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Merry Christmas!
We celebrated our first Christmas on our own this year, and we had a lot of fun starting some traditions for our little family and relaxing.
Santa came early to our house! He delivered this dining table and chairs on the 23rd. We are so happy to finally have a nice table- our garage sale set from our college years was starting to fall apart!
Santa brought these too! We donated our dishes to Goodwill before moving to Nashville, and then weren't able to buy new ones when we got here! My mom gave us some of her extra ones to hold us over, and we're so glad to have enough plates to have people over for dinner now. 
Now for the good stuff! We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, adding the tradition of giving each other new pajamas and slippers for the holiday. We stayed in our pajamas ALL DAY LONG on Christmas Day, and it was awesome!!
Christmas morning started off great with breakfast. We had homemade eggnog and cinnamon rolls (Thanks to Tiff for the recipe!). Delicious! We enjoyed them so much that we decided to add this breakfast to our Christmas tradition list as well.
Christmas dinner! Here's the spread: Honeybaked ham (from my boss for Christmas), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and apples, stuffing, Hawaiian pineapple salad, and homemade rolls.
Just in case you want a closer look...we have lots of leftovers!
Dessert! Scarlet and cream cheesecake, made with cranberries. It turned out great.
Yummy! Please excuse the "fine china." We were tired of doing dishes. =) 
We had a great day, spending time together and playing some games that Santa brought us. We missed being with our families, but we knew we'd be seeing them soon.
We're travelling to Indianapolis to spend time with Matt's family for New Year's weekend, and then to my parent's house the following weekend to have a late Christmas with my family, since my brother will be on leave. We're very excited to be seeing all of them soon!
Oh- quick side note- I GOT A JOB!! I got a great offer for the job I really wanted, and I start on the 7th. God is good!
We have so much to be thankful for, and I feel like I should just name a few things. We are grateful for jobs, at a time when they are soooo hard to come by. We are thankful for our families, and our friends (most of whom are like family to us). We are so happy we chose to move to Nashville- we have found even more great friends who love us like family. We are truly blessed by our loving Father in Heaven.
In our 6 years of marriage, we have been fortunate enough (and probably a bit spoiled) to spend the holidays with both our families each year.
Since it's been a rough few months, we decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and try doing the cooking ourselves.
We started the festivities early this morning with homemade eggnog for breakfast. =)
Our appetizer to munch on while cooking- cranberry salsa, served over cream cheese. (Thanks for the recipe, Tiff!)
The spread! Matt smoked the turkey yesterday using apple wood chips. We had the usual suspects: mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, acorn squash, homemade rolls (Matt), taffy apple salad, and pumpkin pie. We made everything, except the cranberry sauce.
We had a lot of fun preparing the meal, but wowsa, it's a lot of work! We have a ton of leftovers! Who wants to come help us eat them?
We've been so lucky to have had both sets of our parents come to visit us in the last few weeks.
Matt's parents came to visit us for the 3rd week of October. We had lots of fun, and were able to do some free sightseeing!
Matt took a morning off from work and we went to check out the Grand Ole Opry, the Opry Museum, and the Opryland Hotel.
Here's Mom and Dad S in front of the Grand Ole Opry.
As you might have heard, the Opryland Hotel is quite a sight. The interior is beautiful, and it's free to just go in and walk around enjoying the sights. This is just one of three garden areas inside the hotel.
Matt's photography skills are really getting awesome! This one is from behind the waterfall.
Taking time to smell the...orchids. =)
More awesome scenery in the second garden area of the hotel.
A "river" runs through it! The third garden area of the hotel has a "river," complete with a "riverboat" that travels up and down it. This area also has a little area of shops, which Matt says remind him of how streets look in Europe.
Matt's parents and I were also able to go and visit two Civil War forts here in Nashville. Nashville was occupied by Union soldiers for the majority of the war. It was really interesting!
My parents also came to visit us. They arrived on Tuesday last week (just in time to take me out to dinner for my birthday!). We also did a lot of sightseeing, but I forgot my camera, so I have no pics to show for it. We enjoyed beautiful weather for their entire visit, so we went to see one of the Civil War forts and some beautiful botanical gardens. Matt and my dad were able to get in a couple rounds of golf, and my mom and I did some shopping and visited the Opryland hotel.
Yesterday, we traveled about an hour north to Bowling Green, KY to visit the National Corvette Museum.
My parents headed home early this morning. It was so nice to be able to visit with them!
We are so blessed to have such a great family!So...are you convinced yet?? Who wants to come visit next?!
It's been quite a while since I've posted anything on here, so the next few posts will be updates on what we've been up to!
In the not so good news department, our home was broken into and some of our things were stolen at the beginning of October. Thankfully, we were not home, and my brother was here visiting (so I had some moral support upon finding this out), and not many things were taken. Only Matt's laptop (hence the lack of posts on our blog), and my jewelry box were stolen. We were a bit shaken up, since it happened in the middle of the day, but we're okay. =)
The up-side of having your things stolen is...having renter's insurance so you can get new stuff!! We were reimbursed for our stolen goods, and are now the very happy owners of a new (and much faster and better) computer and a new desk for it to live on.Other not so great news is that I am still unemployed. The job market is quite tough down here, and I have a LOT of competition. I am hanging in there though. I have had lots of support from family and friends, which has helped me maintain my faith and confidence.
All of the extra time on my hands has been good though, as we've had family come to visit! Matt's parents came to visit toward the end of October, and my parents were here this week.So, if you're still reading, here's some pics to make it worth your while. These pics are from the Corvette Funfest festival I was able to attend with my brother and my dad.
