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We’re just leaving my parents’ house. Phoebe’s party went really well. I’m not going to get home and to the computer in time to post the pictures tonight though. I’ll be sure to post them as soon as I can tomorrow along with some little video clips we took. Until then, here’s a preview. This is the cake I made for the people. Obviously I’m not a professional cake decorator but it was pretty tasty so it served it’s purpose. *smile*

I am beyond exhausted. After almost 12 hours of traveling I am finally at my sister’s house in California. It was a fairly easy trip. I was worried after I got out of customs at Denver airport because I only had an hour until my flight to Fresno was scheduled to leave. That wouldn’t have been so bad but I had to go through security again. I made it just in time though and it was a fairly non eventful flight. Sorry for all the quick updates. Hopefully I’ll have time to put together a real post in the next day or two. Good night!

I am a Facebook addict. I admit it. But this post is not about that.

This post is about something I find strangely weird and uncomfortable about Facebook. That is, having my immediate family on my friends list. Not so much my brothers and sisters, most of the time we’re more like friends anyway. It’s my parents. For some reason having my mom and dad as my Facebook friends is just strange.

The thing is, I can’t place my finger on why it’s so odd to me. I mean, I have many friends on Facebook. Some are even my parents’ age. Doesn’t bother me. It’s also not that I think they’re going to discover something about me that they don’t already know. We’re a close family. Plus, I’m pretty much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of a girl.

So far I haven’t had to deal with it much. Until recently only my mom had a Facebook account. She basically never gets on because she’s a teeny bit busy raising her six kids. Oh, and the nursing degree she’s in her senior year of getting. Have I mentioned my mom kicks ass? My mom is probably the coolest woman alive but there’s still that tiny part of me that cringed ever so slightly when she created her account.

Then there’s my dad. I had no idea he’d even heard of Facebook. My dad has many talents and interests but social networking was never one of them. Then a friend invite popped up on my homepage.

Jim Staub

There’s no picture. Just a name. Very little information on the account. But I’m pretty sure it’s my dad. Or at least someone pretending to be my dad. But I would guess an impostor would ad more than the bare minimum to their profile page. Still, I can’t be 100% positive. It just seems so out of place for my dad, of all people, to join Facebook. Of course I accept. Because I’m a good daughter, and even more so because I do love my dad. But it’s still just a little strange.

My dad has one status update: “Jim Staub is trying to understand facebook :/” At least he has the “status grammar” correct, which is more than I can say of a lot of Facebook users. Where the heck did he learn to make that emoticon? It’s still surreal so the other day, when my family was hanging around, I remembered to ask him about it.

“Oh hey Dad, is that really you on Facebook?”

He jerked his head over his shoulder and exclaimed “Where?!”

Joel, my siblings and I laughed until our stomachs hurt and tears were running down our faces.

I guess my parents being on Facebook isn’t going to affect my life that much after all.

The other day I got a message from Ineke, my former employer/host mom in Rotterdam. She was asking me when I was planning to visit them since Caroline was missing me a lot. I was feeling a bit spontaneous and the flights were wide open so I asked if they had plans that weekend. That was Wednesday. Friday we were sitting in first class, sipping champagne on a flight to Schiphol International Airport. An overnight flight and quick train ride later we were downtown Rotterdam.

Caroline and Me, we missed each other!

She and Joel had a lot of silly fun too.

We got to watch the boy’s judo exams Saturday afternoon. They both did very well and passed to the next level.

We also went with Ineke and the kids to the market and enjoyed some delicious Dutch treats, yum!

Nothing is quite like some delicious patat.

Speaking of Dutch treats, Ineke’s apple taart is to die for!

Sunday the weather was sunny and warm..ish so we decided to take a trip to Hoek van Holland.

Not quite so sunny and warm once we got to the beach but it was still windy.

It was a little too windy, this is one of the short times the kite actually stayed in the air. Most of the time it would go up and almost immediately come crashing back to the ground. Actually, the kite probably came crashing down shortly after I took this. For the boys it was pretty frustrating but it made for some really funny video footage.

Building a sand castle.

Happy couple. Can you believe it had been almost four years since we were last in The Netherlands together?

It was a really fun trip full of good food and even better company. I love my Dutch family and I wish they weren’t quite so far away. At least my job makes them seem a lot closer. *smile*

As a flight attendant it’s very hard to get holidays off. This year was no exception and I was scheduled to be on call Christmas day. I actually got Christmas Eve off and then moved a few days around so that I worked a lot leading up to Christmas. I made up my mind that as long as I got Christmas morning off I would be content. When it came down to it, God smiled on me and somehow I wasn’t called all day long. It was the best Christmas present I could have gotten. I will let the pictures from the day tell my story for me.

We spent Christmas eve at my Grandpa’s house as is our tradition. Here is Hunter snuggling Grandpa while we were watching The Polar Express.

My grandma and the newest member of our family, Jordan.

Joel and I spent the night at my parents house and this is what we were greeted with Christmas morning. My family is so blessed.

It was baby Jordan’s first Christmas. Isn’t he adorable?

My dad, Anthony, Naomi and Bekah waiting to open presents.

What’s a dinosaur say? “Grrrrrr!”

Hunter was being a helpful cousin and feeding baby Jordan.

My mom was really surprised by her Christmas gift.

My littlest little sister Anna

Liz has a little trouble with directions sometimes so this will come in really handy.

Madison was such a good little puppy and slept right in the middle of all the presents.

My mom made her famous biscuits and gravy for Christmas brunch, yum!

That evening we went over to my brother’s house and had Christmas dinner with them.

I can’t imagine the day being any more perfect. I hope everyone’s Christmas was equally full of fun, laughter and magic. Merry Christmas!