Christmas...

Well, here it is, Christmas Eve, and I'm just now blogging about Christmas this year....

I have sat down to write about our Christmas happenings a dozen times or more but just haven't been able to do so for several reasons.  This year we have gone through a lot of change in the last few months.  I (Autumn) have a love/hate relationship with change.  I have to work through change. I know that most change is good and that doing things differently can sometimes be refreshing.  Change can also be unnerving because of the unknown and not being able to plan (or in my case, control) things.  Our Christmas plans have changed several times because of jobs, etc., but they are turning out nicely even though they are not what I expected a couple of weeks ago. 


I'm reminded this Christmas that God planned for Jesus to come as a baby to one day die for the sins of the world.  That right there encourages me to toss my plans and fall down and worship Him--the author of the universe is in control and His plans are perfect.



On another note, we've enjoyed some of our holiday cheer that we missed out on last year while living in NI.  Below are a few photos from our decorations this year:

Our Christmas tree!

Autumn's Peanuts music box from dad :)  (This is one of many Peanuts Christmas things I have...obsessed? maybe)

An ornament from Casey's mom

Autumn's Peruvian nativity set....love it! (Yes, there is a llama)

Our Christmas card this year with a few scenes from our year in NI

Merry Christmas from the Croys!

"I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."  Luke 2:10-11

I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving....

Last year I wrote this Thankful post that pretty much sums up some of my feelings about the holiday.  Though I am going to miss our very special Thanksgiving from last year when Casey and I made our first Thanksgiving feast (you can read that post here), we are thankful to be with my family this Thanksgiving.

One of the reasons I love Thanksgiving so much is this lady:

This is my 93 year old grandma who is one of the coolest people I have ever known. 

  My grandma has always made the best Thanksgiving meal---she even killed her own turkeys when I was a kid---she means business!  She makes the best dressing ever and I could go on and on about the food.....but what I love most is who she is.  She's country and wears boggans.  She doesn't do anything fancy with the big meal, but it's some of the best food ever.  Her kitchen is small and we have to invent some crazy methods of fitting 14 people at the table, but we make it work.

She always says "It's not much" and "I hope you can find something you like" when the table is chock full of fresh vegetables and fixins that she prepared.  She is incredibly humble and wise.  I love to see her get tickled about things and to listen to her stories. 

She is so special to me and I'm thankful that she's my grandma.  I'm also thankful that I get to see her and the rest of my family this week.

A New Kind of Normal....

So, things have been all kinds of crazy the last three weeks....

Casey took the GRE...Autumn's mom had surgery....we both had some job interviews....we searched for and found an apartment....we moved.....the next day we took a weekend trip to Mississippi by way of GA to go to a friend's wedding and visit relatives....we got back home and set up our place...went back to the church we used to attend.....both got jobs and have trained/are training for them....

Today is the first day I can say I think we are settling into a new kind of normal....

There are days and moments when we miss Northern Ireland...the way things were there...and our friends.  There are days when all of that seems a distant memory and here feels strange yet strangely familiar.  But yes, we are settling in and getting used to things for now...

 Casey is currently applying to PhD programs for next fall, so we don't know where we will be this time next year...

But for now we've moved back to the Raleigh area...this is our latest adventure.....

(For those of you that want to know more specifically where, please do ask us!  We'd love to hear from you!)

We also would appreciate your prayers for PhD application and guidance to the right place and for our current jobs to give us increases in hours.

Thank you!  We appreciate you reading and keeping up with us more than you know!

Leaving you with a few pictures of my favorite time of the year....

We're Still Traveling....

As most of you probably know, we recently returned to the U S of A on October 2nd.  It was bittersweet for us because we were leaving behind a life to which we had become accustomed and friends that had become and still are very dear to us. 

We were also happy to see our families back "home" and to be around for the holidays this year.  Since we have been back we have visited both of our families and had the chance to spend several days in the mountains for my (Autumn) birthday with my family.

Now we are just looking for our next steps and figuring out what to do now.  Casey and I both have ideas about what we would like to do both now and in the future, but we also are reminded of Proverbs 16:9,  "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."  We are trusting His timing and direction for our next move.

