Things I Miss

Yesterday, I Facetimed my family while they celebrated Christmas with my grandparents, who will be leaving for Alabama soon. 

I was afraid I would miss their call so I took my bowl of cereal to my room to have dinner while I waited for their call. When I first answered, it was so good to see everyone. All of the kids snuck their faces in front of the camera and I got to say Hi to some family members I haven't seen in a while. 

The connection failed a couple of times, so I made multiple 'phone' calls to different family members. Even though my family was a bit blurry and at one point sounded like garbled machines, I kept being passed around so I could watch everyone open gifts and getting along. It was a great Christmas party, a really special one this year, and I'm glad I got to take part in it in some way. My littlest nephew was eating wrapping paper, my little siblings and cousins can Facetime me now, and my grandparents got their first new bicycles! I was sad that I couldn't be there in person, but I'll be able to see them all in one week. I feel so lucky that I get to go home just in time for Christmas! I love it when the whole family gets together for an evening or day. I've got a a pretty big family, which makes my family the most important thing to me. While I'm incredibly happy with my study abroad experience, I do miss my family a lot and am ready to see them next Monday! 

One of the reasons I'm so excited to go home is to finally be in a family environment again. England has been fantastic and I don't really want to leave it, but I need to see my family again and be in my own house. It's been a bit difficult living in a strangers house for three months. I miss Sunday morning eggs before church, I miss my niece and nephews being over all the time, I miss walking all around the house and asking what everyone's doing, I miss playing Scene It or Cranium with my family, and I miss having home-cooked meals with the whole (or at least part) of my family. 

Watching Christmas via Facetime definitely made me a bit homesick. It's difficult not to think about home with the amount of studying I've been doing lately as well. It's that finals stress that never fails to come, but that's just part of being a student. I'm going to make this last week count though. There are still things I haven't done but want to do, so now is the time! I'm going to keep myself busy, so it will seem that I will be seeing my family in no time at all.