Tour of Our Home

John and I live in an apartment downstairs of his Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill, who are the temple presidents in Manhattan. We are housesitting for them while they are in New York. To pay our rent, we are in charge of keeping everything looking nice. Here are some pictures of our beautiful home!

Christmas at the Weir's

What a wonderful day! We tried to sleep out by the tree, but the floor was just too hard. It is fun trying to establish OUR traditions, mixing two family traditions into our own. On Christmas Eve, we read from Luke, Chapter 2 about our Savior's birth. Then we listened to some Christmas music as we admired our tree. It does look pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. On Christmas Day, we were awake around 7:00 AM. It was fun to take it slow all morning and open presents without being rushed. No kids around to wake us up at 3:30, either! We made piles and opened presents alternately. John got me a beautiful jewelry case, a few DVDs that I have been wanting (It's a Wonderful Life, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown), and an external hardrive that is tiny and portable so I can take anything on the road with me without having to drag two laptops. I can plug this thing into my work laptop and carry all of my personal files. It is awesome! I will never fill 320 GB! I would have to say my favorite present from John was the free one...all the lyrics to Coldplay's songs! They are my favorite band, and John even took me to their concert a month ago. I always sing along to the songs but don't always know what I am saying. I mentioned how nice it would be to have all the words in a little book that I could refer to, and John did the rest! He spent several hours in secret compiling the songs into a mini-binder for me! He even found some songs I didn't know existed! He was so excited to give it to me and only disappointed because he was sure that present would make me cry! He is so thoughtful. John also had a great Christmas, receiving a new Tumi wallet, some cologne, new church slacks, a few ties, one of his favorite DVDs (The Burbs), and his big present was a new drill! He always looks at them when we are in stores, so now he has one! We even built a speaker box with it last night, so we know it works! For breakfast we had crumb cake and milk. Then I popped a peach cobbler in the oven for dessert at Christmas Dinner.

We went to Andy and Barb's house around 12:30 after John helped his aunt and uncle work on some yard projects (I couldn't leave the oven!). Barb is John's cousin and lives just through our backyard. We had an incredible meal of turkey, ham, smashed potatoes, salads, Martinelli's, an appetizer table...you name it! It was so delicious and not even remotely healthy. We spent the day there, working on projects, chatting with family, and playing with their three kids. Later that evening, we actually went back for more for dinner! John and I were home alone by 7:30 and watched a few episodes of Season 1 of "24." He is getting me hooked on his favorite television show!

It was a perfect day and wonderful to be with John constantly. We are so blessed in so many ways. We had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Lights Date with my Sweety

Last Wednesday, I made an awesome dinner of Tin-Can Soup (thanks, Mom!) and homemade rolls. So I told John he was in charge of entertainment for the evening. He went online and found a block of houses that decorates like there is no tomorrow. On the way, he stopped and got us some yummy hot chocolate because, yes, 50 degrees IS cold! He kept it a secret of where we were going until we pulled up. WOW! These neighbors are all die-hards! We talked to some of them, and they said they "interview" future residents of their block to decide if they are worthy to participate in the decorating, and therefore worthy to live there! It was a fun half hour walking around looking at Christmas lights. It is by far the best holiday, and I am excited to spend this year with my new husband!