Merry CHRISTmas!!

From our home to yours, we wish you a very merry Christ-centered Christmas and a safe, fun New Year!

With Love (from Arkansas),
Greg and Jen

Let There Be Light!

We wanted to quickly update you with yet another project we tackled late last week - a small, fairly easy one, but one that makes a HUGE difference. We put up lights above our cabinets in the kitchen! That was always our original goal from the get-go, but once we got the extra set of cabinets up, and then the trim up 5 months ago, it was slow moving from there for some strange reason..... But anyhow, it’s done and looks amazing! It adds SO much to our kitchen now. We sometimes find ourselves wandering in there for no other reason than to just stand there and stare up at how incredible it looks! We say all the time that if we continue to keep adding just the perfect touches to our house, we’re never gonna want to move! Maybe we never will, we love our house. ;)

“Elf Yourself”

We have started a trend..... “elfing” ourselves. We did it last year and thought it was hilarious so we thought we’d do it again this year as well. Who knows, we'll probably do it again next year too!

Enjoy! =)

Click here to see us "elfing around."

Christmas is coming!!

Our tree is up! Our decorations are up! Fragrant Christmas candles fill our home with the smell of Christmas! Parties are planned! A night to bake Christmas sweets has been planned! Our vacation has been finalized! Presents are bought! Christmas is coming!

This past weekend was spent doing some fun Christmas things. Friday night was our traditional “Broadmoor Hotel” night. Friends and Family gathered for this annual tradition and we had SO much fun getting all dressed up, eating great food, and seeing all the pretty lights. We look forward to this tradition every year. (Click on any of the pictures below to get a better look.)

Saturday afternoon we headed up to Denver, Colorado with some friends to do some Christmas shopping, sightseeing, dinner, and then to the Denver Parade of Lights. We had never done that before, but it was quite a fun experience. It was also surprisingly nice out that night too!

Sunday night we volunteered our time in the nursery at church during the Kids’ Christmas Musical. (Babysitting isn’t always fun for us, but when we do it with Bob and Cheryl, it can be a real hoot!)

We had quite a Christmas-filled weekend and it REALLY helped us get in the Christmas spirit. We love this time of year! Sadly though, Christmas will be here and gone before we know it.

Our Favorite

Other than the ornaments on our tree that we have gotten from all the places we travelled to this year (and years prior), here is a picture of our favorite Christmas decoration at the present time. =)

My Wandering Mind (and Eyes)

(By Jen)

It’s so amazing these days how many people have blogs and personal websites. I have quite a few friends who have blogs and websites and it’s fun to check on them once and awhile to see what they are up to. Sometimes while checking these blogs, I find myself rabbit trailing off onto other people’s blogs that I don’t even know and reading about them and their lives..... and I have to say, I have found THE funniest/strangest things. (It can be addicting - do YOU ever find yourself doing this too?) You can find people who blog about everything – and I mean EVERYTHING. “Everything” meaning: people blogging about how they accidentally drank their own breast milk in the midst of chaos, to “look what kind of a deal I found at a garage sale today!” I literally could sit for hours in front of the computer reading random blogs and getting a good laugh out of the craziness/interestingness (is that even a word!?) of some people’s lives. Then I start to wonder..... “what random person that I really don’t know is looking at our blog?” “Do they get a kick out of what we blog about, or do Greg and I share a bunch of useless, lackluster information about our lives?” I would hate to have a boring blog. BUT, I would venture to say that we are somewhat entertaining because our “hits” are so high and we get emails quite frequently that say how much people have enjoyed reading a certain blog entry (although I feel it's good blog etiquette to “comment” on what you've read since it is almost like stalking someone when you read and don't comment.....). Nevertheless, maybe people do enjoy reading our blog just as much as I enjoy reading others’ blogs!? Whoever you are out there, do YOU have a fun blog I can check out? =) You will just be feeding my addiction if you tell me..... =) Anyhow, I am sure a lot of you are reading this at work or school, so GO START BEING PRODUCTIVE!! =)

As They Always Say........

........... “time flies when you’re having fun.” Well, time sure IS flying for us and we sure ARE having fun! October was a fun and busy month for us - we only had two days on the calendar with absolutely nothing on it! Crazy, huh?

November is looking to be about the same way as well, except with NO days on the calendar with absolutely nothing on it. So far, every weekend, yes, every weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) is busy with either a party, or a get-together of some sort with friends and/or family. During the weeknights and weekdays, Jen has gone on about a bazillion coffee and lunch dates with friends and family and has more planned for the rest of this month and next. She is also keeping busy volunteering at church, studying for her boards, doing some Christmas shopping, and keeping up with all the house stuff that needs to be done on a daily basis. (She tells Greg all the time that she’s too busy for a job! LOL) Greg enjoys his time these days after work and on the weekends relaxing and watching football games with friends and family, managing our finances and investments, keeping up with his fantasy sports teams online, and working on various financial projects online. He also volunteers some of his time at church as well and is getting ready to start studying for the next grueling phase for the CFA Level 2 exam. He even had time, in the midst of our busy month, to sneak in a date night for us! We went and saw Changeling and got THE biggest popcorn known to man. Seriously, we've never seen a popcorn tub so big in our lives! It was kinda embarassing...... ;)

December is shaping up to be a very busy month for us too. We’re already planning Christmas outings, parties, and events, and have quite a few things already scheduled on the calendar! We’ve even started our Christmas shopping and have had our Christmas cards done for about two weeks now! All we need is our tree - and we’re ready to get it out! BUT, if we get everything out TOO soon, Bob Collins (a.k.a. the “Christmas Police”) would have something to say about that! =) We also recently just planned a quick Christmas vacation to Arkansas to be with Jen’s Grandparents. Please pray for good weather and for us to stay awake as we will be driving throughout the night.

Below are a few random pictures from November.......

We know it’s all in God’s hands, but we still can’t help how we feel. ;)

Most likely next year we’ll get puppies from this breeder (our Life Group leaders), even though we REALLY wanted these two. You'll have to blow up the picture to see them better..... especially the one that Jen is holding. ;)

Aren’t they BEAUTIFUL!!?? Our parents will just LOVE their granddogs!! =)

Jen and a friend made these for the kids’ TeamKID snack for the Thanksgiving party. WAY cute, huh?