Christmas 2009

This year, Nick wasn't able to get work off for either of the Holidays. We can't complain though because this is the first time they haven't given him the time off that he's asked for. So for both Thanksgiving and Christmas we weren't able to see either of our immediate families. :( We missed them dearly and know it would have been great to spend the holidays with them; however, considering the circumstances, we had a great Christmas and feel very blessed for everything we were given.

When Aubri and Daniel, Nick's cousin, found out that we weren't able to go home this year, they immediately made plans to make sure that we still had the best Christmas that we could without seeing our families. They invited us to their house on Christmas Eve where we enjoyed some great food and even better entertainment. :) We played games and had a very fun relaxing night. We haven't gotten together in forever with them, so it was SOO nice to see them and have a good time together. Thanks again for the invite Aubri & Daniel... we had a blast!! :)

Christmas Day Nick got home from work around 9:30 am. He IMMEDIATELY wanted to open presents! :) For once someone my age was even more excited than me. ;) He separated all the gifts into two piles for the both of us and then we each took turns opening each gift. :) We got so many gifts from each of our families and are so thankful for their kindness. Nick also got me great things!! (thanks love!) The one gift that totally surprised me from him, was a Hunting/Shooting game. :) One night we had dinner at this small bar and grill and they had an arcade game there. We decided to give it try while waiting for our food. It ended up being a pretty fun game that we got some really good laughs from! :) Well, Nick ended up finding this exact game at Bass Pro Shop. You simply plug in the cord attached to the gun into the back of the tv, set up the target scanner, and you're ready to play. :) After we finished opening our gifts, we opened the shooting game and gave it try... 1 hour later we decided that we should get ready for dinner and clean up! :) Thanks to BOTH families for all the fun, sweet, and thoughtful gifts. We missed you all so much and look forward to seeing you SOON (hopefully)!!!

For Christmas Dinner, we were invited to Laura and Rolly's (good family friends, Nick met on his mission). They are the sweetest people and we had such a good time there. They are always checking up on us, and making sure everythings okay. Nick thinks of them as our parents away from home. We had GREAT food, good company, and played some games there as well. And of course, they sent us home with half the food they prepared... so we'll have Christmas Dinner left overs from a dinner I didn't even have to cook! :) We loved spending the afternoon with them and are thankful for their friendship. Nick mentioned on the way home, that he was so glad we had decided to accept their invite because it was probably the best thing next to being home with our families!!

I took the camera with us both on Christmas Eve and Christmas day; however, we only got pics of us opening presents :(....

Our first Christmas away from home was not the easiest thing and we wished we could have seen our families, but our family and friends here made it easier for us and we thank them for that!! We hope everyone else also had a great Christmas!!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very

Merry Christmas!!!

Have a happy and safe holiday!!!

Officially Finished...

...with the Fall 2009 Semester!!!!!!!! O my goodness it is a GOOD thing too! I think that Nick and I were both about to loose it during the last 3 weeks. BUT, we stuck in there and finished. Nick had 3 final tests, 3 quizzes, one state exam, and two physical exams within the last two weeks. He hasn't gotten his final grades back yet, but knows he did pretty well on them. He now has his Fire Fighter II Certification!! WAY TO GO sweety!!

I had 3 Presentations (in front of local Interior Designers), 2 final exams, and 1 project that I just had to turn in NOT present. I have NEVER put this much time into school in my life. Not even in my art classes was it quite this demanding. That also had to do with taking 21 credits though, I'm sure. I have recieved most of my finals grades and have to say that I'm very happy I chose to put as much time as I did, because I think I might have pulled off straight A's! To some this may not seem like such a big deal (DANI), but with 7 classes, and always seeming to make this my goal for each semester (with it NEVER working), I have FINALLY met that goal! I cannot believe with as little sleep Nick and I both got, that we did not end up getting sick during the semester? We now have a month long break until next semester and have already been enjoying every moment of it. :)

For our FINAL presentation critique in my Studio I class, we did the presentation a little different. Usually, we would take our design project up in front of our entire class, the teacher, the program director, the dean of the school, and 6-10 Local Interior Designers. Well, our teacher gave us (and the Local designers, as far as I'm concerned) a break from the norm and we presented our final in more of a Gallery-style form. Each student set up their projects around the computer lab in the main part of the biulding, and then each designer (and family and friends that were invited) came around individually and listened to us present our designs to them. SOOO LESS stressful this way... it was actually a lot easier and funner to have one-on-one discussions with the designers. It was also A LOT easier to be told what was wrong with your design and WHY not being in front of a WHOLE room of people! :) Nick was taking finals during this same time, so I THOUGHT he wasn't going to be able to come listen to my presentation, but the sneaky little sweetheart he is, showed up and stood back behind me, listening to me, without me realizing for about 10 mins!! :)

Our teacher also took some pictures of us presenting and posted them afterwards and this is the one he sent me.

Anyways... enough about school... It's the holiday season and now that's what we are truly able to focus on.

Just to catch up a little.... even though we weren't able to go home for Thanksgiving, Nick and I still had a great one. We missed our families a lot, but we are blessed enough to have some family here that love us and always include us! (THANKS) We went to dinner at Nick's Aunt Vicki and Uncle Keith's. It was fun to see all of Nick's cousins and family members that came from out of town. After, dinner there, we went home and enjoyed the rest of the day together. I cooked my FIRST Turkey ever!!! In fact, I did the entire meal... turkey, potatoes, homemade rolls, salad, and a green bean mix, and 4 homemade Chocolate Cream Pies for friends and family (I do have to admit that those turned out better last year). But the turkey was amazing... :) I was very surprised at how easy it is to cook a turkey. When I was first cleaning it and removing everything, I was freaking out and was pretty grossed out too! :) My dad would have kicked my butt if he would have seen what a "girl" I was being about it all.

We also put up our Christmas tree that weekend, knowing if it didn't get done then, it would get done at all. We got a real tree again this year. It is very pretty and I just LOVE having it up. I kind of wish we could leave Christmas trees up year round because of the feeling and mood it creates in our home. :) We also put up some Christmas lights and wreath to decorate the small entrance to our condo; HOWEVER, because the HOA is retarded here, we were asked to take down decorations or we would be fined. WOW huh??.... yes, they are TOTALLY missing the Christmas spirit. And I really wanted to remind them of that, :) but I didn't.

Which brings me to my next point... We won't have to deal with the HOA here after the 1st of January because we are moving into a house!!! :) :) We are both VERY excited about that. No, we are not buying, just renting. Why rent a condo if renting a BIGGER space (house) is the same price, right? I will post pictures of it when we move in. We are NOT excited about the "moving" part... that's like the worst thing ever, don't you think? But it will be SOO worth it when we are all unpacked and settled in. We feel SOO blessed to have the opportunity to move into a house and have things working so well for us here.

I hope that everyone is having a GREAT holiday season thus far and continues too!!!