Home Again

We are home and getting back into the normal swing of things after a nice long Christmas vacation, which we have fondly termed our "Wii-cation" due to many Wii-related experiences we had in the last week. It started out with us each giving each other a Wii game for Christmas and ended with us hunting through every Target in Cincinnati to find a Wii Fit after having so much fun with it at the Tungseth house in Fergus Falls last week. The problem was that literally every Target in the Cincinnati area was sold out of them when we got back. I finally tracked one down at Best Buy yesterday and we have justified the purchase by saying that we will save money in the long run over buying gym memberships and have vowed to work-out on it regularly (as much as you can call video game exercise "working out"). We'll see how it goes... we may end up needing the gym memberships in addition by the looks of our waistlines after all the Christmas goodies.
Despite a few unexpected adventures, our Christmas road trip was great and we came home feeling blessed and relaxed. We started out the trip the Wednesday before Christmas, just as the Christmas Blizzard of '09 was beginning. We made it to the Bergeson house in Mauston, WI just after midnight, after fighting our way slowly through icy rain nearly the whole way. We took off the next morning for Fergus Falls and were thrilled to hear that the storm was taking a hiatus just long enough for us to make it there. Unfortunately, the truck we were driving didn't want things to go quite as smoothly and the transmission began to go out not long after leaving Mauston. It wasn't that bad at first, but by the time we made it past the Twin Cities, it sounded like fireworks and felt like a rickety old roller coaster every time we accelerated. We count it as a miracle that we made it Fergus Falls in one piece! After a disheartening report from the mechanic that it would cost about $3,000 to fix the truck, we decided it was time to car shop again. Long story short, we are now driving a souped-up bright yellow Ford Escape. It's hard to miss on the road, but got us home safely, so we are happy with the upgrade.

After the exciting trip to Fergus Falls, we were glad to spend a restful 5 days at the Tungseth house. We enjoyed many delicious meals, get-togethers with the family, and an all-around wonderful Christmas. The Wednesday after Christmas, we headed out for the Cities where we stopped at Minnesota Eye Consultants for Scott's last post-Lasik exam. I was probably more excited about the exam than Scott was because it gave me the chance to catch up with some of my great co-worker friends who work there. I also had the chance to get together with the roommies from Bethel. It was so wonderful to get to spend some time with them as I have really missed being in the same city as all of them! New Year's Eve brought us back to Mauston where we enjoyed a second Christmas, a couple of frigid runs to the hot tub in the back yard, and more delicious meals and family time. And I'm happy to report that the trip home was much less eventful than the trip going the other way!

As somewhat sad and lonely as it is to come home after a terrific vacation with family and friends, we are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us in Cincinnati in 2010. For starters, our classes at Xavier begin next Monday... yikes. Having two students in the family could put an interesting twist on our daily routines. Should be fun!