I'm really at a loss for where to begin blogging again. So much has happened. Brooklynne said that I could not skip ahead to the present and just make a new start because then I would miss writing about all the fun we had over the break. So here's a quick summary just to bring the blog up to the present....

Brooklynne and I traveled to Durham for Christmas. The holiday was great but different in many ways. Elizabeth is married now, and she and Dave own a home, so we stayed with them throughout the break instead of staying with the folks. Many others from my mom's side were in town too--Mamma H. lives in Roxboro, Dewey was in town, Kim and Dixon, Skip and Maggy all came up from Wrightsville, Evans and Kelly made it for Christmas dinner, and Katy, Cory, Ross, Kristy, Bill and Sandy and Reggie, a new friend from New York, rounded out the group. But despite the usual faces, Christmas was a very unusual day. Rather than getting up and openning presents immediately, we went to Antioch Baptist Church, an African American congregation in north-east, central Durham, and after a very musical and worshipful service, we helped the members serve Christmas dinner to people from around the community who might not have eaten a good meal otherwise. Then we returned home exchanged presents and enjoyed a great dinner. I felt good about downplaying the material aspects of Christmas, or at least making them secondary, and Brooklynne and I feel like we'll really try to be creative about redirecting the tone of Christmas in our household when we have kids someday.

We stayed a few more days in Durham after Christmas and spent some time scouting neighborhoods for a possible move this summer. Then, we returned to DC and got ready for the New Year. I'm not going to go into detail for lack of time, but I'm posting pictures in the extended entry from our New Years on the town with Bill and Sandy and Evan and Kelly....