Missing Home

I feel like a little kid the night before Christmas. Except my anticipation won't be relieved for another month and my roommates won't let me listen to Christmas music yet.

I'm so excited! Only twenty-seven days until the best day of my whole life: I get to go home! I get to see my family!

I'm so homesick. 

I kind of anticipated it; I brought along the family yearbooks so I can crack open a page whenever I need to see Esther sticking out her tongue or my mom petting a kangaroo. But Esther has braces now and I just want to hug my mom. A picture isn't enough. 

I miss the way you can hear my dad singing the tenor part from the other side of the chapel in church. I miss the way Matt laughs when you quote his favorite Studio C videos. I miss the way Esther rolls her big, beautiful eyes when you ask her if she has any cute boys in her math class. I miss the way my mom smiles when she's just snuck an M&M from the desk drawer. She thinks she's sneaky but she totally has an M&M smile. Unfortunately, I think she passed that gene on...

I probably miss dinner the most. In college you make your own food with two ingredients, eat by yourself, and wash your own dishes. Not only do I miss meals with three or more ingredients (I know why Spain needed a fast route to get their Indian spices now- I would sail the world for taco seasoning, too), but I miss talking to my mom while she makes it. I miss sitting down and eating with the family. Talking about our day. Quoting our favorite movies a hundred times. The way my dad has to be the one to pour the milk and my mom has to dish the vegetables. The way Matt needs to be the only one talking and Esther just stares at herself in the adjacent window the whole time. No answering the phone. No texting. No eating alone. Everybody laughs.

I miss our evening ritual. After the kids go to bed, Mom and I always curl up by the computer with a carton of Ben and Jerry's to watch our latest show on Netflix. Then Dad gets home and we talk to him. He sits in on the end of our movie. Then I'm supposed to go to bed, but we stay up for another hour discussing politics or something else we don't all agree on.

I'm so grateful for technology. For texting. For phone calls. For camera phones. For Skype. There is no way I'd be able to do this without technology.

Twenty-seven days. You can do this, Lizzie.