grandmother, Melva. 1st Christmas without her beloved husband of 42 years. So hard! Do notice that her christmas light necklace blinked!

We spent the weekend before Christmas celebrating with my family in MN. My baby brother is 19. WILD!

A family favorite Christmas character even showed up. Santa and his little elf (my Grandfather has dressed up as Santa for years and come to our home... I used to be SO SCARED OF HIM and would hide). Some things do change. Isn't my Grandmother lovely?!