The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Excuse me for not updating yall for weeks! Our first Christmas together was oh so good to us. Most of my pre-Christmas celebrations were done with my nine-year-old best buddy, Shep. I'm very disappointed that in all of our festivities I forgot to bring my camera, so I have no pictures to show for it. No pictures to show of our gingerbread house, our ice cream cone Christmas trees, our cookie decorating, or our nativity shelter made out of sticks and bark (I was particularly proud of myself for that creative project). We laughed a ton and I had a lot of fun seeing him enjoy the simplest things.

Jeremiah and I in our severe impatience, started Christmas a little early. We had planned to have "our" Christmas the Saturday before the actual day, as we were leaving for Pennsylvania on Sunday. Wouldn't you know on second Sunday before Christmas we ended up opening our gifts for each other. Pathetic. It's still debatable whose idea this was, and although we'd love to say we "agree to disagree," we kind of just disagree. Ahh memories. We did end up having our Christmas the following Saturday with stockings in the morning, a day of watching Christmas movies, and a dinner of Christmas fettucine. It was delicious and a tradition we want to continue.

The next morning we loaded up our things for the next eight days and traveled up north. We stayed at my parents' house through Christmas, and visited the Link side for the weekend. Santa was very good to us, and we had literally a car full of stuff to bring home. We felt so loved and cared for over the holiday, and are so thankful for our families' generosity! It was so so great to be with our families. There is absolutely nothing like it.

Yesterday we made the trek home, stopping in DC for Campus Crusade's Radiate (think huge conference) so we could see a bunch of people I was on staff with last year and some of our Penn State friends. Oh, it was so good to see those people! Jeremiah and I miss everyone so much, and were glad we were able to touch base with them.

In even bigger news, yesterday was our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Wow, can you believe it?? Jeremiah and I had fun reminiscing about what we were doing "at this time a year ago." It's been so cool to think back to everything we've experienced together. What a fantastic husband I have. Looking back has reminded me of how lucky I am to have him and of how good to me he is. The Lord has given us a good first year together and we can't wait for the next!

O Christmas Tree

It was a weekend filled with Christmas celebration! On Friday, Jeremiah and I were able to go to his Christmas party for Robious Middle School (after planning on not being able to go) and had a great time. It was fun to meet Jeremiah's co-workers that I hear so much about.

On Saturday, Jeremiah and I picked out our first Christmas tree and decorated the apartment. I posted some pictures of the days events--and unfortunately, I lack a lot of skill taking pictures of lit Christmas trees. And what a shame that is, considering I was very proud of my lighting job. My dad would be proud! As you can see, Shaniqua looked ultra ghetto with twine strung all throughout to hold our monstrous tree on the top of her. I even had to climb in through the driver's side to get back home. It's true what they say--trees always look bigger when you get them home. Luckily we have very high ceilings, or we could've had a real problem on our hands. We absolutely love it, and had a great time listening to carols and getting in the Christmas spirit for the first time together!

Then yesterday evening, we had Jeremiah's side of the family who live in Richmond over for a little shindig. I made way too much food, but was excited to use many of the serving dishes I had got for our wedding. We had a $5 white elephant exchange, which was a lot of fun!