New Orleans

It feel so good to be back in NOLA again. We arrived on Sunday and plan to stay most of next week until we head north to celebrate the holidays with my family. It's strange to be guests ... not having our own home. While staying with Doug's mom, memories flood back of our season in Dallas when we only visited NOLA and before the boys were part of our family. We're enjoying time with family while also reconnecting with our partners (Sisung and Nelson families) as well as a ton of other friends. We celebrated Sam's birthday with friends here. Sam and Zach took placement tests for a public school we're applying to for next year. We've hung out at City Park. We sent out the rest of our Christmas cards. Smile. We've checked in with the tenants (and friends) in our house in Algiers and have made plans for more connections next week. We've yet to look around at the properties available in Gentilly as we anticipate relocating there in June.

The boys are totally enjoying being at Mimie's house. Having already learned how to get out of the pack'n play over Thanksgiving, Eli has taken to napping in the big boys' bed during the day but may be confused that he has to sleep in his bed at night. Not necessarily a transition I want to do on a three-week trip away from home, but we're riding it. Oh, and he can open the doors here too. I'm continually amazed at how much he understands of our conversation without many words of his own, yet he's trying more and more verbal communication every day. He seems taken by his cousin Clay (now 6 months old) and seems to understand that he's his playmate. I'm very thankful that those two will have each other once we return to NOLA next summer.

We celebrated Christmas as a family this morning. It was so fun to see the boys enjoy giving the gifts that they'd picked out for each other. I've already enjoyed some of their loot ... a little watercolor painting this morning and a couple games of Battleship with Sam. What a blessing it is to give gifts to those we love at the holidays. May we be generous givers and gracious receivers.

Merry Christmas to all.