december so far...

the reason for the season

christmas cards in the mail....which means real mail..not just bills!!

plates of cookies from our rockstar neighbors

lights on the house

snow and coldness

the favorite penguin ornament (you pull the cord and his arms and legs move. he even has little ear muffs on....he's the best!)the angel

lights on the tree

the tree and the smiths. kinda a cheeseball picture....but i guess we are just cheeseballs! :)

i have lots of thoughts in my head, lots going on, but little motivation. i have cookies to bake for our cookie exchange at work, cards to make for my co-workers, gingerbread houses to make, christmas lights to look at....and a husband to find (6:00 and still not home from work...) being done with school is a welcome relief, but as soon as the semester ends, i just lose motivation for anything. like it's go-go-go all semester and as soon as the semester ends, i dont' want to do a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g..... and i'm not sleeping well again.... boo. however, i'm feeling a new aire of energy coming on. and if not, at least these pictures will hold you over until next time :)

my new 2nd favorite christmas song....

can it be? another blog post??

i'm shocked!!at the relient k/tobymac concert the night before we trekked to mt.... mat's... excited??
honestly....can't tell who this is. probably the relient k boys.....so awesome!!
three and a half of my most favorite people in montana!!

thanksgiving morning we ran a 5k. yup.....you heard right. a 5k. and i ran it in 4-0 minutes. forty minutes for my first ever 5k. pretty respectable, i thought.

here we are, refreshed and hungry after our cold run

playing uno thanksgiving afternoon. mat's in the zone..

mom relishing one of mat's few losses ever.... doesn't look like a poor loser, does he?

the next day was "christmas"... te amo mi familia that was our trip home for thanksgiving in a nutshell. we had a really good time. it was much more low-key than when we went home in august. we told less people and had a less-stressful time. but it was still a great vacation. spending time with the people who mean the most to us. mat got to go hunting with his dad (i chose not to post the pics of bambi on here... but he did shoot a nice young buck!) i spent lots of good time with my sister and my Rona. it was a refreshing and relaxing vacation. my heart is still full!