For Laura

You only need to watch the first few seconds. I don't know how we missed this but later when we were watching the Christmas videos we couldn't help laughing! See you Thursday and Happy Early Birthday!

Only the Beginning...Merry Christmas

We are out of our minds and traveled all over the south in under 5 days! I was very nervous about how the traveling would affect Kattherine, but she was great as always. Here is the 1st and 2nd of our 3 Christmases.

My sister was in town for 10 days but had to fly out on the 26th due to insane plane ticket prices that almost doubled if she flew out even one day later. So, on the 23rd, our Christmas Eve, we spent the night at my parents. I made cookies while Jason wrapped a few gifts and then we opened our traditional Christmas Eve PJs. Kate also got her 1st ornament. You always hear how special a child’s first Christmas is and it’s true! I think it was even more fun for us because Katherine is 11 months old so it’s not like she’s a little baby. She may not understand Santa or the true meaning of Christmas but she does understand tearing paper, toys, and pretty sparkly trees. She loved Christmas morning and there was definitely a favorite gift from my parents. My parents brought out this big bag and inside was a huge stuffed dog. My first reaction was really? Whenever I see these enormous stuffed animals I always wonder who would ever buy them? Well, I was wrong because Kate absolutely adores her dog. She loves on him and crawls and rolls all over him. We now have to be careful around real dogs that are big because she'll try to grab its nose and crawl on top which most dogs don't respond to with fondness.

After breakfast and Kate’s nap we loaded up the van my Dad rented for the 5 hour drive to TN. Kate only slept about 45 minutes but had a blast riding next to the big window and staring at my sister. About 15 minutes after we left we had to make an unexpected stop when a not so pleasant smell filled the van. We had barely left the house when the first diaper change was needed. This made me quite apprehensive about driving the next 5 hours with her but she was fine and we only had to stop one more time to fill up the van.

My family’s Christmas centers on food and eating at all times. We probably didn’t go an entire hour without eating some Christmas treat. Of course, that’s what holidays are for :) Christmas night there’s a big party with all the TN family. They’ve done this every year and it’s a huge crowd. My Mom was 1 of 8 kids… We’re close to our extended family so it’s great we can see everyone at least once a year. Kate can get nervous in large crowds but luckily my cousin and uncle have dogs and she loved chasing after them. I’m sad I didn’t get pictures of everyone at the party.

Our only family picture since Kate's blessing!

She's so sweet!!!

Warning: Sappy Love Note *have no fear, I promise to keep rest of the year's notes private*

I cannot believe how blessed I am to have found someone who makes me so happy. Thank you for taking care of our family. You do so much for us; fixing our beautiful home, working hard and allowing me the opportunity to stay home and raise our daughter... Thank you for being an incredible father to our sweet little girl, you are the most loving husband and father. I admire your faith, love, intelligence, devotion, patience, humor, kindness, and of course your GT dorky side ;) Thank you for letting me ramble on everyday and for always making me laugh at least once a day! Each day that passes I love you even more and am looking forward to an eternity of happiness with you by my side.

4 Years of Marriage/8 Years since we met

A Traditional Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love decorating the house, listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, etc. I even decorated our home before Thanksgiving. I know that doesn’t seem right but Thanksgiving seriously cuts into my Christmas time! Our goal for our home is for it to feel homey. What makes a house inviting and comforting is different to everyone. I'm sure it has a lot to do with how we were raised. To us, this means traditional. So, our decorations aren't too modern and have more of a traditional feel. This year we will be at my parents, then in TN, then Columbus so I decided we should get a smaller tree. We won’t be at home much, they’re easier to decorate, and well we really don’t need anything too elaborate.

One early morning we bundled Kate up and went tree shopping. I saw the perfect tree, but being the indecisive person I am, I had to look around a little more. This pushy family came by and STOLE my tree. This reinforced my thought that we should indeed buy a smaller tree. So, I found the perfect, much smaller tree, we wrapped it up and took it home. Once Jason set it up in our Living Room I realized just how little our tree really was. I was distraught. What was I thinking? This is CHRISTMAS, I can’t skimp on something as important as the tree! We named it our Charlie Brown tree and Jason tried to comfort me by stating that to Katherine the tree looks huge. After the decorations were on I stood back and realized 2 things. 1- It’s actually a fairly large tree and 2- It really is the perfect tree!!!

