Since we've no place to go...

Well, as we say farewell to 2008 and breathe in the freshness of a new year, we simultaneously breathe out a sigh of relief as our family settles into a few months of peace and rest from our travels. As our Thanksgiving/Christmas letter stated, the last year of our life has been filled with change. In 2008, we added a new baby girl to our family, Nick officially became Dr. Hoskins, we relocated to Whitehall, Pennsylvania, and we traveled to and through twenty-eight of the fifty beautiful United States as well as made a brief stopover in Canada. It was a year of change, a year of excitement, a year of joy.

We can only hope and pray that this new year will bring us as much happiness as the last twelve months has afforded. As well as happiness, we expect that 2009 will be a year of much more stability (even with another move), and much more time spent at home. Part of this expectation stems from the fact that our travel funds have been transferred into our “new home” fund, and part of it stems from the fact that Nick’s winter work schedule will be much more intense than his first seven months of residency have been. Although it will be hard to give up our traveling and some of our time with Nicholas at home, this will be a welcome change of pace for our family. It may actually encourage us to develop more of a daily routine, and it will definitely allow additional time for more leisurely play. In fact, speaking of leisurely play, today we took advantage of a Saturday on our own by climbing into our winter wear and venturing out into the snow. Just behind our apartment building is a quaint little dirt rode, a beautiful meandering stream, and a small forested area. During the summer we would often pick flowers under the shade of the tall trees, skip rocks in the stream, or bring bread crumbs out to feed the geese. Since it has gotten cold, we have missed our trips to our Pennsylvania “backyard”. Today, however, we again enjoyed the experience of being outside—though with a slightly different back drop. The landscape was especially striking in the newly fallen snow, and called to us to linger as long as we could. Soon, however, the snowfall picked up again and we came inside to a warm bowl of soup and some steaming hot cocoa. Then I tucked all three of my beautiful babies into their beds for a nap, and sat down by the window to enjoy a moment of stillness. And now, as the title of this post well states, since we’ve no place to go,

let it snow,

let it snow,



let it snow.



Happy New Year!