Well we hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. We also hope you had as much fun ringing in the New Year as we did. We were lucky enough to be able to visit our friends Becky and Michael in Kentucky. They took us to a very remote town called Seco. There we met their friends and danced the evening away at a place called the Highland Winery. Yep, that’s right folks, they make wine in them hills. Needless to say we had a great time. We also spend a few days in Hazard where they’ve been living for the last two years. And as much as we enjoyed seeing a bit of Eastern Kentucky we’re happy they’re moving to Memphis, Tennessee. From what we understand they’ll be there starting at the end of February. We wish them safe travels and happy moving.

As for the rest of our holiday… well we did it all:

Before we left we were finally able to meet Aiden Ao-han. He’s doing a lot better now and Jason and Ying invited us over for the afternoon. To see some pretty cute photos of us and them you can go here. He sure is a handsome boy. Though we couldn’t get over how little Ying actually birthed a baby boy that big. When we met him he was only seven weeks old and he was already 12 lbs. We were also fortunate enough to be able to meet Ying’s mother and father that day. They are in the states visiting and we enjoyed trying to communicate. Though it made me really want to learn how to speak Mandarin. I think I’ll work on that language after Spanish, German and Italian.

We were also able to celebrate a bit of the holiday with some friends here in Austin before we went to Lake Jackson. We had some food and good laughs. And lots of baby talk. Lilly, Abigail and Olivia are all getting so big. It’s amazing how fast babies grow. I took some photos from the evening. Though unfortunately I lost some in the download process. I had a really cute video of Lilly crawling but somehow it has been erased from the computer. We will just have to make time to see them again and re-film the action.

We also had a first this year. Julie had never been to the Trail of Lights here in Austin and we decided to go. Our friends Adam and Jessica decided to join us as well. We were unfortunately rushed around a bit as we had to run to make it before they closed the gates. We will have to attempt it again next year a bit earlier in the evening. It was kind of neat to realize that a year ago, at the same place Sean was down on one knee under that big tree proposing. It’s amazing how time flies.

Speaking of time. The very next day was Sean’s 25th birthday!! Yep now we’re both officially 1/4 of a century old. We rang in this birthday kind of low key, with just the two of us. He received some winter cycling gear and a grill. Don’t get to excited by that as we’re technically not supposed to have one in this complex. But I found a really cool solid Lodge cast iron hibachi grill. It fits in our fireplace, thus I don’t think it’s as illegal. Anyway we can now take it on camping trips as well. We’re hoping to make a camping trip with Adam and Jessica around spring break. Sean can break that baby out and make the neighbor campers jealous. We drove home the morning after his birthday and continued celebrating Sean’s birthday.

We were also fortunate enough to get to spend some time with my friend Beth and her daughter Hazel. They have just now moved back to Hawaii and Hazel got to see her daddy after six months. He has just finished a tour in Bahrain. We’re glad to know he’s home safe but we were a little sad to see Beth and Hazel go. It’s been nice having them close by in Lake Jackson. Though we understand he outranks us and maybe we’ll get to visit Hawaii before they leave for his next station. Either way we had some good times with them over the holiday. We went to a church event that had a train go through the grounds where they’d set up lights everywhere. Hazel really enjoyed that. We also helped drive them around for some errands and played with Hazel. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera when we went to the train ride, so you’ll have to wait until Beth and Adam get their internet up to see those photos. They should have internet by the end of the month. Just go to Beth’s DropShots page. You can also see Hazel’s really cute Christmas and some amazing photos our friend Renee took there as well.

As for the actual Christmas holiday… well we had four and it was a blast. Yep I said four. The Sunday before Christmas we spent the day celebrating in style with my dad, Richard. We tinkered with doorbells, played with computers, had our butts whooped at Ticket to Ride, and ate some of dad’s famous chili. We’d tell you the receipt but then we’d have to kill you. Then the next day, Christmas Eve, we spent with my Mom, Pam. We spent a relaxing day listening to carols, eating sweets, playing Bohnanza, and opening some gifts. At the end of the day, around 10pm, we headed to the Christmas Eve service at Sean’s parents home church. This has become quite the de la Haye family tradition, and this year, all though we didn’t get snow, we were able to see Evan play some Christmas carols with a brass ensemble. It was pretty cool. Then on Christmas day we spent the morning opening gifts and then come to find out Dickson had set up a treasure hunt for Sally and Julie. So just after they left we hurriedly dressed and headed out to set up the last few clues, which funny enough sent them back to the house. Here’s some photos of us, Dickson, Sean, Evan and I, setting up the trail and sneaking back to the house. At the end we got to see Sally and Julie receive very beautiful pearl necklaces. It was quite fun and completely different. After that we spent the day enjoying Sally’s baked goods and each others company. All in all, we had a great Christmas and were blessed to get some much time with our families.

Soon after Christmas we flew to go to my cousin CJ’s wedding. Luckily for us, they were getting married in Midland, Michigan at the end of December. For a couple of people living in Texas, the thought of cooler climates was pretty inviting. Our hopes were met — the trip turned out to be a wonderful winter-filled journey that satisfied both of our desires to visit family and see some snow. We also got to have our fourth Christmas with my sister Allie and then spend time with a bunch of my extended family. We had a great time. It was too bad we only had a few days there before we were off to Kentucky.

Phew… That was quite holiday. We’re just now settling back down and getting into the swing of things at work and school. I’ve got three correspondence classes and four classes to go and then in May I will finally get that darn piece of paper. Whoa! As for Sean, well he’s still enjoying work at his new job, but I think he may be moving up getting his masters degree. Instead of next spring he’s thinking this fall. Of course that depends on whether or not he can get all the paper work in and well, get accepted. As for me I just want out of the binds of school for the moment. I’m thinking of taking some photography classes for fun and finding a job (for those of you who may not have heard the other job I had taken didn’t end up working out due to my school obligations). And I’ve been practicing that photography with Melissa and James’ girls. You can go here to see our latest session of cute babies.

Well we both hope all of your holidays were filled with family and friends, good conversation and great memories.

Until the next post.

Melissa

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am.