Christmas Pictures

Wonderful Christmastime

We had a wonderful time on our trip to Texas! It was a very quick but very fun trip!

We left Denver Thursday evening after work and stopped at a hotel along the way. We planned to get a good night's rest and be refreshed for the remainder of the drive, but things seldom go as we plan them. Something spooked Oscar, because he barked frequently throughout the night. I kept waking up to hush him, so we all ended up getting very little sleep.

We ended up arriving in Wichita Falls around 3 o'clock Friday afternoon. We decided to take naps while my mom ran a quick errand. While we were sleeping, though, my mom came back and laid down. She was having horrible pain, which she though was a kidney stone but ended up as an intestinal blockage. She ended up going to the ER Friday night but was treated and released. I was so afraid we would have to spend Christmas in the hospital!

We have a family tradition of celebrating Christmas each year with our friends the Beavers. We planned to do that Friday night, but Mom was in so much pain she sent us kids on and Dad stayed home and then took her to the ER. We felt really guilty leaving her in pain while we went and had fun, but we went on and enjoyed a good dinner and fun games.

Each Christmas eve, we have dinner at my grandma's house (on my dad's side). He has lots of siblings, so it is a big, crazy gathering. We do the "Chinese" gift exchange each year, and we ended up with a $20 Target card (a good return on our $14 investment). We do the food potluck-style, so it is always very yummy.

We come back home after that and wait for Santa to come. Thank goodness we didn't have to get up as early this year, but Josh insisted we get up at 6 am. We went down and checked out our stockings and opened gifts. We received many wonderful things! We then went to church (after a wardrobe malfuntion) and afterwards headed to my mom's sister's house to eat lunch with her family. More good food and good times were had by all!

We headed back to Denver and arrived back about 7:30 pm. I was so tired but am feeling better today. It was good to be home, but our time with my family was way too short. Hopefully one of these days we can visit them and have nothing else to do while we are there!

Merry Christmas from the Stephens!

We would like to wish everyone a wonderful, safe and blessed Christmas!

"Merry Christmas!" says Oscar

"and a Happy New Year!" wishes Daisy

(You have no idea how hard it is to get a Santa hat on a pug and then get them to keep it on long enough for the picture. Thank goodness for treats!)

Miscellaneous Pictures

Here are some random pictures for your viewing enjoyment!

Our green kitchen (excuse the mess!)

The mirror Jason and his dad worked so hard on

Our Christmas tree

The pugs love Jason's dad!

Fun Weekend!

Jason and I had a wonderful time this last weekend with his parents, who came to visit. They arrived Thursday night, and we picked them up at the airport after Jason's work Christmas party. Friday we spent the morning taking the Coors brewery tour, which was very interesting and highly recommended. On Friday night, we went to eat at Mataam Fez, which is a Moroccan restaurant. This restaurant is an interesting experience because you sit on the floor and eat with your hands. The food is good, but you really go here just for the experience. Jason's dad had fun chatting with one of our waiters about Arabic and culture, which was very interesting.

Saturday, it was snowing when we got up so we decided to stay inside for the day. I kept busy preparing for our party that night, and everyone else was busy doing things around the house. Jason's dad kept asking me what he could do, so I gave him plenty of jobs to keep him busy. He made himself so handy that I hated to see them go on Sunday! He cleaned up our garage so the car would fit in, but the big project on Saturday was our mirror. We had a mirror attached to my dresser but decided that didn't work too well in our house. Jason took the mirror off of the dresser and decided he would be able to cut it, so we bought a nice frame and glass cutting tools. Thank goodness his dad has done this kind of thing before, because he helped so much. It was kind of a scary process, listening to a big piece of glass break, but it looks great. I will post a picture tomorrow of the new, improved mirror on our living room wall. It looks very nice.

Saturday night we had a Christmas party so our friends could see our new home. It was fun, and we had a great turnout! We had all sorts of people over, from church, work, our apartment complex, but everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoy getting to know one another. And I enjoyed showing off our home!

Sunday morning we went to church and then had lunch at Macaroni Grill. We went home and took naps, and then took Jason's parents to the airport to ship them back to Seattle. It really was sad to see them go, but hopefully they will come back very soon. And any of the rest of you are always invited--we love having guests and now have room for you, too!

Now it's REALLY cold!

On my way to work this morning, my car's temperature gauge said it was -2 degrees outside. The high today is forcasted to be 8 degrees. Our heater ran all night long. I like Colorado, but if it stays like this very long, I will be wishing I was in Texas (where it is in the 20s). Brrrrrrrrr!

Brrrrr....it's COLD!

Greetings from the cold city of Denver! It is really, really cold here. My car said it was 7 degrees outside and the radio said 5. It has been snowing all day on top of snow that hasn't melted that we received over the weekend. We had plans tonight, but we decided staying in the warm house was a much better idea. Thanks goodness for a heater and heated car seats! Jason had to shover our sidewalks for the first time, but it wasn't too bad. The pugs hate snow, though--especially Oscar. I can't even get him to poop outside, so I find nice little suprises every morning and every evening!


We have been busy around here. Last weekend, we spent a lot of time painting. We are having a Christmas party in two weeks so are trying to get our downstairs painted in time for that. We also had a night out on Saturday. We had dinner at the Capital Grille (yum!) and then went to see Phantom of the Opera. It was good! Also, Jason spent much of his time over the weekend hanging up lights for Christmas! Our house is looking festive and is starting to come together. It has been stressful but very fun!

















Looking into our living room from the door The other side of the living room