Tea for Two

December went by extremely quickly.  This year we went to the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. It was a great way to start out the Christmas season. I tend to be a bit of a Grinch (just ask Jonathan!), but this help redirect the focus onto Christ. One quote that was shared was from President Hinckley about how there would be no Christmas without Easter. As I was wrapping presents, I was listening to normal music. I realized that I should have been listening to Christmas music! I couldn't find anything I liked, so I turned on some Nutcracker music. That music played a big part of my childhood Christmas's since my sister and I danced in it for a few years. This summer, while visiting California, I took one of my Nutcracker pictures and it ended up being our stocking holder! We got a sweet treat from one of the boys we teach in Nursery.  (Okay, it was really his parent's but it still counts.) Our bookcase looked great with a...

This is the year Jonathan and I have been looking forward to for a very long time. This is the year Jonathan graduates. A few months ago, I saw this encouraging poster. source It's been a good reminder for me. I have the tendency to see that we still aren't quite there yet and this helps me see that each little step is benefiting us. I feel like this is the year that all of our persistence pays off. Jonathan will be graduating this May and starting his career in a field he absolutely loves. I am grateful to be married to a man that is persistent in everything he sets his mind to. Including in pursuing me more than seven years ago.

As our time in Utah is coming to an end, we are making a push to do everything that we've talked about doing. Jonathan has wanted to go camping since we've been married, but we never made time for it. I researched different places to go camping and stumbled upon Goblin Valley. What sealed the deal for Jonathan is there is a scene from Galaxy Quest that was filmed there. We rolled in well after dark and had a terrible nights sleep. We may or may not have decided to get a camping trailer in the future. Our surroundings were so amazing that we both quickly forgot that we didn't sleep. I couldn't wait to explore. The scenery is out of this world. It felt like we were on Mars instead Utah. We slowly wandered through the goblins. Then we stumbled on a dry creek bed and followed that for awhile. It was amazing! I can't wait to go back there again.

I am very grateful for snow tires!

This year, we flew into California on Christmas Eve. It was a great week long visit that I wish could have lasted even longer. I didn't take very many pictures at the beginning of the trip and it's because I was to busy enjoying our time together. I was having a hard time focusing at work the last few days before the trip, so I made this. It didn't really help me focus, but it was fun to hand letter! I got really excited seeing all of the green and knowing the white was only clouds instead of snow. My parents greeted us at the airport with fresh crab sandwiches from the San Francisco wharf. We headed over to my brother's house and watched the beginning of Napoleon Dynamite. I want to make that movie part of our Christmas tradition from now on! Ryan, Jonathan, and I kept talking in quotes from the movie. Also, it's shocking to see how much Ry's grown up. I'm not too sure about this. Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, we opened a few...