My brother George and my dad, with their cars. My brother's car is a '74 Vette that was passed down to him from my dad, who bought the car in 74! We are definitely a Corvette family.
This is my dream car...and I will own one someday! It's the 50th Anniversary model.
Stay tuned for more pics!
Today is our anniversary- 6 years! It doesn't seem like it has been that long. Time definitely does fly.
Since we are not together today (I am in IL with my family, and Matt is in tech rehearsals for his show), we celebrated our anniversary on Friday night. Our landlords in Champaign were gracious enough to give us a gift card to a nice restaurant in Nashville as a thanks to us for being such great tenants. =)
We went to Miro District in downtown Nashville. It was awesome! We didn't take our camera, so this pic will have to do. It was a beautiful bistro that served French food in a casual setting. Our food was great- Matt had grilled lamb with grilled vegetables, and I had crab cakes.
Brace yourselves, here comes something a bit cheesy. In honor of our anniversary, here are 6 things I love about my husband.
- The way the corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles.
- He is so calm and patient. He keeps me in check.
- I love to watch him play with children, especially babies. I know that he's going to be a great daddy.
- He can always cheer me up or make me laugh.
- He is a strong and faithful priesthood holder. His faith strengthens me and our marriage.
- He is so supportive of me and all the things I do.
Happy anniversary honey, I love you so much, and am so grateful to have you in my life!!
We're getting settled into our house now. Matt started work this week, so I've been trying to keep busy getting things situated around the house, and job hunting like crazy, though I've had no luck on that front yet. I'm trying to be patient. =) We joined a gym this week, which I'm using to fill up some of my free time.
We've made some friends in our new church family, which is great, especially for me! There are 2 couples that are relatively close to us in age, as well as 2 larger families. Our congregation is pretty small, there are roughly 50 people in attendance on a good day.
Matt spent the week getting things ready on campus for the students to return next week (classes start Wednesday). He has been busy finding his way around, getting his office organized, ordering materials for his scene shop, and writing the syllabus for the class he'll be teaching.
As far as my job hunting goes, I've broadened my horizons a bit to include corporate accounting, which I'm hoping will pan out to a few more jobs. I plan to start cold-calling public accounting firms in the area on Tuesday, so I'm hoping to find something soon. I have sent out many resumes and applications already, so I'm praying that something will come through very soon.
Okay, now on to the good stuff! Since our family and friends are far enough away that they can't just come visit on a whim, we decided to post a little tour of our new home, so you all can see it!
See this post for some pics of the outside of our home.
Welcome! Here's the view from the front door (Lucy decided she wanted to be in the pic as well). If you go down the hall to the left, there's a bathroom in the hall and all of the bedrooms at the end of the hall.
If you're standing in the front entry, and look to your right, you'll see the living room.
Here's the kitchen, looking in from the dining area. At the end of the hall on the left is the laundry room.
Here's our bedroom, which is at the end of the hall.
The other side of our bedroom, and the entry to the master bath (which has a double vanity! Yay!).
This is the only room in the house that doesn't have tan carpet and "chocolate milk" colored walls. It's our gym for now, but we're looking to sell our elliptical trainer and this tv (since we joined a gym), so that this can eventually be a nursery. =)
One of these days, hopefully soon, this mess will be our guest bedroom!
The garage is still a bit of a mess, so no pics of that yet. =) Matt hung a few sets of shelves on the walls, so it's looking more organized every day.
Photo tours are fun, but we'll happily welcome real visitors any time!! Hint, hint.
We made it! After many, many hours of packing boxes and loading them into the truck, we finally rolled out of our neighborhood at around 8:30pm on Wednesday.
After stopping to say goodbye to our dearest friends, the Petersons, (many tears there!), we headed south for my parents house.
We left there Thursday morning, and stopped in Carbondale to pick up our washer and dryer.
The trip was difficult for me, since I had the cats in my car, and Lucy was very upset by having to be in the car. It took 2 doses of kitty sedatives to finally knock her out, and the rest of the trip was much better! =)
We rolled into our new neighborhood around 6pm on Thursday, and have been unpacking ever since! The house is a disaster, so I won't be posting any pics until I have something decent to show! =)
Anyway, we're here, happy to be in our new home, and interested to see what things are like in our new branch tomorrow morning.
More updates to come!
I'm sure most of you know this by now, but we're moving!
Matt got a job teaching at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, so we'll be moving there next month.
We're very excited, and looking forward to a new adventure!
It's been quite a while since I posted last, although this is really the first exciting thing that has happened since graduation! Matt left just after Memorial Day for his summer job down in southern Illinois, and I have been going down to visit him every other weekend or so.
I did take a very fun girl's weekend trip to Columbus, OH in June to visit a friend who used to live here in Champaign. We had a blast! Unfortunately, no one brought a camera, so there are no pictures to share. It was about a 5.5 hour drive each way, but we had so much fun that it was worth it!
Okay, back to the more recent past. I decided to go visit my sis-in-law and her family for the weekend at the end of June. We went to the Indy Zoo, which was awesome, although it was HOT that day.
Here's some pics from the zoo.Doesn't this eel look just like Flotsam or Jetsam from the Little Mermaid? UGLY!
I was able to "pet" this shark. They are kinda slimy...
What a happy boy! Cristian had fun at the zoo too. =)
I'm pretty sure Brieanna was having fun, but she was not interested in smiling for me...
After the zoo and some dinner, I took my sis-in-law out for a girl's night. We went to see "The Proposal," and laughed until our stomachs hurt and we were in tears. Great movie!
I'm a little sad now thinking back, because that was probably the last time I'll visit her and the kids for a long time. It's a much longer drive to see them from Nashville =(.
