Getting My Blogger Groove Back On

Well, as you may or may not have been able to tell from my lack of posts, I took an unintended break from blogging. I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened. After our trip to MN at the end of November, I found things to be too busy upon our return home and my motivation too small to blog. The end of the term was upon me in December and then it was a race to complete our Christmas cards, get our home ready for Christmas, and mail packages. December is always busy, but this year it just felt a little extra busier since we were traveling that last week in November.

Thankfully, my husband got the blogging urge and kept you all updated on what's been happening from his perspective. He mentioned our reason for returning to MN, so I thought I would just share a few pictures from that trip. And don't worry, I feel my motivation coming back, as I have a list of posts to share in the coming days.

Our first order of business for going home was Grandpa's funeral. His death happened quite quickly this fall, and we had originally thought we'd be saying our goodbyes to him during our trip home. We did say goodbye to him, it was just in a different way than we had expected.

Grandpa was an avid hunter and fisherman all his life, and in tribute to that love of his, my SIL arranged some flowers on behalf of the grandkids. The pheasant feathers were the perfect ode to his love of nature and the wild. Grandpa was also a poet, which I wasn't aware of. During the final days of his life, he had penned a poem to those he was leaving behind and what a beautiful thing it was to share with all that came to pay their final respects.

The funeral ceremony was held on Monday in the church that my grandparents helped charter. That was a fun fact I wasn't previously aware of. Grandma and Grandpa had picked out the songs for his funeral and some of my favorites were sung- Here I am Lord, On Eagle's Wings, and the Hallelujah Chorus. Afterwards, we went to the veteran's cemetary where he was given the 21-gun salute Scott wrote about. This is where he joins thousands of military men and women from all around the neighboring states.

Then we had two few days to spend with family members and prepare for Thanksgiving. It's been forever since Scott and I have celebrated a holiday with either of our families, but things were quite subdued this year with the obvious missing place at the table.

On Friday, we were able to witness the marriage of my uncle. Originally, the wedding was moved up in order for Grandpa to be there, but his frail body couldn't quite hold on that long. Emotions were high as this is my uncle's first marriage and it would have been so meaningful for him to have had his dad there. This did not happen, but we were still able to witness a beautiful union.

The ceremony was small and intimate and held at a fabulous restaurant downtown. Scott did the ceremony and started out with such a great message- acknowledging how Grandpa had wanted to be there and the joy and excitement he had when the wedding was announced, the importance of marriage to Grandpa as evidenced by the 62 years he'd been married, and how he was now at a greater wedding feast with Jesus. I think most of us were crying at the start of the wedding!

It was so great to see my uncle so happy and it's fun to get a new aunt and cousins. These two seem like they will be so good for each other.

The wedding was such a great end to an emotion-filled week. 3 major family events in a mere 5 days. Scott and I were both so exhausted when we returned home, and then we jumped into Advent followed by Christmas.

While this brings an end to this post, you can also look forward to more from me. As you can tell from the title, my blogger groove is back on! See you in 2011.