Happy Christmas Eve!

Dan and I have been having so much fun here in Utah. Yesterday, Dan and I went to lunch with Nancy at Rooster's on 25th street, and that was a lot of fun. It's so hard, b/c when I'm in Utah, I think I want to live here, and then when I'm in Madison, I want to live there! So coming home always sends me into somewhat of a quandry :) Oh well. Anyway, we then went to Nancy's house and saw all her wedding pictures, which were gorgeous. (And, her Rottweiler, Buster, is soooo cute!)

Then we went to a live nativity scene with my mom, Jason and Nancy. It was really cool; it was just put on bya family in West Haven, but it was really involved! There were real livestock (horses, sheep, llamas, etc.), excellent costumes, and it was really fun to see. Then we just came out and hung out here for awhile, and I wrapped presents while Dan helped my mom iron her tablecloth. I know, I know, isn't he domestic??? :)

This morning (Christmas Eve day; yay!) I just helped my mom clean up, and I made Chex Mix, which my family says is my specialty :) Dan and Austin went snowshoeing and took Shila with them, and they said it was a lot of fun. However, now it is snowing like crazy; visibility is sooo bad. It's cozy when we're in our own home, safe and sound, but it's kind of scary to think we have to brave that to go to church! Maybe they'll cancel it, haha, and we can just stay here and hang out. Tonight we're having prime rib for dinner like we always do; Dan and I always love Christmas Eve dinner.

I hope that everyone is having a very merry Christmas Eve, and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Merry Christmas! (and finally, the pictures I promised you!)

Hello everyone! Sorry that I've been away for awhile; you know how hectic the last couple of days before Christmas can be! On the bright side, we're home in Utah with my family, and Christmas is just the same as it was when I was a kid. I love it (and I love that my mom goes to such an effort to make Christmas such an enjoyable time for her family). So it's definitely a blessed time of year! Of course, we miss Dan's mom, who lives in Washington (she always came over for Christmas dinner when she lived in Utah, and it was a blast), and it doesn't seem the same without her here. Hopefully next year she'll be here with us!

Of course, there are the little issues that always pop up (such as when my parents' dog, Shila, tried to kill my cat, Maxine... ok, maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but I can tell you that these two definitely don't like each other!) Then there was the issue trying to print out the pictures for our Christmas cards; we couldn't really find a good one, and then when we did, we couldn't get the red eye out. Combine that with the relentless traffic and the people who act like their world will end if they don't grab the last item off the shelf, and I ended up feeling pretty crabby.

Then I stopped to put it all in perspective. I'm here, in my childhood home (which is full of the Christmas spirit, if I do say so myself), with my beloved husband and soulmate, my wonderful parents and brother, and Dan's sister and brother-in-law right down the road. We're all healthy, we DEFINITELY have enough to eat (have you seen the dinners my dad makes?), and most importantly, we're all together, enjoying each other's company. Do the little things like crowds and red eye in a photo truly matter? I think not. I'm so blessed, and I hope that we all remember how lucky we truly are.

And, if you have a chance to bless another family who is in need, I hope you can. I can't tell you the joy we felt when we delivered our angel tree presents for the little boy we "adopted." I loved buying gifts for my family, of course, but the joy of buying for a two year old child who lacks even the most basic things in life was overwhelming. We ended up getting him two ADORABLE outfits, a coloring book, two books--because I believe reading is one of the most important things you can do for a child--and a dump truck, because Dan assured me that dump trucks are THE ultimate toy for a two year old boy. Of course, there are other ways to bless those in need; we just need to be on the lookout for them!

Once again, merry Christmas and a happy 2008! I hope to be on here sometime in the coming week, but we all know how Christmas celebrations can take up a lot of one's time :) So, if I don't "see" you all before then, I'll see you once again in 2008! But before I go.... here are some pictures for you all to enjoy (or tolerate! :) just kidding!)
Here is a our townhouse; it's the first time we can actually put up outdoor lights, and I was so glad!







Here is a picture from our front door in early December. We couldn't even get out of our driveway; the weather was so bad! But it was kinda cozy! :)







Here is a view of our tree.







Here's our tree with lights








Here's Dan playing with the helicopter Nancy gave him a couple Christmases ago. Maxine is watching it intently, waiting for a chance to pounce on it!






Dan, Rori and me hanging out at Tracy's after making gingerbread houses.







Here's a tree we made from a gingerbread kit. somehow, it didn't turn out so well, but we still had fun! :)







Kirsti with her gingerbread house








Rori and me with our house








Here is Dan's Tudor gingerbread house. Yeah, the engineer in him has to make this perfect house ;)







Relaxing by our hard work








Hanging out with my 3 favorite girls :) Notice Maxine's pink jacket; we think she looks adorable, but she doesn't like it much!!!!

Whoa, been away for awhile!

Yes, I haven't been updating as regularly as I used to! But let's see, I'm almost finished with my Christmas shopping, which is obviously a HUGE thing! And Dan and I are just packing up to go to Utah; yay! I'm so excited to be able to spend the holidays with my family!!

This weekend was a fun one. On Friday, my friends from work and I got together for a little pre-Christmas celebration at Meghan's apartment. That was a lot of fun; good hors d'ouerves, good wine, and lots of fun conversation.

Then on Saturday, we went to Greg's (Tracy's brother in law) house for another little Christmas celebration. They have one of the coolest victorian houses I've ever seen; it's awesome! And they always have it decorated so cute. We watched a bunch of Christmas movies, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Grinch, and Miracle on 34th Street (the old one). So, all in all, it was a lot of fun!

Maybe tonight I'll FINALLY get around to posting pictures of our tree and our outside lights!

Well, Dan and I decided last night that we were too tired to get all dressed up and drive downtown for the formal. Yes, we really are an old married couple. :) But we did go out to eat at Imperial Garden and then watched a movie, called Conversations with Other Women (with Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart) here. It was a really interesting movie; very innovative in the way it was shot. I really enjoyed it, and the soundtrack was amazing.

Today we are going to just clean up around here, finish decorating our Christmas tree, and finish putting up Christmas lights. It's snowing here, which I LOVE. I love doing Christmas things when it's all wintry outside. We have to go grocery shopping too,which isn't that much fun. Oh well. I'll post pictures of both our Thanksgiving celebration and our Christmas tree and Christmas lights when we're done with them.

Today, I was sitting on the couch doing a crossword puzzle, and Maxine started to go crazy, so I looked outside the window to see what she was freaking out about, and I saw a gorgeous red cardinal sitting on the tree outside our window. It was so beautiful to see this bright splash of red against pure white. I grabbed our camera to take a picture, but by the time I opened the door, he had flown away. Oh well.

Hope everyone is having a beautiful first day of December! And Happy Birthday Uncle Alan!