Christmastime!

Hello folks!

Hope you had a lovely Christmas!  We certainly did.  Christmas Eve with the Langemanns was quite fun, with Chinese food, animated table discussion, lots of gifts, and various games/puzzle-building/random outbursts of song afterwards as the evening progressed.  We spent Christmas morning by ourselves, took a walk at Standley Lake in the snow that afternoon, and had Christmas dinner with my family--an evening of Lasagna and Italian Christmas soup, lots of laughter, games, gifts, reading of books, and much music.  I figure that someone was playing the piano at least half the time when we weren't all doing something together, and Michael, Rebecca and I read some amazing piano trio music.

Unfortuantely I don't have pictures of Christmas, having forgot my camera both days, but I do have pictures of our Christmas tree and a few decorations.  Joe and I went up to the mountains early in December to cut a tree and we found an absolutely beautiful one.  At least we think so.  :)

 Joe on the property--saw in hand, prepared for tree-hunting.

Here we are, in our cool hats!  Joe's is from Scotland.

Looks like Joe liked this one, but it's not what we ended up with...

Joe with the tree of choice

The tree comes home!  It was exactly the right height; 

we didn't have to trim it or anything.

Finished product (sort of--we kept adding ornaments).  

We went with a red/gold theme, with some fun gifts and handmade stuff thrown in.  

I love it and am not in a hurry to take it down!

We got this ornament for our wedding from some special friends in Scotland.

My little piano...

 This one was a wedding gift from my aunt.

And a special bonus: Joe models the latest and greatest in scarf-wearing techniques.  Reports state that it's quite warm and cozy, though not exactly recommended for situations where one desires to appear normal.  :D  I love my man.

Well, Happy New Year to all of our friends and relations!  We're sorting out our affairs today, after enjoying a great skate up at Evergreen.  There's a random assortment of Mexican food in the crock-pot for dinner (logically, if ingredients more or less fit together, you should be able to just throw them in and have it work, right?  It worked last time I tried it!) and our little place is looking quite cozy in the late afternoon light.  May Jesus fill you with ever more of Himself through the new year!

Blessings,
Rachel