Christmas, The Finale and Why You Should Boycott the UPS Store

We were fortunate enough to receive one last Christmas gift last week and I kept forgetting (but meaning) to blog about it. First, a little back story. Aaron's family wanted to come visit us at New Year's to see us but also, to see us open a gift from Aaron's parents. Aaron's mom told us that she just wanted to be there when we opened it. So, she took our surprise gift (which apparently was too large to carry on the plane) to the UPS Store in Odessa to mail it to us. She told the worker that she wanted it to arrive when they arrived in California. Since it was still a few weeks from then, the UPS store worker said that she would hold the gift until the timing was right for her to send it to us in California. Can you guess what happens next?

Craig, Terrie, and Ryne land in LA on Tuesday. Terrie decides to call UPS just to make sure that the package is on its way. They tell her that it's on its way; however, it left Odessa on MONDAY. Terrie is upset, obviously, and the UPS store people are less than helpful and bottom line, the gift would not arrive in California until next Tuesday, aka 4 days after they would all leave here. Apparently, the manager of the UPS store told Terrie that she had basically abandoned the package and so they didn't know what to do. Before I get ugly about it, just avoid the UPS store (which are all franchised)--so, avoid the UPS store in Odessa at the least!

Thanks to the wonderful invention of Skype, Terrie and Craig were able to watch us open our gift in real time when it did, in fact, arrive on Tuesday. I know that it wasn't exactly the same as them being here, but we were all grateful for that alternative. Without further adieu, our Christmas gift!

It is a painting that Craig and Terrie had made of this picture from our engagement session (blurry warning, it's a picture of a picture):

It looks great and we hung it the very next day in our apartment. Thanks, Craig and Terrie!!

In other news, Aaron is finishing out his first week of his second to last semester of school (ha, how about that brainteaser). He should have an interesting semester because he is working in the legal aid clinic at the Union Rescue Mission in Downtown LA. This is a great program that many law students take part in. They work with real clients who really need any help they can get on various legal issues they are dealing with. Aaron will definitely have stories to share and I'm sure he'll blog about some of them here.

We are also getting ready to spend our MLK weekend in Tijuana, Mexico building houses with Amor Ministries. This will be my 3rd trip and Aaron's 2nd. Looking back at the pictures from the past 2 years makes me really excited. We have almost 40people on the trip this year so Pepperdine will be building 2 houses this weekend--awesome!

The 2008 gang

The 2009 gang

Lastly, my parents are leaving today for a quick, 6-day trip to Hong Kong. I know they will have a great time and we can't wait to catch up with them when they get back.

Hope you are gearing up for a great holiday weekend!

"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate." Proverbs 8:13