Christmas Tag

I got tagged by my sister. I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but apparently you "tag" people, and then they have to answer the questions. Kind of fun!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or artificial? Fake for now, I'll talk Jake into getting us a real one some day when we have money.
3. When do you put up your tree? First day of December
4. When do you take down your tree? after New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? Mmm! Yes! I used to hate it, but now I really like it- only certain kinds though.
6. Favorite gift received as a child- a Stacy doll (Barbie's sister). I also got a doll that wore a crown, and when you pushed a button, she sang a song and lit up and projected pretty flowers from her crown onto the ceiling- that was pretty cool.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? no, I should ask for one for Christmas.
8. Hardest person to buy for? For some reason it was really hard to shop for our parents. I've been shopping for my parents for years, and this year was just hard!
9. Easiest person to buy for? Nieces and nephews- a dollar at Wal-Mart can buy amazing things!
10. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? Amen to Cindy- that's exactly what I thought too- even before I read your response! no offense Mom, but kitty cat calendars aren't cool when you're in junior high (or college for that matter). teddy bears aren't as bad, but still aren't cool. And the flower calendars- those were even a little better than the teddy bears, but luckily Mom says she not buying calendars this year. (Just teasin ya Mom)
11. US Mail or email Christmas cards? US Mail- if I was going to send Christmas cards out, that is. I'm having a hard enough time getting our thank you cards from our wedding in June out!
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Mickey's Christmas Carol, Scrooge, A Cabbage Patch Christmas, Home Alone I and II.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Man- this year I was taling about Christmas in August- I've been so excited for Jake and my first Christmas! But I think I held off and bought the first Christmas present like the day after Thanksgiving.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. Wedding gifts... that might be another story. :)
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Man- Cindy and I are so alike when it comes to Christmas. I have to agree with you again: Any Christmas candy; green and red m&m's, pb cups, hershey kisses. I also LOVE Raylene's caramel/white chocolate dipped apples. Mmmm!
16. White or colored lights? White. I don't know about those blue lights at the temple- they kind of send my eyes for a loop!
17. Favorite Christmas songs? "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey. It brings back good memories from my freshman year of college. Yes Jake and Brad- freshman year! I laughed when you said the Carpenters, Cindy. I always get so excited when I hear "Merry Christmas Darling" by Carol Carpenter- it's a good one.
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? Home! I can't imagine traveling (unless we were away from family, then we would definitely travel there).
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Happy, Doc, Grumpy... oh wait. Cupid, Dawnder, Blitzen. But do you recall... Rudoloph.
20. Angel or Star on top of tree? Right now we have a cute bow that Mom Merrell helped me make. She is such a good bow maker!
21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? One on Christmas eve (the name we drew) and the rest on Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Grumpy, crowded stores- it's Christmas! Cheer up!
23. What I love most about Christmas? Being with family! Buying presents for Jake. Decorating.

Tag: Raylene, Lisa

Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving time! I enjoyed our first Thanksgiving together. We kicked off the Thanksgiving holiday by running the 10K Turkey Trot Thursday morning. Wow! I've never ran more than 3.5 miles at a time in my life, so 6.2 miles was pushing it for me. It actually ended up being really fun. A bunch of us Richardson's got together to run together. Jake and Jason took off and ran like mad men to the finish line. Sarah took off ahead of us slow pokes and ran the whole time! Becc and I had fun running together and taking little walking breaks along the way. I wasn't so much interested in my time as I was in just completing the race. Jake finished in 54 minutes and I finished in a whopping 79 minutes. The guy who won the race ran it in 28 minutes! Isn't that insane!?!?!?! He was like 4 minutes ahead of the next guy. What an animal! It was a lot of fun and we plan to do it again next year. I think it's funny that my sister, Cindy, was running her 10K in Idaho in 12 degree weather wearing layers and layers of clothes. Meanwhile we ran in short sleeves and sun glasses. Sorry Cindy.

