Belated MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you all had a great time, got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, were in good health, and really felt the joy of the season while remembering Him. This was our first Christmas together as a married couple and while part of me really missed running out to the family room with my parents (and brother in years past), I couldn't help falling in love with a new tradition with my wife.

I stayed up a little later than Jess the night before to see if Santa came and magically he did! When we woke up, our stocking (Which Jessica made with the help of Dawn) were full, presents had been laid out, cookies and milk had been consumed by Santa and Rudolph had even nibbled on his carrots (Santa left a thank you note too). Snow and icicles filled the window and a delightful dancing fire roared in our "fireplace" (The tv). The air was filled with the smell of our Christmas tree and of cinnamon rolls baking in the oven. We shared mimosas and soaked in our morning as little kids on Christmas day together. Overall result: I fell in love with my wife and my favorite holiday/time of year even more.

"Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night!"

Holiday Store Sports

So Jess and I were in JoAnns (quit laughing guys; if it hasn't happened to you yet, at some point it will) and we were looking for fabric to make stockings for our first Christmas together. Turns out they were having a big sale (Most things were marked off 60%) and we ended up getting a bunch of other stuff we had been wanting to get for Christmas. One thing in particular that Jessica wanted to get was some ribbon for our wreath. We, mainly she, narrowed it down to three designs. We couldn't pick one though, we liked them all. We even tried holding them up to wreaths in the store, but it didn't help; they were all good. So the man-answer came: "Let's just roll them down the aisle and which ever one goes the furthest is the winner." She went for it. I rolled them and Golden Swirl took a quick turn out of the race. It was a close call but Christmas Trees beat Ornaments in the end. "Let's do it again just to make sure." Gold Swirl was out in the beginning again, and Ornaments had the lead until the very end. We bought the Christmas Trees.
I'm drinking eggnog as I write this, enjoying it to the fullest and soaking up as much Christmas as I can (It's my FAVORITE time of the year), wondering what you look forward to or if you have any similar crazy-makeshift-pony races with ribbon stories.
-Dave

Slamming Christmas in your face!

Last night we went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert and it was amazing! Try to picture a mix between the Philharmonic, Metallica, a techno rave, and any 80's band (For the hair).For those who don't know, TSO plays Christmas music, but in a very non-traditional type of way. I enjoy their style. The concert would have even been good for anyone that is deaf or blind because you could enjoy the audio and the visual. I think we had a little stimuli overload to be honest. There were so many things going on and the brightest lights I have ever seen that I had to close my eyes at some points. They even had fake snow (bubbles), lasers, smoke, pyrotechnics(Only for part of one song...not like in the video below), and moving sound/lighting set equipment. I'm really glad we were able to see them and hope you can/have too. Have you seen them or heard their music? What's your favorite part of a concert?
-Dave
Wizards of Winter is one of my favorites:

By the way, it was a little weird driving to a Christmas concert with the air conditioner on. When will winter get here?