Christmas Dinner

Well the snow melted rather quickly, and went away, but Herman and I had a relaxing and fun day anyways.

After the morning excitement of phone calls and present opening, (and then the obligatory time to play with said presents) we had breakfast.

Incidentally, breakfast was my turn to play with my new toy. Herman got me a George Forman G5 grill with interchangeable plates. One of those plates was an omelete plate, so we had omeletes for breakfast. It was so quick an effortless!

Then we tidied up, watched a movie or two, took a nap, and woke up hungry for dinner.

We had a delicious feast, ham, stuffing, baked beans, dinner rolls, salad, homemade pumpkin pie (thanks Maria for the mix). This entire meal took almost no time at all to make, and helped to make this Christmas seem like a REAL Christmas to me.

And now we're off to scrounge up some holiday egg nog.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Dreams of a White Christmas...

came TRUE!!!

Last night I hung paper snowflakes in the windows, and this morning, after opening up presents, we looked outside, and saw SNOW!!!

Granted, I have a nasty cold and have been feeling rotten for a few days now, but the fact that it is snowing, and it is actually sticking helps me to feel more festive. We were unable to go to church last night due to my being sick, so I missed the Christmas Liturgy. :(

But, to everyone who reads this, Merry Christmas! Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Finally a break!

Well it has been a busy past couple of weeks. I have been teaching and subbing non stop; while the kids got crazier and crazier I might add. Herman has been braving the cold december days at work, and recieved a generous Christmas bonus.

When not working, we have been out shopping, trying to find the perfect present for everyone on our list. I ended up hand crafting a majority of them, which took a lot of time and energy.

It is rather ironic; after complaining about being pulled in too many directions when it comes to holiday dinners, Herman and I have nowhere to be this Christmas. This might actually be good, since I have unfortunately caught a fairly nasty cold, but it will still be odd to be alone together for Christmas. Now I'm scrambling to figure out what I'm going to make as a holiday dinner. (I'm better at breakfasts).

But, life is good. We got presents out and too all those we needed to, we have a beautiful tree, and despite this cold, Herman and I are hearty, healthy, and happy.

Birthday and other updates

So as I said in my last post, Herman surprised me with a day early birthday party with some long time family friends. The day of my birthday was rather uneventful, and Friday night we went to my staff christmas party. (We moved the spa overnight to Saturday-> Sunday)

The staff party was interesting. It was the first one we had been to, and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Some friends and I went to the local watering hole before the dinner, and they got competely trashed. I also had some to drink, but they got wild and loud. It was interesting to watch.

Saturday morning we had our spa appointments. Herman got a facial, and I had both a whole body massage, and a facial. I felt so pampered. It was the perfect relaxing present. After our spa time, we drove around to look at Christmas tree farms. We drove all over the country and saw so much of Oregon's pretty nature.

We returned to the hotel for our overnight stay, complete with free movie admission.

Sunday we went down to Salem to look at houses once again for the people from Florida. We saw many properties, but because of some fallout due to huge miscommunications, we decided that we weren't going to continue going down there for them.

This week was fairly tame, with me teaching and subbing, and Herman working.

Today we get our Christmas tree! I'm so excited!

Belated Thanksgiving Report

It just occured to me that I have been rather remiss in keeping up this blog (and indeed, my own personal blog). However, in fairness to those few people who read this, I believe it is time for an update.

Life continues on as always with its ups and downs. We have been busy re-arranging our apartment, finding the perfect gifts for people in our lives, and continuing to learn how to be good spouses.

Holidays are always somewhat difficult to manage. The question is always, who's family do we spend the holiday dinner with this time? We both want to be with our families. If things were different, I would try to have the holiday dinner here, but our place is just too small for that.

For Thanksgiving, we had a pre- Thanksgiving dinner at Herman's sister's house, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This worked out perfectly because they were invited somewhere else for the actual day. On Thanksgiving itself we went to my brother's house and enjoyed an amazing meal. Seriously, I think it was the best turkey I've ever had.

The weather has been crazy here the past few days. A big storm rolled in, causing incredible amounts of damage. Luckily for us, the only experience of the storm that we had was torrential rains which flooded out several roads. The coast was hit really hard with high winds, rain, etc.

Today is my birthday, and last night Herman surprised me with a small party with some old family friends. Today we're not really doing anything, but tomorrow night he is taking me on a romantic spa overnight trip. I'm incredibly excited. I'm so blessed to have a spouse that cares enough to plan surprises. He makes me feel so special.

Its almost time for me to head out... I took a part day sub job today even though I had told myself to take a day off for my birthday... oh well.