California

The weekend before Christmas, we were back in California. It was a long travel day! We woke up at 3:30 AM and landed in Sacramento just before noon.

I noticed that as soon as our plane touched down in Sacramento, I immediately felt like I was at home. I was pretty sure though that I would experience the same feeling when we would land in Austin.

That first night, my dad was given a few tickets to see the new Star Wars movie from work. We went with Ryan, Tyler, and Mom. Thankfully we took a nap that afternoon or else I probably would have slept through most of the movie!

I had some Christmas shopping to do and Charlotte was nice enough to go to the mall with me. We almost were knocked over by the wind as we walked there, but it was great.

A big part of the trip was sharing one of my favorite Christmas memories with Jonathan. Going to the Nutcracker. This is Ron Cunningham's final year as the artistic director and for me it will always be the real Nutcracker ballet. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but the first time was when I was 4. Thankfully, Jonathan enjoys going to the ballet. We've already seen A Midsummer Night's Dream and Clara in Coppelia.

On Sunday, we went to church with my parents and got to see my mom give a talk in Sacrament Meeting. Afterwards, we went to Andy's house. I'm sure that the next time I see Ryan, he will be taller than me! We took turns playing the piano. Luckily I still have a few songs memorized from when I was Ty's age. Tyler plays really well especially since he hasn't been playing for very long. Lyla made up a song and it sounded surprisingly good! It was nice relaxing evening hanging out with the family. Before we left, we gave the kids Texas Ranger badges. Within 5 minutes, Kyle lost his badge. Lyla was sweet enough to give him her badge.

The next day we headed back home. It was a really quick trip, but a really good one.

Merry Christmas

May the spirit of Christmas
bring joy to your heart
and happiness to your home.

Love,

BJ and Jonathan

More Exploring

We've been exploring our neighborhood a bit more. We found a nice little park with sand volleyball courts. It's funny seeing cacti without any spines on them.

We once again found ourselves at the Shake Shack! I always get the salted caramel shake. I might branch out and try something different one day, but not yet!

I love the festive cup!

We found a place that has real vintage arcade style video games.

I seriously love this green tile wall! It is gorgeous and the background for our Christmas card this year.

Naturally, the cupcake shop is bright and colorful!

There are still quite a few empty shops and some of them have awesome signs like this one!

We went for a walk on a really misty, humid, foggy morning. Our apartment is in the building on the left in this picture.

This building is so happy and colorful! They've been working on it since we've moved here and I can't wait to see what's inside.

I still need to explore more because I still get turned around in certain places.

Our Longest Tradition

This is our 7th married Christmas and I thought about how we don't have the most traditional taste when it comes to our decorations. I realized that our longest tradition is having non-traditional decorations!

2011

We were so excited for our first Christmas on our own that we did get a traditional Christmas tree and Ryan and Tyler helped decorate it.

2012

I wanted to try something very different. A 3-D cardboard Christmas tree. It was a bit of a pain assembling it, but it's still one of my favorite trees we've had over the years!

2013

We were living with my parents this Christmas and I was in no mood to decorate. I lost baby E a few months before and was still figuring out life without our sweet angel baby.

2014

I loved our paper tree! I still have the paper garland and paper ornaments from that tree.

2015

I reused some of the paper tree to decorate our mantle. The pixel fire kept us toasty that winter!

2016

I didn't get a good picture of our little sparkly blue tree, but I still have it.

2017

Thanks to all the big cardboard boxes from Ikea, we were able to make a colorful forest of Christmas trees! Some days I leave the lights on all day and when Jonathan comes home from work, they are the only light on. Jonathan made my Christmas tree dreams come true once again!

Wake Up Call

There are times in life where goals, though important, are placed on the back burner because there are other more pressing things to take care of. In time, life changes so slowly that those goals just stay in the background. Well, I walked right into that trap.

Thankfully, we got a wake up call earlier this month. While nothing is changing directly, those goals that were quietly simmering are now remembered and we now can give them the attention they deserve. I don't know how things will turn out, but I know we are heading on the right track.

San Antonio

Last month, Jonathan and I went to the San Antonio temple and then explored the city.

We planned on going down to the river walk and stumbled across the Alamo. We should have realized we were close because we were drove on Crocket Street and Bowie Street...

It was lovely walking down by the river. It reminded me of walking along the waterfront in Disneyland, minus the crowds and rides and plus a bit of humidity.

While we were eating dinner, a boat passed by with a wedding party.

My favorite part was seeing Davey Crocket with his rifle in front of a vending machine.

We can't wait to have more adventures in San Antonio!

Crazy Cars

While driving around here in Austin, we have seen some very interesting cars.

Now we know what upgrades we need to do so our car can fit in better!

Light the World

Last night, the missionaries in our ward came over and shared this Christmas video with us.

They challenged us to participate in the Light the World this month. Each day there is a different scripture about Christ and how we can serve those around us. I am excited to have a way to really prepare for Christmas and focus on the true meaning of the holiday.

You can download the calendar here!

Here is the video for today's scripture.

I would like to invite you to join me in Light the World. I know it will make this Christmas season more meaningful and will bless you and those around you.

You can get ideas for what you can do each day on Mormon.org as well as download the calendar. A website called the Small Seed also has great FREE downloads here with all of the scriptures as well.