Christmas weekend...

Hello, everyone! I hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was great, it was so nice to be home with family! We got to leave late Friday night after I got off work, so we got to my parent's house around 2:30 Indiana time. Saturday, we had Jesse's dad's family Christmas in the afternoon, which was a blast! His grandma had rented out part of the commons at Indiana Tech, and so there was air hockey, foosball, pool tables, and even a 6-lane bowling alley! Saturday night, my parents had my uncle Josh and aunt Bonnie and my cousins Caleb, Kallie, and brand-new little baby Corban over! He is so cute and so precious...it had been a long time since I held such a tiny baby!

Sunday, we went to my dad's family Christmas at my aunt and uncle's house. We possibly started a new tradition by doing a white elephant gift exchange instead of a traditional gift exchange. All kinds of stuff was in it, like a fish scaler and a paper-mache penguin...it was really funny to see who ended up with what! We went to a birthday party that night for a little girl whose parents (Joey and Karla) are good friends with my parents. (Karla is my mentor and was also in our wedding.) My grandparents came into town that night, so my parents house was just full of out-of-town guests!

Monday, we spent most of the afternoon and evening over at Kevin and Julie's, just relaxing with everyone, having a yummy dinner, and opening our gifts. All of the kids drew names and did a gift exchange this year, which was fun! Lucy didn't want to go to bed, she kept coming back downstairs, and eventually decided she wanted to sleep down there! Her parents told her Santa wouldn't come unless she was in bed, and she just said "I don't care!" She's so funny and cute, it's hard to believe that she will be 5 years old in just a few months!

Christmas day, we spent the day at my parent's house. My mom made an awesome breakfast and we opened presents that morning. It was so nice to have my grandparents there, and my grandma Kanoshia even came down for a little bit! My aunt Monica and uncle Kevin came over in the afternoon with my cousins Erica and Logan, and then Josh and Bonnie came over later for a little bit. It was so nice to see everyone...all the kids are growing up so fast and are all just so stinkin cute!!! Jesse and I finally left around 7:40 our time, and so we got home around 11.

I know this has been long already, but I also wanted to share a prayer request with everyone! I know some of you already know about how we almost didn't get to come home as planned last week, because of a mix-up with our new District Leader, Clareese. She has only been our DL for a few months now, and has been extremely difficult to work with! She's very intimidating and difficult and is making everyone in the salon stressed out with everything that she's trying to change. Even my co-workers who have hardly had to deal with her dread her coming in! You feel like you're walking on eggshells when she's there, trying to do and say everything perfectly, and it is very stressful! I just don't know what to do about this all, I feel like maybe I am at the salon "for such a time as this" to witness to her and be an example to her, but it's just so hard! I feel like she doesn't like me anymore because of the whole Christmas situation, and I feel like she's just going to be watching me like a hawk, waiting for me to "mess up" so that she can get me in trouble or something. I've considered giving up my position and going back to just being a stylist, thinking that I won't have to deal with her as much, but I don't know if that's a good idea or not, and I for sure don't want to just jump to that solution and then regret it later. I know she is new in her position, so she is getting used to this all, and I also know that ultimately, she wants what is best for each salon in her district, but she is going about this whole thing the wrong way! Our company calls people district "leaders" and salon "leaders" and assistant salon "leaders", NOT "managers" because we are supposed to be LEADING people to excellence by encouraging and supporting them, not managing them, and I feel like she is being more of a dictatorial manager right now. I would just really appreciate it if everyone could pray for this whole situation...for patience for everyone involved in the situation and also for wisdom, discernment, and kindness for me in dealing with her and that I can be a light to her and my whole salon. Please also just pray for her, that if there are any situations in her life that need healing, that she would find healing through Christ. Thank you all so much, and I will keep everyone updated!!!