Home for the Holidays

I spent the last four weeks traveling around, visiting family, and most of all EATING. Good grief. I don’t know if I’ll ever want to eat again.

I flew into Memphis and was met at the airport by dad. We stayed in a hotel with mom that night, and the next day we headed to Nashville to visit my sister Elizabeth. She just moved there last summer, and it was fun to see her house and meet her roommates (in real life, not just on Skype). We spent about 4 or 5 days there, spending time with her and some of my dad’s family that lives there or near there. We ate dinner at my Aunt Beth and Uncle Mark’s house with the whole gang, and it was really good to see everyone.

Then we drove through Searcy on our way to Galveston and spent one night there. In Galveston we visited my little sister and brother-in-law and their two dogs, Kira and Tripp. They have a really cute house that is about two seconds from the beach, where they go regularly with their dogs and/or surfboards. We had fun playing games and….eating. One night we made a full Italian meal – my special potato pasta, tagliata, and salad. Yum!

The next stop was Dallas (or really Flower Mound) where my mom’s family all lives. We had fun there too. We played games and…..ate. And ate some more. ☺ My uncle Tom takes us to a really nice restaurant called Texas de Brazil every year for his Christmas present to us, and it is amazing but a very dangerous all you can eat buffet. Andrea, one of the other Avanti workers, happened to be in Dallas at the same time as us and got to meet up with us for a little bit. She even brought more scarves and ties for Mom to sell at the cooking school, as did Angela.

And then we were back to Searcy! We had Woodroof Christmas in Searcy, and amazingly everyone got to come this year, except for Erica and Justin who had Christmas with Justin’s family this year. Since we are renting our house out and my grandparents sold their big house, we all stayed in the La Quinta hotel on Race Street. The first time that I remember staying in a hotel in Searcy, and a little strange. But we were very comfortable there, and we also reserved the Fellowship Room at College Church, where we played games, ate, and just spent time together. Very fun! The 3rd and 4th of January, Mom hosted another cooking school as a fundraiser for the Avanti Italia program. I believe that there were 30 in attendance the first night and 50 the second night. There was a lot to do, and she, Ermenita and all the ladies’ helping them out worked very hard. Angela even took time away from seeing her family to drive down and help out with it.
I have a special prayer request for you all – the Dawidow family in Poland (whom I stayed with for 2 weeks last December) just lost their son Mikey on January 1st to a massive heart attack. He was only around 30 years old, and he was found by his father that morning. Please pray for them in this terrible situation. They are a wonderful Christian family and give so much to others.


I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to come home for the holidays this year. I got to see lots of my great friends and all of my family, and I feel so blessed to know that I have people that love me and are thinking about and praying for me.