Christmas in Florida…Rumbold style

We decided this year to head to Florida to spend Christmas with our families.  But, as some of you know, only Wendi's family lives there, and not even all of them.  So, we sent out a plea to the Rumbold side and to Wendi's sister who lives in North Carolina, asking them to travel during the holiday season, so that we could see them on our trip to the states.  We believed that by traveling to only one US state, we would make the most of our time with our families, and Florida became the state of choice.  This, however, required the travels of those family members not residing in this warm, sunny state.

We were so blessed by the willingness and ability of those who made the trip, and we made memories there this past Christmas season that will NEVER be forgotten!  The first week of our trip back was spent with Ed's family in an amazing camp called Southwind, a Young Life Camp for students.  We rented out the camp and had available to us it's incredible facilities.  They had there enough room for all 27 of us in ONE gigantic house, which created such an atmosphere of homey-ness and family-ness.  As you will see from the pictures, Ed's parents came, as well as the families of Deryl & Sheri, Mike & Rachael, and Doug & Jessica.  We truly missed Jon & Jen's and Alan & Julie's families, in which are another 20 members…but, on that note, we were thrilled to meet up with Al & Ju's family of 8 on a long layover in Chicago on our trip back to Slovakia!!!

 

Thanks to all who traveled south (or north to Chicago) to make this Christmas of 2013 such a much-needed time of rest and rejuvenation for our family.  This blessed time with the Rumbold side, which has cousins aplenty for everyone, made it a bit harder to leave to come back to Slovakia.  But what a treasure to have such close relationships in a family,  even though it makes it harder to be apart.  We love you, Rumbolds!!!