WONDERFUL LIFE

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and each and every one of you made special memories. Christmas this year was great, a little quiet, but nonetheless, great. Jerry and Noemi graciously hosted Christmas dinner at their house. With four brothers, you can expect a lot of laughter. We weren't disappointed.

The weekend was filled with spending lots of time with friends who drove up from New Mexico. We were a little late in making dinner reservations on Christmas Eve so it was like watching a scene out of The Christmas Story because the only place open was a Chinese restaurant. The food was not that great but the company was and, bottom line, that is what matters.

Scott is doing extremely well. Just wrapped up another semester at school and is on Christmas break until January 17. He is working as a store manager up at the Great Mall. So he definitely keeps himself busy. He bought Kevin and I some pretty nice gifts this year. The way he wrapped our gifts were......Priceless....... The only way I can describe it is this..... When you are two or three hours into wrapping and you realize you have used a third of the paper, two rolls of tape and have yet to finish wrapping one gift, you might as well just say to yourself at that point: "Oh, well, they are going to rip open the gift anyway so why bother making it look pretty." It is the thought that counts right? SMILES!

In conclusion, we made memories and we enjoyed our time with our family and friends. Plus we even started a new tradition by watching the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life (apparently Kevin never watched the movie before). We realized that if we wouldn't have gotten one single gift, we still would have been excited and happy because the greatest gift is what money can't buy. Just being able to experience another Christmas together, was simply perfect! We are thankful to God for allowing us to have the gift of love.

SNOOPIN' FOR GIFTS

We love this time of year. Preparing for the holidays, visiting friends, wrapping gifts, making sure no one starts snooping for their gifts. (Ha!) This weekend we had a tough time keeping our dog, Stoli, out of the bag that contained his “gifts.” He stood guard as I moved the bag, wrapped them and placed them under the tree. He went so far as to paw them a few times but was scolded. It was like watching a child in anticipation on Christmas Eve. We have included a few pictures of our baby with his Christmas antlers. SMILES.

If we allow ourselves and are willing, we can learn quite a bit from the little ones in our life. During Christmas, the spirit of this season is most easily found when we look through the eyes of a little child or in our case, our dog. The elation and enthusiasm has not been tainted by years of routine and broken dreams. When we forget what the true meaning of Christmas is all about, all we have to do is stop and watch their reactions when they receive a gift they cherish. It is the best feeling in the world.

This weekend we ventured down to our new house and they are really making progress. Here are a few more pictures. Enjoy!

FOR THE LOVE

Tomorrow marks our 4th year anniversary. While our society has been twisted into a massive rush of chaotic scrambling with a focus on getting ahead and planning for the future that may or may not ever happen, we stop and appreciate that God brought us together seven years ago. It is hard to believe we have been together for over seven years now but time flies while you are having fun and fun we have had! Our relationship has high levels of love, respect, positivity, empathy, commitment, acceptance and, of course, laughter. Just yesterday at lunch, we laughed ourselves silly over the cards at Hallmark. SMILES……

This past weekend we attended my holiday party. We had a great time and Kevin met warm, welcoming, delightfully witty and blazingly intelligent individuals at the party. Its not every day that you honestly get to proclaim that you love your job. But I do…..it is a great place to work.

We also took a trip to our new home and they have FINALLY put the roof on, no shingles but at least now if it snows, it won't be inside the house. The timeline seems to be right on schedule and we hope and pray it stays that way through the winter months.

Enjoy the pictures…..

BRING IT ON

We stand in awe as we watch the month of December come to life and rather quickly the month fills up with events. From here on out we will be attending holiday parties, dining out with friends and family and attending get togethers. As anxiety creeps in just a bit, we realize we need to squeeze some time in to get everything ready for the holidays and finish up our Christmas shopping. Just when we think we got it all figured out in our minds, we remember a few more things we need to add to our list. At least for now, our heads are spinning.

But this is what we love about the holidays. Hanging out with family and friends. Eating good food. Having our calendar full of fun times, even if it does wear us out. We really aren't stressed out much by the list of things we need to do to prepare for Christmas. We will get everything done in time. We will get the Christmas cards out and perhaps we will even get to do a little Christmas baking. We know that the holidays will fly by and that is fine with us as it brings us one day closer to moving into our new home.

So with that said, we say BRING IT ON (the holidays that is). SMILES.

Attached are some new pictures of the construction of our home. We got a bit of snow last week and no they didn't get the roof on in time. :-(


Our dog loves the snow!