Holidays ...

Holidays are hard.

It's hard to be away from family and friends at all, but it's even more tough during the holidays. I think it's just on our minds more and talked about more.

It's especially hard to see your kids be homesick and miss family and friends. I can deal with my own emotions, but seeing my kids upset is just really hard.

We were in the car tonight and our youngest says, "I wish my cousins were here."

I don't know what prompted this statement, but I understand ... I really understand. I wish they were here too!

Just the interaction they get with cousins and friends that are their age is so important, it's something we don't think about all that much until it's missing. I miss so much seeing our youngest interact with his cousin, Zane, that's his age - well a year older. They were just becoming 'best buds' when we left, so this is especially hard I think.

It makes us really thankful for inventions like Skype and Vonage. We have Skype and will be getting a Vonage phone too. I am sure most know this, but we can call and have a live video of the person we are calling come up on our screen ... for FREE! It's amazing ... it helps so much to be able to communicate as often as we want and it doesn't blow the budget! That is so wonderful.

So, please, this Thanksgiving be thankful to be with family. No matter if they drive you crazy or things are just 'weird'... be thankful to be there with them and know that there are many more that would like to be with family, but are not.

We knew that this was part of the deal, it's just a not-so-much-fun part. I know that as we have more holidays here, we will be able to better establish our traditions and look forward to them!

That reminds me of someone else that's not going to be with his family for t-giving ... a friend of ours here was supposed to come home today from Bangkok. If you have heard the news, protesters have overtaken the airport and everything is canceled. It's a bad situation. Thankfully, by divine timing and nothing less, he was able to get a hotel room. But his wife leaves tonight to go back to the States and she is going to have to fly alone, not knowing how he will get out of Bangkok. Please lift them up that there will be a way created for him to leave and join his family. And for everyone else stranded there, that this ordeal is resolved very soon.