Christmas Lights and Hurricane Nights

Christmas lights have been going up on the Square for a month now. Every day we see more trees filled with white, red or green lights. It started in my favorite chestnut tree. I remember how excited I was to be here to see the holiday preparations unfold as we began our mission last year. It is a different feeling this year but still just as exciting.

This past week has been very full. Ed's mother had some health issues last week serious enough that we felt a quick trip to Pennsylvania was needed. Autumn wanted to go with us and take Edison so it was quite the trip. Edison was so good, sleeping most of the way. We had an interesting delay in Denver, but as we got underway we were only an hour behind schedule. An interesting announcement was made by the female captain; "Welcome aboard" she said, I have to tell you I have no idea what time we might arrive in Philadelphia but my goal right now is to get you to Philadelphia today!" She continued to explain that they had just come from Washington, DC and had to divert around the storm.

Yep.....Irene was already messing with our weekend. We flew 1500+ miles to be in a hurricane!
But Ed's mom and family were happy we were there. It was important. Everyone fell in love with Edison, the youngest of the clan. Babies certainly do bring out a wonderful side of people. He was such a good, happy baby that even on the plane or waiting in the airport we would get smiles from all sorts of people.


It was fun to get comments from other young parents traveling with babies. One one leg of our trip there were two couples with twins. The young dads spent most of the trip walking the aisles of the plane with a baby. Edison was asleep. ^_^

Irene wasn't as bad for us as she was in many places. We had about 6 inches of rain between about 9PM on Saturday night and 11:00AM on Sunday. There was very little wind with the rain, but the wind picked up on Sunday mid morning. We think that's when the tree in the backyard must have gone down. Well....it didn't really go down; the big tree hit a smaller tree and then hit the power lines above the garage, lines that go across the backyards of all the houses on the street. Many thousands of people were without power, some for several days, but we had power throughout the storm. We were very blessed.


Ed has stayed in PA to help his mother and I am missing my companion. It is strange to be a missionary without him especially as I watch the lights go up on the Square. This past year has gone by so fast. I don't want to miss another day without being together. Hurry home honey!