Expect the Unexpected

We had a fabulous time at Christmas this year! Thanks so much to the family for putting up with us for sooo long. I don't know when we'll be back again, but in light of recent events, it might not be that far away.

Christmas at Gram's

The night we returned to Chicagoland, we discovered Matt had been assigned to Vadodara, India. After cycling through the stages of grief, (I think I stayed on denial the longest) I finally accepted it. We picked up Matt's I

ndian visa last week, and went downtown to get mine yesterday (it still isn't ready. I think this is a sign of what to expect from India). All signs pointed to Vadodara. Even the Ca

nadian geese seemed to be mocking me with their calls of "Vadodara! India!" (That's what Canadia

n geese sound like. Trust me.) I was literally on my way out the door to go buy the Indian Lonely Planet today when Matt called. Apparently our February 1st start date has been pushed back to the 28th. So now, instead of using the

extra time to plan, I've reverted all the way back to denial. There's no way they'll still make us go there after waiting in Chicago for a whole month! But of course, UOP has done this to us before:

think back a year and a half ago... Matt got assigned to Dushanzi, and then went on four different assignments before eventually ending up there. I guess I can only hope this time will be different.

I don't know what we're planning to do until the end of February. The new roadmap will come out today, so if they haven't assigned Matt anywhere by tonight, he was told

to take "mandatory vacation", I guess to get him out of the office. The jobs must be really slow right now because there are a ton of people in the office. I don't know where we're planning to take our vacation... we've been so many places in the past two years it's hard to decide where else to go! And yes, I know that sounds arrogant and braggy, but I'm writing it with t

he utmost sincerity. Help us!

Not much other news from the U.S. as of yet. We've been to the movies several times since we've been back. It's hard trying to make up for lost time! We finally saw Avatar on Sunday... in IMax 3D, no less! Neither of us were crazy about the story, but the special effects were incredible! It's definitely the wave of the future. If you can stomach the 3D, that's got to be the best way to see Avatar. If not, then IMax is totally worth it.

Great Granddad Garland and Bella.

Modeling our new fleece jackets