Our first post in forever . . . .

At the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Happy 2011, everyone!

Since I haven't blogged in months, this will be our official holiday edition. Let me post this disclaimer: Although Thanksgiving was fun, we had a really boring couple of months after that. Two rounds of bad colds and one of a nasty stomach bug pretty much ensured that. Also, eight weeks of the kind of morning sickness where, if I got off the couch, I threw up. On the upside, Sophie and Daniel have now compiled the largest collection of "vomit" synonyms in the known universe.

Back in November, Grammy visited for Sophie's birthday. A few weeks later, we took our annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to NY to stay in our old apt (while the current occupants vacationed), stopping over at the Ghiradella's in North Carolina.


Manhattan, especially cordoned off for the Thanksgiving Parade, was its quintessential mixture of the glamorous and the mundane.

John and Tara treated us to see the Rockettes -- and John on the trumpet! -- at Radio City Music Hall, then bought the kids bags of pink and purple m&ms at the Times Square m&m store. Thursday morning, we shivered along with Cris through the Macy's Parade (Shrek! Pokemon! Kung Fu Panda!) and later gorged ourselves on fried turkey and all the trimmings. And, thanks to the constant nausea that oh-so-conveniently showed up on the day we began our drive up to the city, we found out that we are indeed expecting a new Myers family member, due sometime around July 20th. We're betting it's a girl, but won't have final word until our diagnostic sonogram, which should happen in the next 5-8 weeks.

Daniel is telling all his Sunday School teachers that the baby's name will be Clark Magillicuty. Which I believe was the name of his fish.

Once back in Florida, we hunkered down for the coldest winter in years. I can hear all you New York folks snickering, but it actually snowed one day! A few flakes fell from the sky! Really! And our December heating bill for our old, huge, drafty, non-insulated house nearly caused Ryan apoplexy. So now we have a lot of new blankets.

We had a quiet Christmas, during which most of us were sick with one thing or another, and an equally quiet New Year. Only Sophie made much of an effort to stay up til midnight on New Year's Eve, and none of us succeeded. (Well, maybe the fetus did, but how would you know?)

Our height-challenged (but real!) Christmas tree

One thing we did manage to accomplish in December was the creation of a new home group. We meet for potluck, worship and prayer, and see what God has for us each week. So far we've had some powerful prayer times and started to forge friendships in our community. Ryan continues to work at church to help get a comprehensive small group program off the ground.

We look forward to the rest of 2011! God continues to provide for us in often unexpected ways, and we hope our season of illness is behind us. Blessings and love to all of our family and friends, and best wishes for a Happy New Year!