Happy Epiphany!

Today (now that it's past midnight) marks the official end of the Christmas season. Yes, I know most people have been done celebrating for days (if not weeks), but since I love the holidays I like to celebrate as long as I can. The 12 days of Christmas actually begin on Christmas and end today, Epiphany. I don't remember a whole lot about it (my years of Lutheran upbringing are failing me), but I do remember that it's been Christmas this whole time despite most people moving on. Sad, I know.

Anyway, this past Christmas / New Year's was really fun. Throughout December, we attended three white elephant parties - my favorite kind! I also got to head down to California for a few days and spend time with family / a few friends. Unfortunately Matt couldn't make it down too, but I was glad I got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and my mom's birthday with family, in addition to visiting Matt's family and a few friends I still have in the area. Matt's parents came up and took us to dinner the day I got home too - him getting to see them was great, too.

Although I enjoy seeing people more than actual gifts, I was pretty excited about some of the wonderful items I received: Beauty & The Beast on DVD, various SF Giants paraphernalia, a few Wii games (Glee Karaoke, High School Musical Sing It and Wii Fit Plus), and more. 

More than anything, seeing friends and family again made me really appreciate just how blessed I am. There are a lot of people I wish I could see more and spend additional time with. I've been surrounded by fabulous people my entire life - and continue to be included in wonderful groups of friends and family. Thank you all!

Why I Love the Movie Tombstone

Okay, Tombstone is an enjoyable movie. A fun story, good characters, great acting (disclaimer: it is violent)... That’s not why I love it, though. Two years ago my husband and I departed for our honeymoon and, upon arrival, found out the place we were staying had a TV/DVD player! Sadly we didn’t know this before we left, so we didn’t bring any movies with us, and the only movie there was Tombstone. We must have watched it something like 5 times over the next several days. Needless to say, Tombstone is good memories now. I’m actually really excited to watch it tonight as we celebrate our 2nd anniversary!


On that note, I can’t believe we’ve already been married for 2 years! It’s strange because being married and living together is normal life now, but at the same time, it seems like just yesterday we were dating, planning a wedding, etc.


We’re also coming up on a year in our current city (well, in another month or so). As we only lived in California for about 8 months after the wedding, and then were in Bremerton for just 6 months, this is the longest we’ve stayed in one place since we got married, too. Fortunately the plan is to stay here for a while. As willing as I am to move when it’s necessary, it really is a hassle...


Anyway, a couple of additional recent highlights include:


Pulling out the Christmas music. I personally think some Christmas music could be listened to year-round. Jesus probably wasn’t born in December anyway, and why not celebrate his birth all year? Regardless, the day after Halloween I created a Pandora station to start listening to Christmas tunes and have been enjoying it immensely. 


Rewatching Harry Potter. To prepare for the premiere of The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 we’ve been rewatching the past movies. We’re on track to have all of them rewatched by Wednesday night so we can go to the midnight premiere on Thursday. I’m so excited!


Getting way for a couple of days at a friend’s beach house. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

 

On that note, my break is over and I need to get back to work!

Happy November!

It's hard to believe Matt and I have been married for a year already. Well, almost. Our anniversary is Sunday (the 15th), so to celebrate we're going to Cleveland. We picked Cleveland nearly 6 months ago when Matt found cheap tickets to the game on the 16th. Not only is it the day after our anniversary, but it's going to be on Monday Night Football! Be sure to watch for us on TV - we'll be the two Browns fans on the 3rd deck in the corner. I'm sure you won't be able to miss us (haha).

This time of year always seems to go so quickly for me. In fact, the last couple of weeks have seemed to fly by, despite our wide-open schedule. Here are a few activities I've found to keep myself busy around the apartment:

Stacking the Mannatech pills that were sitting on our coffee table (I hadn't gotten around to putting them away):

...and watching them fall:

Borrowing 3 of the 4 Twilight Saga books from the library:

...and then reading them so quickly I wanted to read the 4th book before it came in to the library. I kind of broke down and talked Matt into buying the 4th book for me on his Kindle (it was half the price of even one of the books):

 

Watching Matt's Xbox avatar play with his pom-poms:

 

We'll see what the rest of the month has in store for us and what other ways I can keep myself entertained around the apartment...

I'm so excited for the holidays coming up! This is my favorite time of year...it's cold, wintery, Christmasy...there are 2 holidays within 2 months that call for delicious food. Plus it looks like we'll be able to see family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, thinking about Christmas gets me thinking about that song we used to sing in Sunday School ("Christmas comes but once a year, I wish it could be more..."). But it still seems a bit too early to start in on the Christmas wonderfulness. Perhaps after Thanksgiving...