Christmas fun.

CHRISTMAS QUIZ (idea found here)

 

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? no kiddos, no Santa
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white only white!
4. Do you hang mistletoe? ALWAYS.

5. When do you put your decorations up? the weekend after Thanksgiving
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Amber's Potatoes (family recipe) and tamales
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? listening to the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas CD and decorating the tree with my mom and dad.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember if I ever believed in Santa or not.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? OooOoh YAH!
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? white lights, homemade sea glass ornaments and a few randoms from mom.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it, probably because we don't get it here in Santa Barbara...
12. Can you ice skate? Ya.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Nicholas made me a log cabin stocking hook for our first Christmas married and he wrote a poem on the bottom that told me he was taking me to the mountains for a weekend-- so romantic!
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? enjoying Jesus with our family and friends.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? pecan pie has always been my favorite. I haven't had one since we found out I'm allergic to wheat though.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? hum... reading Luke chapters 1 and 2 on Christmas morning.
17. What tops your tree? a silly wood star that is attached to a metal hanger, haha, we need to do something about that... 

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? both. I love receiving gifts! I feel so loved when someone has spent time thinking about what I would like (love language?? I'd say YES). But I also love that in our family we make each others gifts. It make giving really special because you have put so much thought and time into it.

a homemade Christmas gift from my sweet friends Brandon and Nikki

19. Candy canes: yuck or yummy? the original ones are yummy the fruit flavored ones are yuck!
20. Favorite Christmas movie? The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
21. Saddest Christmas song? umm... strange question, I don't know.
22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Silent Night

Currently.

Seen this on a few of my favorite blogs and thought it was fun.

Obsessing over: TJ's peppermint hot chocolate with whipped cream, all the beautiful brown boots this season, white Christmas twinkle lights, fried egg and cheese sandwiches.

Working on: our Christmas card, my last two finals for Fall quarter, a few crafts for this event!

Thinking about: my dreams for next year, Nicholas, where we will live when I graduate, when we will have little ones.

Anticipating: wintery date nights, giving meaningful gifts, more quality time with our families!

 Listening to: Hotel Cafe (so good).

Drinking: coffee.

Wishing: I was better at slowing down, I had more time to experiment with meals, we had more to give to others, next quarter wont be as busy as I think it will, Nicholas was not so tired when he comes home from work. 

Corn Maze and Squash Shopping.

Nick and I often talk about how blessed we are with the community God has given us in Santa Barbara. In the last 3 years, since we got married and I moved up here, it has been a joy to share in the difficult and the wonderful things of live with our family of friends.
These friends are truly our family.

Pumpkin Hunting 2009-

2010-

{...still need to photoshop Chase in}

 Latest Family Photo-

{baby belongs to momma in the middle}

As always we had a lot of fun- racing through the corn maze (girls won!), taking photos on the big pumpkins, picking out our squash and flavored butters and then going back to our place with a loaf of bread and stick of butter (a tradition we have of getting "gluten poisoning"-- by eating unlawful amounts of toasted bread -- I do not partake).

=)

memory lane. part 2.

In November 2007 I took a whirlwind trip to visit Nick for Thanksgiving in England.

I wouldn't generally suggest a trip to England for an American holiday like Thanksgiving considering no one celebrates Thanksgiving in England. Trust me, you can't find a pub in the whole city that will serve you a decent turkey meal! Haha, we ordered a "bacon" cheese burger and fries, what they served us was an unseasoned hamburger patty on toast with a piece of deli meat ham on it...

I had less than a week off from teaching for the holiday but didn't mind that it would be a short trip;

I just missed him so much!  

So here are a few of my favorite places and memories from that trip.

I took this picture of Hertford College (Thomas Hobbes and Jonathon Swifts alma mater) from a building across from the Bodleian Library (they, the library police, wouldn't let me in the "Bod" because I wasn't a student at Oxford-pretentious book snobs). Anyway, we didn't let that ruin our afternoon, (ya think I'm still bitter?) Back to the point, I thought the Church was so beautiful that later that night Nicholas took me to evensong at Christ Church which if you can believe it is even more magnificent!

Aren't those flats adorable? I love the yellow one! These are the spires of Oxford... simply gorgeous! (Did you know, Oxford is called the "city of dreaming spires", I didn't, but Nicholas did, he knows everything!)

To make the last night that I was in Oxford really special we went to The Trout which is a swanky pub way outside of the main city area. It was ridiculous trying to get to it--we literally took at least 3 buses and walked a mile through someones pasture (yes there were cows) to get to it--not atypical, I'm learning, for the way we generally find ourselves traveling (more about this later).

The night before I flew home we took a bus to London, so that years later I would have fun touristy picture like this one of us with Big Ben to show all of you!

 

We walked and walk and walked up and down the Thames River ("note to self: if i ever move to England I need to find boots that are cute AND practical for cobblestone roads").

Not only were we both really relieved to see each other that week, 

but while I was there we got a call from Nicholas' parents that his grandfather had passed away, which of course was devastating. 

I think we can only thank our Lord for his timing, 

he knew how difficult receiving that news would be and was so kind to provide a support to Nicholas while he was away from the rest of his family through me. 

When I got home, I started counting down the days until he would be back. My students and co-teachers even made me a paper link chain for each day and we hung it up in the classroom.
I couldn't wait until I would only have a 3 1/2 hour drive to see him as opposed to a 11 hour flight! Its funny how our perspectives change...

memory lane. part 1

Nicholas and I had our first date in January 2007.  I was living in San Diego, teaching preschool and trying to get through community college and he was home for Christmas break. 

He had grown up in San Diego but was studying in Santa Barbara at a private Christian College called Westmont. 

When it was time for him to go back to school, 3 and a half hours away, we prayed a lot about what to do with this new relationship that neither of us had been looking for.

 
[funny story--a few weeks ago my mother-in-law told me that over thanksgiving 2006 Nicholas had told her that he didn't want to be in a relationship he just wanted to be on his own for a while, haha.. that lasted what a month!]

We both felt strongly that there was something bigger than we understood going on, and decided we could give a long distance relationship a shot...  

[I'm pretty sure we even said something to the effect of 'we'll take it day by day, and it doesn't work out at least we wont regret not trying']

I had no idea what I was agreeing to.

photo 1. picnic dinner adventure 
photo 2. saying goodbye before he flew to England (we fake 'happy' well! there were a lot of tears)
photo 3. spring formal (Alexis, Nicholas' sister was in her freshman year at Westmont, so we got to go with her and her date... who was taking the picture)

Nicholas went to the Middle East for the month of May 2007, and then In September left for Oxford to study abroad for a semester. 

Long distance was proving to be really difficult but also a beautiful adventure! 

We never could have guessed what God had is store for our future.

Part 2... Thanksgiving in England....