For New Year's Eve this year, we didn't really celebrate a lot. Lee and I went out to lunch together and bought a movie (Disney/Pixar's UP). That night we just watched a few movies. At midnight we celebrated by toasting with some Caffeine-Free Pepsi. Kind of lame, huh? But it was an easy, pleasant evening.
New Year's Day was our celebration. Lee's parents came from Utah to visit! We saw the briefly at Lee's grandfather's funeral in August, but that's about all we've seen them since they came out in the fall of 2008. It was good to see them and get to spend a little time visiting.
They arrived at around 11:30 am our time and we spent the next hour visiting with them and my parents, then we all piled into the two vehicles and went into Elko for lunch. We wanted to go to this Basque Restaurant that Lee and I've heard a lot about, but they were closed so we opted instead for one of the cafe/diners connected to one of the hotels. It was still a good choice: we each were able to find a menu item we liked, sat at a nice big table that fit us all comfortably, and were able to eat and visit some more.
Over all it was a very pleasant visit and we were sad to see them have to leave (Lee especially of course). Hopefully we won't have to wait as long to visit with them again.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Friday, December 25, 2009
Holidays 2009
The Holidays this year had their ups and downs, though mostly ups.
For Thanksgiving this year my brother and his family came to visit. They arrived on Wednesday night and the fun and chaos started right away.
My brother and his family play a role-playing game that is similar to, but very different from Dungeons and Dragons. I'm not really into role-playing: I don't think fast enough to be able to follow along and contribute to what is happening. Lee, on the other hand, has enjoyed role-playing games in the past and was quite excited to play. He even created the scenarios and was the game master the first 2 days of playing.
Thanksgiving day was quite hectic, what with the gaming going on and me and mom trying to get Thanksgiving dinner ready: mom as Sous Chef while I did most of the cooking. To give credit where it belongs, mom did most of the desserts and my nephews and niece helped with some of the dinner as well, and they were helpful. The one mishap, though, was when I had to go next door to try to make one of the pies, and when I had to come back over for something, the neighbor's dogs got up on the counter and took the crusts out of the package and ate them. LOL. We ended up without that pie that day. The day turned out quite nicely, though.
The rest of the weekend was spent playing, arguing, visiting, etc. You know, basically like most family holidays. LOL. It was a very good weekend, though, and we were very sorry to see them leave on Sunday afternoon.
Christmas this year was very simple. None of the family could get out here for Christmas this year again, so it was just us with mom and dad. Work schedules didn't permit any of us traveling this year; and honestly, Lee and I couldn't afford to go anyway.
Still, it was a nice Christmas. We didn't have to worry about things being too stressful, and it was nice to be able to relax when most people were going through the stresses of Christmas.
As soon as I got home from work on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 24th) we all went next door to our neighbors to bring Christmas gifts to them. They are like family to us now and we wanted to share with them as we would with our biological family. That evening we visited a bit and opened some of our presents. We were missing family quite a bit, though.
This morning (Dec. 25th) Lee and I were awoken before 8:00 by a text message from my sister wishing us a Merry Christmas. As soon as I walked out my door mom was instantly asking if we were ready to go downstairs. I'm not sure how she really meant it, but she sounded like a little kid anxious to see what Santa brought, lol. Anyway, not long after that we all went downstairs and opened gifts. It was a simple Christmas with a few gifts (due to our financial situation), but I think we all enjoyed what we did get.
A family Christmas tradition on both sides of my family is to have a Christmas Breakfast. So, since we couldn't be with them this year, we had our own. Once again Mom was Sous Chef for me while I cooked. It's a system that seems to work well for us.
Lee and I are looking forward to New Year's Day when his parents will be in town to visit us for the day.
We really miss spending Christmas with our families and friends and we want all of you to know how much we truly miss you. You have been in our thoughts this season.
Once again, pictures will be coming.
For Thanksgiving this year my brother and his family came to visit. They arrived on Wednesday night and the fun and chaos started right away.
My brother and his family play a role-playing game that is similar to, but very different from Dungeons and Dragons. I'm not really into role-playing: I don't think fast enough to be able to follow along and contribute to what is happening. Lee, on the other hand, has enjoyed role-playing games in the past and was quite excited to play. He even created the scenarios and was the game master the first 2 days of playing.
Thanksgiving day was quite hectic, what with the gaming going on and me and mom trying to get Thanksgiving dinner ready: mom as Sous Chef while I did most of the cooking. To give credit where it belongs, mom did most of the desserts and my nephews and niece helped with some of the dinner as well, and they were helpful. The one mishap, though, was when I had to go next door to try to make one of the pies, and when I had to come back over for something, the neighbor's dogs got up on the counter and took the crusts out of the package and ate them. LOL. We ended up without that pie that day. The day turned out quite nicely, though.
