These last two weeks have been busy for me. Andrew and I were able to go to Greenville for Christmas. We drove down Friday, December 21 when Andrew was done with work. Christmas day was divided up between our two families. We had breakfast with mine, and then we went to his parents’ house to open presents. We ate lunch in the dinning common with both families, and then we went to my parents’ house in the afternoon to open presents. Andrew left the day after Christmas to go back home. Since I didn’t have work or school I went to Michigan with my family.
We headed to Michigan on Thursday and enjoyed a week visiting all my extended family on my mom’s side except for one cousin. We had Christmas together that weekend. The rest of the week was spent eating and visiting. Sunday night (I think) we got about 4 inches of snow. Monday night (New Years Eve) we got more snow. The snow was supposed to end by midmorning Tuesday. Well, Tuesday morning the sun came out a tiny bit, and then it started snowing around lunchtime and didn’t stop until sometime in the night. We took a walk Tuesday night in the snow. We were supposed to head back to Greenville on Wednesday, but because of our snow and the snow being called for most of the way back to Greenville we decided to stay an extra day. Wednesday was beautiful. The sky was clear and the snow was so pretty. We had over 8 inches of snow. Unfortunately it was very dry and wouldn’t pack at all. When we left Thursday morning it was 4 degrees.
We went back to Greenville, but only for the night. My cousin Kyle Bowman (on my dad’s side of the family) was getting married that weekend. We did lots of laundry and repacked Thursday night so we could leave Friday. We took my grandparents with us, so we had seven packed in the van. Thankfully the wedding was only five hours away in Lynchburg, VA. Andrew drove over to Lynchburg that night, so we were able to be together again after a little more than a week apart. That night Grandpa took 17 of us out to dinner. We were quite a group.
The wedding was at 1pm Saturday. It was a nice wedding. That night for supper we were invited over to the Bowman’s house. We had thirty people there. We don’t get to see the Bowman’s much, so we enjoyed our time there. All of the extended family came to the wedding except for one cousin.
We all left Sunday. Andrew and I only had 1 ½ hours to travel, so we were in no hurry. We drove through the historic downtown and then went to a historic cemetery that had confederate graves, a pest house, and a display with a horse-drawn hearse and information on making tombstones. It was a neat place.
It has struck me lately how unusual my family is. We are close to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family. When we get together after being apart for 6 months to a year, it feels like we were never apart. Everyone professes to be a Christian, and we all get along well with each other. I don’t think many people can say that about both sides of their family. I’m very thankful that God has allowed us to be so close and spend so much time together.