Christmas 2008

This year, Richard and I got to experience a white Christmas. It was beautiful on Christmas day to see the huge white flakes coming down. I have to admit though, I was really sick of the snow! Vancouver, WA doesn't usually get snow like this, actually the last time they had this much snow in this short amount of time was 1967! Maybe God wanted it to happen again this Christmas because we just moved here and He wanted us to see what it was like, who knows. But it has finally melted away! Here are some pictures from Christmas this year.

This picture was from a Christmas party we went to at our friends house.

Part of the Doe family on Christmas Eve, we wish Jared, Marcie and Sophia could have been there too! I definitely missed being with my family this year, this being the first time ever I haven't been with them on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but I was grateful to be able to celebrate Christmas with Richard's parents and sister.

The pretty snow around our apartment.


Looking out our bedroom window with the pretty Christmas lights on.

White Christmas?

So on Wednesday I posted that it was snowing... well NOW it is snowing! Here's some updated pictures of our front/back yards from when we woke up this morning.

...

While I was in the middle of posting this blog, our friend Vicki, who lives down the street, called us and asked if we wanted to walk to the grocery store with her, which is across the street. So Richard and I got on our warmest clothes and took a walk in the snow to the store. It was fun! There were surprisingly a lot of people walking on the streets and we went and got some coffee at Starbucks. This is definitely a new experience for us! Below is a video of the roads and at the end you'll see Vicki and Richard.

Maybe it will be a white Christmas this year...

It's Snowing!

On Sunday, we got hit with a snow storm! All last week everyone here was talking about how the Vancouver/Portland area was going to get hit and we sure did. It started with freezing temperatures on Saturday and then the snow/ice came on Sunday. Richard didn't have youth this past weekend so we stayed inside our apartment all weekend long. On Monday and Tuesday, the temp. was in the 20's but sunny and then when we woke up this morning, it was snowing again, and more than on Sunday! Thankfully, I didn't have to babysit today and Richard gets to come home early from work because the snow is supposed to turn into freezing rain, which I guess is scary to drive in, something I don't really care to experience.

This picture is from the storm on Sunday,

and this picture and the video are from today. I took my cat, Clover out in the snow and he couldn't figure out what kept hitting his face, it was cute.

Everyone say a prayer for Randee, Richard's sister who is flying into Portland tonight.

Christmas decorations!

It has been a lot of fun decorating our apartment for Christmas! Richard and I had to get a few things that we didn't have yet like stockings and a star for our Christmas tree. There aren't many places to hang lights on an apartment, but I put some lights up in the windows and everything looks so pretty.

Here is our beautiful tree that Richard cut down himself. We didn't realize how big it was when we picked it out and once we got it into our apartment we had to cut the top of it off so that the star would fit.

The fireplace with our stockings hanging.

Baby Jesus and the Nativity scene. After all, He is the reason we celebrate this time of year.

And my new collection, Christmas houses! I bought one this year and I'm going to add on each year.

Tree Farm!

On Monday, Richard and I went to a Christmas tree farm to pick out our first Christmas tree! Neither one of us had ever cut down our own tree before (maybe because we grew up in AZ). It was a really neat experience! The farm was HUGE! You can kind of see how big it was in the picture below, but that was not even half of it.

There were 5 different kinds of trees growing on the farm. We liked the Douglas Firs and the Noble Firs the best, but it was so hard to pick!

We ended up picking out a Douglas Fir that happened to be at the very back of the farm. Here is Richard cutting it down with a saw, we had to carry it back up to the barn in the freezing cold rain. It was a great experience and a wonderful new memory that we have together!

Thanksgiving Day 2008

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays! I love getting together with family, watching football and eating a lot of really good food. This year, Thanksgiving was at my cousin Karie's house. It was beautiful and Richard and I had a great time being in Arizona with everyone. We got to spend time with the whole Lawrence/Nutt/Finnin/Cowden family and the whole Doe family too! Randee, Richard's sister, flew in from Indiana and his parents, Don and Lori also flew in from Washington. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, and BIG, family =)

Me and my mom.

Here we are all praying before our Thanksgiving dinner. There were so many people we could hardly make a circle around the room!

The amazing food! It looks so colorful. My favorites this year were Steve's sweet potatoes, Marcie's green bean casserole, and the cranberry sauce!

As you can tell, this is after everyone ate. Half of us were in this room watching Kung Fu Panda and the other half were in the family room watching football.

Arizona for Thanksgiving

Richard and I headed to Arizona for Thanksgiving. It was great to be back home and spend time with our friends and family, it made us realize how much we really miss everyone and value their love and friendship. The weather was beautiful! We even brought a little rain from Washington with us to Arizona. Here are some pictures from the week we spent there.

While I was there, I was able to go to a dinner with my old Bible study group. It was so nice to hang out with all of them.

The day after Thanksgiving, a bunch of us decided to go to Goldie's for the "2nd Annual Day After Thanksgiving Goldie's Night". The same night last year, Richard proposed to me after we had dinner there with all of our friends.

This picture (done by Marcie's great photography skills) is of Richard, me, my brother Joey and his girlfriend Abby. Richard sure looks excited in this one.

The night before we were supposed to leave, I realized we didn't take a family picture. So we took a few pictures with my camera's timer. They turned out pretty good! Even though I'm in my pajamas and Jesse is pretending to be an opera singer.