We spent Thanksgiving with the Richardson side. We had some good eats and had a lot of fun with Jake's sister's and their families. All of Jake's brothers live out of state, so we missed them a lot. I made pies with my mom the night before to take to the Richardson's and had a blast with her. We made some mean banana cream pies- homemade crust and all. Mmmm! After Thanksgiving dinner we all just sort of hung around and relaxed from the Thanksgiving feast. Jake's nephews were being so funny. He has 3 nephews that are in kindergarten. I asked them if they could count to 10, and they did so without a flaw. I acted all astonished and told them how smart they were (positive reinforcement ;) ). I asked one of his nephews, Cameron, if he could count higher. He kind of gave an annoyed sigh and started yelling numbers all the way to 10. Between spurts of laughter I said, "No Cameron, higher." He gave an even more annoyed sigh like "I just did that." He then started screaming numbers all the way to 10. It was so funny! I love all of my "inherited" nieces and nephews. And I of course love all of my nieces on the Merrell side. If you want to see some dang cute girls, check our Ben and Cindy's blog and Joel and Lisa's (on my side panel).

Well, sorry for the great famine in blogging material here. I'll try and do a little better, but no promises. :)

Saturday Morning Wake-up Wonders...

This past Saturday morning as we arose after a good nights rest... this is Jake by the way. I have joined our little blog spot in order to see what is going on in our lives. Anyways, as we were coming into semi-consciousness, I happened to peek out the window into the back yard of our neighbors. They had this huge fire going. Theys was getting fixed up to roast some swine. There were eight dead pigs on the table getting fixed up to be porkified. Theys weren't red-neck at all, theys was polynesian. Well that is about all. It is good to be on here finally.

Italian Dinner and Golfing with My Babe

So Jake and I made a goal before we were married that we would go on a date at least once a week. Actually, it was more of a suggestion (or a commandment, the way he insisted! :) ) from one of my bishops at BYU. I love going on dates with Jake all the time- he's so much fun! Sometimes we run out of creative ideas- we've only been married 4 months- we're going to have to get those creative juices flowing so we have ideas for the upcoming 70 years! Yesterday was my turn to plan the date. I was at a loss for a good idea. While I was working with some of my little 2nd graders in a small group I had an epiphanous thought (I am now coining the word- epiphanous). We were reading a book about cooking and were making our own recipes. One kid wanted to make a recipe for pizza. "That's it!" I thought. So it all started rolling from there- I would come home, make homemade pizza, go to the driving range, make homemade ice cream, and watch a movie- maybe Return to Me to continue the Italian flavor to our date. So I came home and made pizza with my sweet husband (he chopped the onions- I think his eyes are still burning) while listening to Dean Martin and other swooning singers in the back round. We had a fun little Italian dinner with caeser salad, pizza with the works, and grape juice. Nothing special, but it was fun.

After our dinner we picked up our clubs and headed to The Family Golf Center. I've never learned how to golf, but Jake's a good teacher. We got a huge basket of golf balls and had a good time trying to hit the little tractor that sucks up all the golf balls (what is that called?). Jake is one good golfer! I've never seen anyone hit golf balls that far! Me on the other hand... well, let's just say I need a little help. We've got to keep going back to practice if we're going to keep up with the Bowles'- they're animals!

We came back home and instead of making homemade banana graham cracker ice cream, decided upon purchasing some Blue Bell strawberries 'n cream ice cream. If you have not ever had the pleasure of indulging in Blue Bell ice cream, I suggest you try it... NOW! It is so delicious! They even have a cantaloupe and cream flavor- Papa Merrell would love something like that! Anyways, we ate ice cream and we watched Hercules (although Return to Me is my all time favorite- we still have not had the guts to splurge 10 bucks to buy it- I love newly wed budgets!). Well... Jake watched Hercules. I fell asleep. Jake kept laughing and funny parts and I'd pretend like I was awake and start talking about how funny it was too- only I started talking about things I was dreaming about. Like something about plastic bags on our feet or something. Cindy- that must stem from our years of wearing plastic bags over our shoes when we'd go play in the snow. Us Arizonans don't have snow boots.

So it was a fun night. Not exactly like the epiphany I had at work, but it was still lots of fun. I love being able to hang out with Jake every day- we're kind of disgusting when it comes to how much we like each other. What can I say? He's a catch!

The Blogging Community

Well, we've done it- we've joined the blogging community. When I say we, I mean me, but I'm sure Jake will make an appearance on the blog more than a few times. I'm excited to learn how this all works and begin my journey in the land of online journaling.