Idaho Christmas

I'm always a little sad when Christmas is over, particularly this year because we had such a nice time.  On the plus side, we're heading to the Northwest and basically doing it all over again. When I was little I was always a little jealous of my friends with divorced parents who got to do Christmas twice (perhaps an odd thing to be jealous of), and this year I get to experience the Two-Christmas Phenomenon.  Yay for being married!
We had a good Christmas season here in Layton.  In an attempt to get Erik as excited about Christmas as I was, we did an advent calendar together.  It was so fun to have something to look forward to every day, and it looked way cute hanging up in our apartment.  

 

The weekend before Christmas we went to Bear Lake with a bunch of Erik's college buddies and their respective wives.  I didn't take very many (or very good) pictures, but we had a ton of fun playing games, relaxing, and hanging out. 

 

I headed up to Idaho a few days before Erik, and he flew up on Christmas Eve.  My family has like a zillion Christmas Eve traditions, and Erik was SUCH a good sport.  We always have our neighbors over for dinner and a music program and then we act out the Nativity.  I'm always the head angel (it just kind of fits) and Erik made his debut as the turquoise wiseman.  After the neighbors go home, my mom reads us the Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher and we open up our Christmas PJ's.  

 Christmas morning was way fun.  Nina woke everyone up at about 8:30, and we did the whole stockings/presents/lounging in PJ's thing.  My parents got Erik a weight set for Christmas (it took quite a bit of rearranging and a little assistance from Alex to get it back to Layton and to find a spot for it in our apartment).  Erik got me a beautiful necklace, exactly what I wanted, but didn't hint at too heavily.  Nice work Erik.  I also got a new camera from my parents, thus the very picture filled blog post.  

 Overall, it was an awesome Christmas.  Can't wait for round 2!

PCSHW

How I've felt this week

I didn't have any on-campus finals this semester, so I was officially done as of last Friday.  That means I've had this whole past week with virtually no responsibilities.  It's been AMAZING.  Pre-child-stay-home-wifehood (PCSHW) is the life for me.  Here are all the things I've checked off my long-term to-do list:
1) Study for the GRE
Shanna is to analogies as Dwight Howard is to free-throws.  We both always miss them.  Needless to say, some serious studying is in my future in the next few weeks.  I'd like to take the GRE in the middle of January, and I've loved having this week to finally dive in to my study book.  If you'd like to have a conversation in which we use large pretentious words (potentially incorrectly) to help me study the vocab, hit me up.
2) Wrap Christmas Presents
Seriously, is there anything better than watching the Sing-Off, drinking hot chocolate, and wrapping Christmas presents?  Love it.
3) Fulfill Wifely Duties
This week I've actually cleaned our apartment (it seemed a little cruel to evict all those dust bunnies so close to Christmas, but what can you do?) and made dinners that require more than 30 seconds in the microwave.  I cleaned out my car, went grocery shopping multiple times, and paid bills. Just call me June Cleaver and buy me some heels and pearls.
4) Edit Wedding Album
Erik and I bought a flush-mount album with our wedding photography package.  It's been a work in progress for 4 months now.  The photographer emails me one draft of one page, I email back the edits.  He fixes it, but not quite the way I wanted, so I email him back.  There are twenty pages in this album, this is not an efficient system.  Going to sit down with the photographer and work out this album has been on my list for two months, I finally got it done tonight.  Hopefully we'll have this album done before I graduate.
5) Practice Harp
I go through phases where I practice a lot and phases where my harp sits in the spare bedroom and gathers dust.  Prior to the end of this semester, we were definitely in a dust phase.  This week I've had time to play through all of my Christmas carols and pull out some stuff I haven't played in a while. My upstairs and downstairs neighbors probably weren't thrilled, but I had fun.
6) Catch up on Reality TV
This one is kind of all encompassing.  I've had time this week to do all those things that I love doing that are actually wastes of time, like watching reality TV .  I've been in to What Not to Wear and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team lately.  Of course, after I watch Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders I have to watch Biggest Loser to restore my healthy body image.  Also I love any show starring midgets, wedding dresses, or toddler beauty queens. I hope to someday find a show featuring all three. You can see how this becomes a time sucker.  This week I've also read all the back columns of my favorite advice column, spent some serious time with my kindle, and reacquainted myself with the bubble bath.

It has seriously been the best week.  I feel relaxed, on top of things, and excited for Christmas. I never want to go back to school or my regular work schedule again. Now I just need to find a way to convince Erik that PCSHW is a viable permanent solution for us.

December

Only 16 days until Christmas!  I'm almost pathetically excited.  We're going to Idaho for Christmas weekend and then to see Erik's parents for a week-ish at New Years.  I've got almost all of our shopping done, and I just got all our wrapping done on Tuesday while I watched the Sing-off.  Here's what else is new with us this month:
1) Erik's boss at work is really into football, so they have all these sports metaphors for the different jobs they do.  There's defense, offense, special teams, the draft, etc.  Erik won MVP (most valuable...person?) for having the most upgrades his very first month at the airport. So proud of my busy little worker!

2) I've tried to have a pretty low-key month so I can kick my mono, but I've still been pretty busy with school and cheerleading.  It's my last day of the semester today, and all I have left is 1/2 a page of my final criminology paper.  I couldn't be more excited to have a break from the commute.  My cheerleaders are doing great.  They've done halftime shows at two games and a pep assembly and cheered at several games. 

 

So far, so good over here.  Send us a Christmas card.