travel bags are put away (for now anyway)

Well this is my old worn out luggage loading up for our Christmas travels...

trip #1 We started on Monday of this week going to Tulsa for time with my family. It ended up me, my family and my brother's kids with my parents. not a bad combination, we enjoyed the time and always love going " home" for Christmas. Tulsa is not my home, my parents are...I love them dearly.

trip #2 after a get together with Cody's mom's side of the family on Wed. night we set out ahead of a blizzard to get to destination #2 Great Wolf Lodge Grapevine, TX. Cody's parents Christmas present to us. I discovered a new way to cart stuff around in a blizzard- tubs. We took the 4 wheel drive truck south. We beat the storm, they met it head on. It took them and the other set of grand kids 8 hours to make the 3 hour trip. Cody's sister and her husband got snowed in and couldn't come until mid afternoon Christmas day. We carried on and Golden Corral for lunch wasn't so bad. The Gaylord Texan was amazing that afternoon and of course Great Wolf delivered plenty of entertainment. We came home today on mostly dry roads.

We opened our gifts with the kids tonight and as I write I am listening to a new Lego set being put together (Cody and Silas), Cady on her new DS and the quiet hum of last year's present- the washer/dryer set. My heart is content with the love of our family but I somehow feel we haven't given our Lord primary focus this week and with the cancellation of church tomorrow I hope we can change that. We celebrate that more of Cody's mom's side of the family have accepted Christ's salvation and are growing in Christ, that his cousin is expecting a "Moore" son in April and that those we love are close. We grieve with my sister in law who lost her daddy Christmas Eve and many who've had problems due to the weather. But as I set my kids by that huge snow drift just north of our home I am reminded that we don't have to pay big bucks for "an experience" like we saw at the resorts in TX- there are amazing things all around us, God is the author of creativity-

So I am putting the travel tote's up. There are plans on calendar for reuse but not soon. I will rest in my nest awhile. "A man may plot his course but God determines his steps" , I'll be looking for you,God, every step.