New Year's Eve

This year Curtis's friends Shannon and Val gave us all tickets to the Insight Bowl and the Tempe Block Party. We had a lot fun! It just so happened that we wore red which happened to be the colors of the Indiana team and that's where we were sitting. Lucky!

I have to say the highlight of my day was meeting Jared! No, not the Jared from the jewelry store! The Subway Jared! Every dietitian's dream celebrity :)

We saw the BareNaked Ladies for a while and then headed over to my parent's so we could all do the countdown together.

Curiosity

Every day on my way to and from work I drive by this place and have been wondering what it is. Today I decided to stop and ask... And the answer is: It's a 55 year-old working farm! (And a really cool place to take pictures:))

Christmas

Christmas was just absolutely wonderful. We had brunch at our house and it was so great to have so many people over.

After brunch we opened gifts - and there were so many!

These are just the gifts we had under the tree before everyone else arrived.
As you can see I bought the Rock Band game for Curtis and everyone loved it! We had such a great time playing! On the vocals: my sister, on the guitar: my mother in law, on the drums: my brother-in-law. Curtis is in the back waiting for a turn!

My father-in-law really got into it. Check out his rocker shades!

Brett is so talented!

Nathan liked his gifts too:


The best part of the day was just having the whole family together (Matt & Missie we really missed you)! I didn't take very many pictures because I was just busy really enjoying the day.

Christmas' Eve

For Christmas' Eve we had dinner at my sister's and Nathan got to open a few gifts.

This is Nathan receiving his first Christmas gift of the night. Look how happy he is:


Wow, it's a big one!

Oh, I wonder what it is...

With grandma, grandpa, and his new trains :)

How many intelligent adults does it take to put a baby's car together?

Santa's helpers

Our friends Mary and Brett sent us this and I just cannot stop laughing!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1467458087

Thanks guys, I love it!

Christmas Cards

One of the things I love about the Christmas season is receiving Christmas cards. It's just so fun to find a special piece of mail in the middle of all your bills and "unsolicited mail". For some reason there's something very special about a handwritten note. Maybe it's just me but to know that someone took the time to send me a card in the mail makes me feel very happy. So thank you to all my friends who thought about me and took the time to send me a Christmas card this year!
For our Christmas cards, I know it's cheesy but I love having our family photo taken. I don't know how I manage to convince everyone that this is a good idea, but they always show up and smile for the camera :) We'll have to see how much longer I can keep this up.
Here's our photo from this year. If you didn't get a card from us, please email me your address so we can send you one next year :)

Holiday Shopping

First of all, today I met one of the most interesting man I've ever met. I had to get my favorite pair of boots repaired and found this little place on Guadalupe and McClintock - Abe's Shoe Repair. I knew I liked him right away when he was asking me when I wanted to pick up my boots and before I even had time to process the question he said "I have best idea, you wait now!" So we were chatting while he made my boots look brand-new and I asked him if he was ready for Christmas and he said "Of course, I have nothing to worry about, that's my wife's business.'' Well, unfortunately I wasn't ready like my new friend Abe so I had to go to Fashion Square Mall and finish my Christmas shopping.
You could sense the chaos from Scottsdale Road! So many people! And let me tell you they are not all full of Holiday Cheer :) The incredible thing is that positive thinking really works! I found the most perfect parking spot right away, found the exact gift I was looking for in under 10 minutes and was out of there and off to my mom's Christmas dinner - which by the way was amazing! The food was obviously delicious and the Priest who does the masses in Portuguese came over and we practiced songs for the Christmas mass. Well, let me just say that my family has THE worst singing voice ever. The only two who can sing are Jason and Curtis but they can't speak Portuguese so it was absolutely hilarious. If you are brave enough to come hear us sing, come to mass next Sunday. It will surely be entertaining, just not for the right reason!
Now that I only have one more gift to get I cannot wait until Christmas - I'm soo excited!
Oh, and if you ever need shoes repaired go see Abe. Just meeting him is worth the trip. And one more really cool thing about him is that he is from Bethlehem! I had never met anyone from Bethlehem before!