Winter Break

I'm posting the following for Cindy:

"We had quite a journey over the holidays. We left Stillwater on December 17th and drove Margaux to Fort Worth to stay with Dan and Tamara. Mike and I hopped a plane to NYC and celebrated our 40th birthdays with Christmas shopping in Manhattan, lots of good meals, a Broadway musical, and a good old fashioned blizzard. We returned after a long weekend and spent Christmas with our Reese family in Fort Worth. It wasn’t the same without B and there were some pretty rough moments, but I think we managed to do more than just get through it by creating some happy memories and starting what might become new traditions. Margaux and Maddie’s enthusiasm for Santa’s arrival helped keep everyone’s spirits up. A few days after Christmas we headed east once again, this time to Florida to celebrate Christmas with the Melancon family in St. Augustine. Our experience there reinforced what we already suspected, Margaux is a beach lover. When we came up over the dunes and she saw the long stretch of sand and then the ocean, she put her hands in the air and took off running saying, “Woohoo!” all the way to the water. It was good be with family. Mike and I love watching Margaux play with her cousins and the doting grandparents, aunts, and uncles give us a lot to be thankful for. After three weeks of travel, we are glad to be home and are gearing up for the new semester. Over the next several days, I’ll post pictures from the holidays. With the context of this update, you should to be able to figure out what’s what. We love to get your comments, so leave us some notes!"