A month or so ago, I thought about how we weren't traveling to any "exotic" new places for now, but I realized that we're still on a journey....

We are still traveling...

A North Coast Holiday...

Last week we took a trip up to the North Coast of Northern Ireland, sort of a last hoorah before heading back to the US on Tuesday.  Some sweet friends of ours offered their holiday home to us for a few days in a quaint coastal town called Portstewart.  It was the perfect getaway for us and again reminded us how much we are going to miss this place.  One of our first blog posts from here was from the Giants Causeway on the North Coast, and while we didn't go back there specifically, it was somewhat fitting to visit the same area almost exactly a year later.

View of the cows out the window where we stayed

Our first stop Wednesday was one of Casey's dreams--to play a links course on the sea...The Old Course at Portstewart

Thursday was the only day we had rain on our trip (which is a miracle for here!) but we decided to go to a place called Mussenden Temple. 

Mussenden Temple sits right on the edge of a cliff by the sea. We found out that it actually was intended as a library on a family estate.

Casey standing down below

Here are the ruins of the estate:

 The rest of the day was pretty rainy, but we went to a place called Morelli's in Portstewart and enjoyed coffee and cheesecake by the sea.

Friday was our busiest day and we started by going to Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge.  Fishermen used to cross to a small island for salmon fishing using a rope bridge.  It's now a famous tourist attraction and a place with beautiful views.

View of one of the cliffs toward Ballintoy.

You can see the rope bridge crossing over to the island here.

Crossing the bridge was quite an experience!

Looking down to the chasm below

Casey took pictures of me going over the 2nd time...I squealed the first time

Almost across

 We traveled along the beautiful coastline, but our favorite photo was overlooking White Park Bay...

We then went to Portrush and walked along the beach by the white cliffs....

If you remember our Dunluce castle pictures from last fall, this is the view of the same castle from down below

Harbor at Portush

 We went back to Portrush late in the afternoon and enjoyed a really nice dinner and sunset...

Sorry for the photo overload!!

We really enjoyed our trip to the North Coast and now we're packing up to leave Northern Ireland.  We're sad to leave but glad we had this experience.

Looking forward to more adventures elsewhere...

Walking the Ulster Way....

(Blog title recommended by our friend Adam who was our tour guide to Crawfordsburn Park)

On Sunday afternoon we went to Crawfordsburn Park in East Belfast.  We were surprised at how woodsy and scenic it was.

It had a few open fields full of wildflowers...

But soon we were walking along a wooded path beside water.....

Then this random giant bridge was in one of the clearings.....

Then through the woods some more, we stumbled upon a small waterfall.....

 And then a really big waterfall....

Um, I really like this door....a lot....Adam said it led to Narnia...I wish....

Somewhere along the path we saw a sign that we were walking on the Ulster Way....

Cave Hill Adventure....

This is what we see everyday when we walk to work, school, or church...

The mountain in the distance is Cave Hill, about 5 miles north of where we live.  It is sometimes called Napoleon's nose because if you look at it from the side it looks like a face.  Back in October we took a trip to Belfast Castle which is on the side of the mountain (you can view that trip here: Special Days), but we didn't have the chance to go to the top of Cave Hill then.  So, we both wanted to go back and finally made the trip a few weeks ago.

The trip itself was a fun adventure.  We rode our bikes along the bikepath that follows the Lagan River into the city centre.  We parked our bikes and walked to the bus stop, taking a bus like you see in the above picture all the way to Cave Hill Park.  Then we got to climb the mountain!

Yes, this is why it is called Cave Hill.

There were pretty wildflowers and heather everywhere.

View of McArt's Fort

It was a bit of a hazy day, but this is looking down on the city from McArt's Fort.

After climbing Cave Hill, we went back to the city centre to Starbucks.

The City Hall had the Olympic rings up because Northern Ireland is a part of the UK--the Olympic host country.  I (Autumn) really enjoyed getting to watch the Olympics from a different country especially the host country!  Definitely a different perspective.

Albert Clock

The Fish

These two pictures above are two of Belfast's landmarks.  The Fish has a mosaic of different pictures of people and places, one of them being Albert Clock below.

We had a fun day, and it was nice to take a little adventure around the city....