The Gift of Giving...

Thanksgiving was a blast. We had a really good time hanging out with my sister, getting the T-day dinner ready, hanging out with my parents, and then on Friday getting to visit with some cousins and extended family that we haven't seen for a long long time. My mom wasn't feeling too good on Friday, so she wasn't able to hang out with everyone, and so we only got to see her on Thurs, but it was good quality time with her. And on a random sidenote, whenever I'm in Boise I always look around for people I know. Even though the chance of me really running into anyone is so slim, I just always kind of hope to see someone I know. Rarely do, but I'm always on the lookout.

And now Christmas is almost here, and I have no idea what to get anyone for gifts. Any random ideas out there in bloggerland? I don't like doing gift cards cause it's really impersonal, but when I can't think of anything personal then I default to gift cards. Sometimes I've done more homemade gifts like a few years ago I did a photo calendar and a fleece throw for Dave's family, but I can't keep making them throws :) and although I'm very picture-y, I don't know how many mugs people will want with pictures, or mouse pads, or photo books full of pictures of me :) and this last year I haven't been taking nearly as many pics as normal. Granted my camera did lose the most critical button, which is the picture taking button, but Dave has a perfectly good camera that I could be using, but rarely have. So the pic idea might be out cause it's not like I have taken a lot of new pics this year. And probably can only recycle the same old pics so many times :)

So I'm open to gift ideas.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner

I'm really excited that we'll be able to spend Thanksgiving with family this year. Last year we opted to stay home vs paying outrageous ticket prices. So we had our Thanksgiving dinner together, just us. But it was a good spread! This is the first year our immediate family has kind of broken off from the extended family. I'm a little saddened by it, because any other time I haven't spent Thanksgiving with the whole family was due to not being able to go out of town period. I'm also looking forward to spending more individual time with my parents and sister. But I will miss seeing the cousins and aunts, uncles and my grandma. Ticket prices were cheaper this year to fly into Boise, which is unusual, and we're staying in Boise the whole trip. Also unusual. We typically try to drive up to Poky to visit friends and tie in seeing them with seeing family. But we won't be doing that this year, either. We just didn't have as many days on this trip, and want to spend more immediate time with my parents and sister.

I'll still be able to see some cousins and aunt and uncle that live in the Boise area, and I'm very excited about that, too. Last time I saw these cousins was one in 08, one in 07 and probably the other not since 05. And two of them have new babies, so it will be fun to see them all.

I'm also just excited to have a few days off work again. I'll probably be hating it when I get back, but I'll put that off and deal with that next Monday.

My sister and I are doing the Thanksgiving dinner, which is kind of a first for us. She does a similar Christmas Eve dinner, and she's pretty much a pro with that, but for me it will be the first real time. I'm going to try to make my mother-in-law's awesome homemade mac 'n cheese, we'll see if I come anywhere close to her culinary skill with that. But since my parents and sis haven't had it, they won't know if it's not as good. Just my husband will be able to tell :) But he loves me anyway and will probably let it slide. We're also changing up the tradition just a little bit by having Thanksgiving at my sister's place. Normally my parents house would be the hosting home, but this year it will be at her place. I think it's sweet she offered. And she's giving up her house key and room so we can stay there and have full run of the place while she's at work.

We fly out tonight, and I'm excited. I've always really liked Thanksgiving, and am looking forward to this time off work and time with family.

You are never going to believe this!

I'm posting! Considering it's been 9 months, I guess that means it's about time.

Changes/Updates/News

- May 24 we got married!! 4 months already. In fact today is our 4 month anniversary. Happy 4 Month Anniversary Boo!! It was a great wedding, and we were able to spend a wonderful day with friends and family.

- We're still in MN. The plan to move to ID is still in the back of our minds, but there hasn't been any drastic improvement to the housing market to allow us to sell our house yet, so we're here until that happens.

- Dave's job has been going great. He's still able to do that from MN, and it hasn't been an issue at all with his bosses. He does travel quite a bit, but there are a lot of short trips and then a long span at home that help make up for it. And when he is at home, he works from the house, so we get to both be at the house working and that really makes a difference.

- My job hasn't changed. I'm still in the same job and working for 4 people instead of 2. For a while it was very touch and go there, to the point where almost every month I didn't know if I would have a job the following month. But it's worked out and I'm still here. If we move to Boise soon, it would be great to still be able to do this job from Boise.

That's pretty much all the news and updates. I'll try to start posting my normal rambling thoughts again soon. Not promising, but am hopeful :)

For now enjoy some photos you may have already seen from varios events, trips, etc.



From our wedding:

From our trip to SC for Dave's cousin's wedding:

It was a hot, windy day at the beach in Charleston, SC