Merry Christmas!! {2013}

We had a very wonderful Christmas this year! I was happy to have quite a bit of time off work and Nate had a couple days off as well - so it was great!! This year we were really low key and relaxed about it all - in fact, all our packages that we sent to family and friends were sent several days AFTER Christmas because even though we had them ready to go long before the big day, we weren't in the mood to stress over getting to the Post Office!! Plus now this way Christmas for them will last just a little bit longer - and than can never be a bad thing, right? ;)

Anyway - here's what we did over the course of several days ...

On the Saturday before Christmas we met up with Talia for a tasty pancake breakfast

and a wonderful walk around the City Center and the Christmas Square!

On the Monday before Christmas Santa visited the Club - I even got to sit in for a picture with him ...

Ooh, here's the proof that all your packages and cards were ready on time ;)

Nate had to work on Christmas Eve Evening until about 7, so I joined Talia & her family in attending the Edgewater Christmas Service! It was a wonderful service and it was a great way to feel the Christmas Spirit and to truly celebrate the Season!

When Nate got home from work we jumped in the car and drove to Riverside Park so that we could see the "Lights In The Park" that we kept hearing about ... it was a fun little drive with some cute Christmas scenes!!

This year we added a few ornaments to our tree: 

The ornament on the right is made of sand that we brought home from our trip to Bandon in October - it has Bandon 2013. In addition to the sand it has a few small shells & rocks from the beach!

These ornaments are extra special to us this year ... we made the one on the left through Shutterfly and the one on the right was made for us by our nephew Scout years ago - it has always been in my 'special' box in our room but we pulled it out this year and will now hang it on the tree from now on!

Happy Christmasing!!

Our traditional Christmas cereal!

And our traditional Christmas Gooey Rolls!

On Christmas day we headed over to my friend Renee's home and had breakfast with her sweet family! It was a fun morning with lots of laughs and yummy food!

We spent the rest of our Christmas Day (and the following day) Skyping with family and playing video games!!  It was a really restful couple of days and we had so much fun just being together!

We had a very blessed Christmas this year and we have much to be grateful for!

Talent Christmas Auction

So I don't know how much I have told you about my job other than that I absolutely LOVE it!

We are a non-profit organization and a lot of our monies come from doing fundraisers!

Part of my job entails preparing for and helping out at the fundraisers that we have!

On Friday, December 6th we held the Talent Christmas Auction at the Armory in Ashland

(which is about 40 minutes away from Grants Pass). People had been fretting ALL WEEK

about the snow storm that we were supposed to get but I wasn't worried about it at all -

in fact, Nate & I tend to laugh at people when they freak out about the amount of snow

we are supposed to get because it's not really a snow storm at all - it's just a 'skiff.'

We headed down at about 8:00 on Friday morning and there was no snow on the ground -

everyone was so worried about the attendance for the evening and getting home and the whole

time I was kind of rolling my eyes at them and laughing at them ...

... and then we went to Medford.

Renee & I took the van and headed to Medford (about 10 minutes from where we were)

to gather up a few more things to finish decorating for the event. While we were on our way,

one of our Board Members called and said that the highway from Grants Pass to Medford was

closed due to the snow. We were surprised because it was just lightly snowing at that point.

We did our shopping and about 45 minutes later got back on the freeway to find it packed with

snow and backed up for miles and miles and miles. It took us about over an HOUR to get 8 miles 

and we saw cars sliding off the roads, etc. It was CRAZY!! The van that we were in was NOT

equipped for snow and any time we had to slow down our tires would spin out ...

So, to fast forward ... it did end up snowing really hard. After we took our exit back to

Ashland we were stopped yet again at the bottom of a hill, on which the city van had spun

out and was blocking two lanes of traffic. As a result, cars were trying to get up and around

and were spinning out ... we were almost out of gas in a van that would NOT make it up

the hill easily ... so, we did what we had to do ... we parked our van in the Dutch Bros

parking lot, got some hot tea and started hiking up the hill in the snow storm ...

We made it most of the way up the hill when another 'walker' caught up with us ... a kindly

older gentleman who told us that he was going to find us a ride ... he put out his thumb

and almost immediately another kindly gentleman pulled over and picked us up ... so

not only does my job give me lots of fun with kids, but it also gives me hitch hiking experiences

as well ;) (Don't worry, the men were nice and neither Renee or I had any bad feelings or misgivings

about getting in the car with them - besides, we weren't going over 5 miles an hour so we easily

could have hopped out if we needed!!) Anyway - we finally made our way back to the

Armory and finished getting ready for the event!

The room was beautiful and we were all dressed up, decked out and ready to go ...

The only problem was that we had no guests!! Eventually we had a few roll in, but

it was a long night and a lot of hard work for very few people ...

Instead of trying to make it back to Grants Pass in the crazy snow with the awful van

we got a few hotel rooms and ended up staying the night in Ashland! After the event was

over (at about 11:30) we grabbed all of our "necessities" and the five of us slipped and slid

through Ashland as we walked around trying to find the hotel!

I sent this picture to Nate when we arrived at the hotel with the caption 'I'm DONE.'

We all slept restlessly but when we woke up and went down to our continental breakfast

we were greeted with this beautiful sight ...

It was SO beautiful and to be honest, I kind of enjoyed getting stranded in a snowstorm

in the magical wintery town of Ashland - it would have been perfect if Nate had been with me!

Anyway, there is the tale of how I got stranded in a snow storm, hitch hiked and wandered

through Ashland late, late at night with my the funny crazy ladies at the Club!! :)

Random November Fun {2013}

November was kind of a crazy month! I took a quick trip to Utah and aside from that I don't really know what else happened!! :) According to our pictures, we did do some other stuff ...

Nate had a breakfast of champions while I was gone ...

He also had an entire day off all to himself, which he filled with numerous soccer games ...

I got a personalized portrait from one of the little girls at the Club ... aren't I stunning?

I bought a Poinsettia to put on our kitchen table for the Christmas Season (I purchased it the Saturday after Thanksgiving and as of today, they are still alive! That is a cause for celebration!!)

And as I was cleaning out our storage room, I found this gem of a sweatshirt! This was Nate's soccer sweatshirt from High School!! I pulled it out and instantly became nostalgic, AND I found out that it fits me, so it is hanging in our closet!!

We had beautiful weather through November and some amazing photo ops, unfortunately our camera phones were all we had for these photo ops, but we'll be grateful for what we can get, eh?

Again, it was a quick month! We had some other fun things but those will get posts of their own!