Meeting Our New Home 🏡

Big news: in October 2021 we bought a house in Steubenville!

We were able to see it while in Steubenville over Christmas Break!

It’s definitely a fixer-upper but after checking it out with family, friends and contractors- we’re excited to make it our new home!!

Fr. Shawn came and did a house blessing for us! We feel a lot of peace about making this our new home & neighborhood. Across the street an old school is being a converted to a Marian Seminary. Next to their parking lot is a huge field (with a great sledding hill apparently - there was no snow during our visit).  I love how you can see the Ohio River bend from our house. 

Truth be told, when we first went through the house - in the dark and seriously jet lagged - Ellie and Jack were with us. Ellie was overwhelmed by the “old house” smell and started crying and insisting we leave immediately. We persisted and looked around the house - “wow, there a lot of work to be done” was going through both my and Brian’s mind. But we both had peace and were happy with our decision to move there. 

Toward the end of our visit to Steubenville, we had a lunch date (thanks to Brian’s parents) and went to Lowe’s - the first time as a couple. This whole redoing a house is definitely a new venture for Brian and me. We stopped for sushi afterwards and my fortune cookie announced that our new venture will be a success! I trust the house blessing more than the cookie - but nonetheless it was nice to see :)

Our COVID Christmas

We had a very blessed Christmas break this year!

Since moving to Gaming, it was our first time not celebrating Christmas here. Instead we got to fly to Steubenville and spend time with Brian’s family!

Our flight (Jack’s first!) was from Vienna to Toronto. That flight went well. Unfortunately our next flight from Toronto to Pittsburgh was cancelled. So we had to spend the night in Canada. And Canada is serious about its Covid rules. So despite being fully vaccinated and having negative antigen tests, we couldn’t leave the airport to go to our hotel (paid for by the airline) without a PCR test. So we had to spend hours sorting that out, getting tested (even though we wouldn’t get the results for three days), and making our way to the hotel after purchasing incredibly expensive diapers - all with five jet lagged kids! But thankfully Mother Della Marie, TOR, was traveling with us - she was such a gift and kept us all relatively calm :)

Our flight the next day was delayed, but eventually took off and got us to Pittsburgh!  I was very happy to say, "See ya, Canada!"

Staying with Brian's parents was wonderful!  

The kids got to deck the tree with Grandma and Grandpa:

Build a gingerbread house:

Christmas Eve we all went to Holy Family Church for 6pm Mass and then over to Brian's sisters house for food, dessert and the White Elephant Exchange!  It was so fun to be there, especially since the last time we were there was when Ellie was 1 year old.

Unfortunately, gifts were not the only things exchanged....apparently Omicron is VERY contagious and we all brought those germs home!  Thankfully Brian's parents had recently recovered from it - they were the only one spared as we all began testing positive three days later.  Fortunately we all had relatively mild cases and quickly recovered.  It was also great that we all had it - so getting together for NYE was still possible :)

The theme of the gifts was Harry Potter!!

Pre-covid and post-covid isolation days we were able to visit the Nutcrackers in downtown Steubenville.  They also have an Advent Market modeled after the ones here in Austria - we didn't get to visit it this year, but look forward to going next Christmas!

Francis had the idea of posing as their own Nutcrackers - which the kids all loved!!

We had planned to baptize Jack while in Steubenville but because of Covid we had to postpone his baptism (he'll be baptized in Gaming).  

He was very happy in the arms of Grandma, Grandpa, and his godmother Aunt Maureen!

Nearly three weeks later, we headed back to Pittsburgh airport and flew to Toronto and then onto Vienna - this time everything went smoothly!!

Crazy that this was likely our kids last international flight from the USA to Europe for a looooong time - and I'm not complaining, jet leg is rough!  They are pretty awesome at travelling though!

We're looking forward to an awesome semester ahead - our last one!!  We'll be joined by two nephews, which we're super excited about!

Snow & St. Nicholas’ Arrival ❄️🎅