Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of my family and friends!
2010 ended with lots of parties, surprises and fun-
My dad surprised us all and flew Brendan home from Washington D.C. for my mom's (Dec 16th) birthday. They canceled his earlier flight to Syria, and he stayed in HB for his birthday and Christmas.  Brendan left for Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday and will make his way to Syria soon after New Year's to study Arabic. After a couple months of studying, he and his girlfriend Quinn will be attempting to be the first people to walk the entire (700 mile) Abraham path. It will take them a couple of months to follow the path through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. The path is a connection to people of all faiths and cultures and serves as a reminder of our common origins, despite cultural differences. Brendan says it's pretty safe..... but we are all still hoping it goes by fast and he gets back home soon.
Raffi also left from LAX on Wednesday to go to Mexico City and surprise his mom. His sister picked him up, and they had a big New Year's with his family in Mexico. He'll be there for the next month.
Our house is getting smaller and smaller. A week from Sunday, Connor will be the only kid at home!

I'm starting to think a little about what to pack. I've looked at blogs of some of the other SAS students and they had their bags packed like months ago....
Now that two of the boys are gone, and Connor goes back to school on Monday, I think I will get everything ready to go in the next few days. I got a big Nikon camera for Christmas that I love and am starting to use. I also got a really cool backpack from REI that I'll take on all of our trips off of the ship.

Catherine and I have started thinking a little bit about what we want to do in each country. Brendan said that when he was on it people always wanted to do something different than what they planned, so we shouldn't worry about buying trips and planning things ahead of time. Then again, this is coming from the guy who is going to walk 700 miles with just a compass....not exactly my idea of fun!

Thank you SO much for all of the stickers that were sent to my house. We have 85 packs of stickers, more than I ever imagined getting. There will probably be a thank you video soon from K&K:)