We did put our Charlie Brown angel on top for the finishing touch. This angel may look like something out of 70s to you, but to me it is 26 years of memories. Yes, this is the actual angel we used on our tree growing up until a few years ago when my parents bought a fancy one that even lights up. We have yet to buy a new one because Jason wants a STAR while I say it should be an ANGEL. That’s the problem when you try to combine traditions.

I know this is a big tree. I blame my parents for always having such large trees when I was growing up

Who wouldn't want this beautiful angel for the top of their tree :)

My village. There's a pond in the middle with geese and an ice skater. Yes, I'm a huge dork and I love it!

I've done more to our mantle since this picture. I'm still making Kate's stocking so it doesn't look quite right with only 2 stockings.

Just a picture of Kate WALKING, no big deal or anything!!!

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Business Trip to Korea

For those of you who don't know, I actually lived in Korea for 2 years serving a mission for my church back in 1998-2000. And almost 10 years later I had a chance to go back.

Hyundai (the Korean car maker) is building a new manufacturing plant in West Point GA. My company which Engineers and builds bridge cranes is doing the cranes for the entire facility. So when the owner of the company Josh came over to my desk and said, "I'm going to Korea". I said, "hey I speak fluent Korean, you should totally take me with you". At first he didn't believe me, because it's not often you run into Korean speaking Caucasians. But after I told him I lived there for 2 years he said, "Well, do you have your passport ready?". And that was pretty much it. A few weeks later we were off.

We spent a week there and I was surprised at how well I remembered the language. I really hadn't spoken it in 8 years; but once I got back into the surroundings and the people, the language came back to me pretty good. We spent 3 days doing business, eating, and hanging around chain smokers all day (seriously, I had forgotten how much Koreans smoke). We ate Korean food the entire time we were there (when in Rome...), which I was fine with. It was good to know that I would only have to do it for a week as opposed to 2 years.



We were kept more than entertained by our hosts. Despite the fact that I told them I don't drink, they would kindly offer me alcohol multiple times at every meal. But Josh drank enough for the 2 of us, so I don't think they were that offended. They were even kind enough to take us to a Karaoke bar and hired us some "Escorts"... (Yeah, you heard me right... Escorts. But that's a blog in itself which I may write about some time). Needless to say, I finally understand why as missionaries we weren't allowed to go to Karaoke bars.

It was kind of weird since I had actually lived there for 2 years; there were a lot of deja-vu moments. All in all it was a great trip and I'm glad I was able to go back. Maybe if we get some more Korean business in the next ten years I'll head back... otherwise there are many other places in the world I still have to see.

Family Gathering

We spent Thanksgiving week/weekend in Columbus with family. It was a full house with 10-12 adults and 7-10 kids, but we all managed to have a room to sleep in and it’s always fun for everyone to be together. Jason’s brother, Scott, and his family made the trip down from Illinois. Everyone else lives in GA so the whole Shehane family was there. The kids spent most of the time playing football and wrestling outside while the boys watched football and the girls braved Black Friday and ate at Olive Garden. We decided it should be a yearly tradition for the girls to go to lunch while the boys stay home with the kids. We’re going to try a new restaurant every year :) A word of advice, NEVER go to Toys-R-Us the day after Thanksgiving. We walked in, looked around at the insaneness, turned around and walked out. People had actually brought their little kids with them! The line literally wrapped around the ENTIRE store and you could not take two steps without running into someone. I did find some good deals at a couple of stores that were less crazy so I would say it was worth it.

It’s always nice to take a second and think of what you’re thankful for and to count your blessings. This year I’m thankful for family, especially for our amazing/wonderful/fantastic daughter, health, Jason having a job he enjoys, my testimony in Jesus Christ, living near family, chocolate, uninterrupted sleep, Christmas movies, and a lot more that will be said in my prayers…