Merry, merry, merry

We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas day & the morning after at my parents' house, and it was the first time in 3 years that all of us - my parents, brothers, sister & the two of us - were together in one place. Lots of special memories to hold close to our hearts :)

More merries!

We loved our Christmas time with Brent, Danny, Derek & Caleb!

More snow than we can shake a stick at

But only a few pictures, because at this point, you're all well acquainted with it, too :)

We wrap!

We had a present wrapping party this afternoon, because Christmas is only a few days away, and we have lots of holiday surprises to deliver. I am a great, great fan of wrapping. One year in college, I allowed myself to wrap only one present each day, in an effort to stretch out the fun as much as possible. Another year, our friend Eric let me wrap all of his presents, and I was beside myself with glee. Now, wrapping isn't Jan Michael's most favorite thing about the holidays...
but he did seem to enjoy himself, at least in the beginning.

Of course, some of us have more wrapping stamina than others.

Then again, he did wrap many, many more presents than I did. In fact, he wrapped 12. And in fact...

they are all for me. Each and every one. And while 12 is a good, solid number, what I was really thinking was...

IS THAT ALL?!!

Snow!

All day yesterday I stomped around in a towering temper because the weather report promised snow, and we had nothing. Today, the forecast has redeemed itself :) 10 inches, and it's still falling!

And one more.

Christmas party for us!

We had the most fun-filled weekend - besides our time with Derek & Sara, we spent Saturday afternoon with the old WWU crew. We get together each year just before Christmas to exchange cards & gifts and to stuff ourselves silly, but the best part is always the chatting & laughing & enjoying each other's company. Todd & Jenny hosted this time, and their house was full of nutcrackers and gingerbread men and little ones running around and big ones playing games and good, old fashioned togetherness. The only bad part was that I neglected to take any pictures, but Todd & Jenny have posted some on their blog - you can find the link on the right. Already we're looking forward to our annual spring fling, and if we time it correctly, this one will include Mike & Kristin's first baby, coming in May and one more reason to celebrate!

MOST AWESOME DOUBLE DATE EVER

There are some experiences in life that are so spectacular, they defy description. This was one of them.

Take a hike!

We climbed to the top of Little Si today with Craig & Christina. Beautiful weather, fabulous company - a really good time!