The rest of the weekend was spent playing, arguing, visiting, etc. You know, basically like most family holidays. LOL. It was a very good weekend, though, and we were very sorry to see them leave on Sunday afternoon.
Christmas this year was very simple. None of the family could get out here for Christmas this year again, so it was just us with mom and dad. Work schedules didn't permit any of us traveling this year; and honestly, Lee and I couldn't afford to go anyway.
Still, it was a nice Christmas. We didn't have to worry about things being too stressful, and it was nice to be able to relax when most people were going through the stresses of Christmas.
As soon as I got home from work on Thursday afternoon (Dec. 24th) we all went next door to our neighbors to bring Christmas gifts to them. They are like family to us now and we wanted to share with them as we would with our biological family. That evening we visited a bit and opened some of our presents. We were missing family quite a bit, though.
This morning (Dec. 25th) Lee and I were awoken before 8:00 by a text message from my sister wishing us a Merry Christmas. As soon as I walked out my door mom was instantly asking if we were ready to go downstairs. I'm not sure how she really meant it, but she sounded like a little kid anxious to see what Santa brought, lol. Anyway, not long after that we all went downstairs and opened gifts. It was a simple Christmas with a few gifts (due to our financial situation), but I think we all enjoyed what we did get.
A family Christmas tradition on both sides of my family is to have a Christmas Breakfast. So, since we couldn't be with them this year, we had our own. Once again Mom was Sous Chef for me while I cooked. It's a system that seems to work well for us.
Lee and I are looking forward to New Year's Day when his parents will be in town to visit us for the day.
We really miss spending Christmas with our families and friends and we want all of you to know how much we truly miss you. You have been in our thoughts this season.
Once again, pictures will be coming.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Halloween 2009
As most of you (if not all) should know, Lee and I haven't been able to have kids yet and because it's just the two of us we haven't been able to get some real enjoyment out of holidays. Its not nearly as fun to celebrate holidays with just adults if you don't have friends around who would do things with you. As we are now in Nevada and the "non-children activities" around here are almost exclusively going to the bars and casinos, Lee and I don't get to join in the fun most of the time.
So, after talking about it one day and remembering what holidays were like when we were kids, I decided to invite the kids next door over to make Caramel Apples for Halloween. They came by this afternoon and we had a lot of fun. It didn't last long, but the kids enjoyed themselves and so did we. They even confessed that they had never had Caramel Apples, although they had had apples with caramel dip. That was great to hear that I could do that for them.
This evening our fun with the neighbors continued. The parents are unable to drive at the moment so Lee and I joined them and drove them around trick-or-treating! It was a blast! We took them down to our church where the Spring Creek Wards were doing "Trunk-or-Treat" and the kids got quite a haul there! I was really surprised how many people had shown up to hand candy out of the trunks of their cars. Because we don't have our own kids, this was the first time we had gone.
It's a great place to get a lot of candy in one spot, but it still wasn't the same as trick-or-treating so from there we drove around town a little taking the kids. For those of you who haven't been here, Spring Creek covers A LOT of area, and the houses are quite spread apart with no street lights in the entire town, so it's just easier for kids to be driven around. We took them to a few more places then back home again!
On the right you can see the effect of the glowsticks as they appear in the dark; on the left, I have enhanced the photo so you can see a little of the background.
(I apologize for the quality of the photos, camera phones don't take the best pictures)
On a different note, our anniversary is coming in 4 days! I can't believe it's been 4 years already!!!!!
So, after talking about it one day and remembering what holidays were like when we were kids, I decided to invite the kids next door over to make Caramel Apples for Halloween. They came by this afternoon and we had a lot of fun. It didn't last long, but the kids enjoyed themselves and so did we. They even confessed that they had never had Caramel Apples, although they had had apples with caramel dip. That was great to hear that I could do that for them.
This evening our fun with the neighbors continued. The parents are unable to drive at the moment so Lee and I joined them and drove them around trick-or-treating! It was a blast! We took them down to our church where the Spring Creek Wards were doing "Trunk-or-Treat" and the kids got quite a haul there! I was really surprised how many people had shown up to hand candy out of the trunks of their cars. Because we don't have our own kids, this was the first time we had gone.
It's a great place to get a lot of candy in one spot, but it still wasn't the same as trick-or-treating so from there we drove around town a little taking the kids. For those of you who haven't been here, Spring Creek covers A LOT of area, and the houses are quite spread apart with no street lights in the entire town, so it's just easier for kids to be driven around. We took them to a few more places then back home again!This was probably the best Halloween we have had in several years and we're so grateful to our neighbors for allowing us to be part of their family for a little while.
On the right you can see the effect of the glowsticks as they appear in the dark; on the left, I have enhanced the photo so you can see a little of the background.
(I apologize for the quality of the photos, camera phones don't take the best pictures)
On a different note, our anniversary is coming in 4 days! I can't believe it's been 4 years already!!!!!
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