Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Tis the Season to be Jolly!

The Christmas season has begun!  Well, Ben and I have been playing Christmas music since the first part of November, but the actual decorating was done this past weekend!  Since we have a small apartment, we don't have many decorations.  We have the important ones though!  Tree and stockings!




Also this past weekend, Chessie (my sister-in-law) and I decorated our annual gingerbread houses!  Her's turned out much better than mine...I got a little impatient and thats why mine looks messier!  We had a great time though and I think we ate as much candy as we put on the houses!

Mine is the first one, then Chessie's much neater and prettier one!

Yoda the fish



One of my favorite black friday purchases was a betta fish!  Ben and I named him Yoda and he is happily swimming in his bowl on our kitchen counter.  He keeps Riley company while we're at work!

Thanksgiving!

Sorry my updates are a little delayed...Comcast accidentally disconnected our services so we didn't have internet or cable for five days!  Just got it fixed so I'm trying to get up to date on everything!

The only pictures I have of Thanksgiving are of Riley being a good girl during dinner.  We gave her a big rawhide which kept her pretty busy while we ate.  We went to Ben's parents house first for our first Thanksgiving dinner.  Riley came with us so she didn't have to be in her crate on the holiday.  We brought the appetizers and some dessert to share!

After our first dinner, we made the drive to my grandparents house on the Eastern Shore for our second Thanksgiving!  We celebrated with my parents and brother and my dad's side of the family.  It was great to see everyone and eat again!  We were stuffed when we left to come home!


The next day was of course, Black Friday!  Chessie came over to our apartment and she and Ben stayed up all night playing video games.  I slept a few hours since I had to work that afternoon.  We left at 4am to hit the stores!  It was well worth it...got some Christmas presents and we saved more than we spent in every store!  Thats what I call smart shopping!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

My birthday!

For my birthday, which was Saturday, Ben and I went to the 9am showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!  The movie was amazing and was a great start to my birthday!  After the awesome movie, we had lunch and relaxed at home with Riley.  Ben gave me his presents which were a knit hat, Beauty and the Beast on DVD, and a purse!  He is the best gift giver ever!  Saturday evening, we met my parents, Ben's parents and sister, my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle at P.F. Changs for a delicious birthday dinner!  I even got a candle in my cheesecake for dessert!  It was the best way to ring in my 23rd birthday!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Happy 95th Birthday Granny

This post is dedicated to my great grandmother, Esther Hill.  Granny's birthday is today and she would have been 95 years old!  Sadly, she missed her birthday by 8 days.  On November 1st, my granny suffered a heart attack and stroke and she later passed away on November 11th.  She was a huge part of our family and she is greatly missed.

My great grandmother was one of the most independent people that I knew.  She raised 4 kids, one who had disabilities, and after her children married, she lived in her house by herself.  She liked her independence and I can't imagine being her age and living on my own.  One thing I always thought was fascinating was that she never ever had a drivers license!  Even though she didn't drive, she always made sure she was at family events.  Granny was a wonderful woman.  I loved going to her house on Christmas to visit and have some of her special punch.  I looked forward to that punch every year!  She also had a HUGE love for sports, especially the Maryland Terrapins.  Whenever I saw her we'd talk about the latest football or basketball game or how the season was going.  She also loved hockey!  I've never known an older person to love sports as much as she did.

One funny story about me and Granny is that when I was little and before I understood how family trees worked, I thought we called her Great Granny because she was incredibly awesome!  I didn't know that it was because she was my great-grandmother but thought she was cool enough to have that title.  Even after I figured it out, she was still my cool great grandmother.  I was so happy that she was able to come to our wedding this past summer and am happy that that is my last memory of her.  Granny will surely be missed but I know how much she loved God and is now with Him.  I'll see her again someday but in the meantime, I hope I can be as loving and as fun as my great-grandmother was.  I love you Granny!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Wedding bells in the air

Yesterday, Ben and I attended our 6th (yes, 6th) wedding of 2010!  We joined friends and family in seeing Jaime and Brad Collins tie the knot.  We are both friends with the bride.  She lived on Ben's floor freshman year at UMD and I met Jaime our junior year in Cru and became her bible study leader/really good friend.  She let me borrow a ton of clothes for various dates with Ben!  Anyways, they are really good friends of ours and when they get back from their honeymoon, they will be joining Cru staff at the Naval Academy in Annapolis! 
We also heard the wonderful news that Ben's cousin, Martina, got engaged this past week!  We are really excited for Martina and her fiance and for a big Texas wedding soon!  I've never been to Texas so I am really excited to go!