We did tons of work on behalf of our church ward and humanitarian needs in the area. After the success of the November food drive, we did a warm accessories (hats, gloves, scarves) drive and a Giving Tree. Both were a success, especially the Giving Tree as we ended up filling over two pallets full of gifts for families in homeless shelters in Vancouver. It actually took a lot of work to orchestrate, so we were glad when it was over!
lots of warm accessories for homeless
can't miss our antique gold Giving Tree!
pallet #1!
pallet #2!
We saw Catching Fire, seriously our first movie since the Hobbit a year earlier, lol. There hasn't been anything worth seeing! It was pretty good, though my biggest issue was that I felt like much of it was very rushed. Some of the character development was good while some lacked. Lawrence's performance was impressive and overall I think it followed the book pretty closely, which I always appreciate. I look forward to seeing what they do with the last movie!
We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary, yaaay! We went to our now favorite sushi place (Mio Sushi) and then came home to watch Monsters University over popcorn goodness. It's been a fun three years and I love that we get mistaken for newlyweds by our youthful playfulness, hehe.
Jed had a banzai roll and tamago and i had one roll with tempura veggies and one with tofu and veggies as well as inari
I had my hair cut and dyed, finally!
We celebrated Advent this year! The four Sundays before Christmas we would get together and have a lesson/discussion/testimony about topics surrounding the waiting for the birth of the baby Jesus and correlate it to our waiting for Christ's Second Coming. Each night of Advent we would light a candle - the first Sunday was a purple candle for hope, the second purple for love, third was a pink candle for joy, and fourth purple for peace. The white candle, or Christ candle, was reserved for Christmas Eve when we celebrated Christ's birth. It was a really fun way to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and I look forward to doing it again next year.
We worked hard on our beautifully wrapped Christmas pressies with all matching paper (a bucket list item of Jed's) and really enjoyed picking out gifts for everyone this year. This was the first Christmas we got to see all of Jed's and my family of origin plus spouses/kids and it involved a lot of running around but it was worth it!
We saw my mom 3 hours north of where we live on Christmas Eve and the day before. We got to hang out, watch a movie (my mom's first of the superhero fad: Captain America), go for a lovely walk, eat dinner, and go to her church's Christmas candlelight service.
And we stopped by my dad's another half hour north of my mom's on Christmas Eve and ate and chatted and chilled.
Pa's hand is ghosting out because he's trying to get bunny ears on me before the camera times the shot, lol
We drove back to Vancouver and had a 3 hour nap before getting up early for Christmas morning at Jed's parents with his sister, brother-in-law, and our two nieces! (Why do kids get up so early on Christmas?!) It was fun times and we grogged our way through and then came home and took another 3 hour nap before Christmas dinner. And then I dragged Jed back home to bed as he was sick. :\
setting up fun new toys!
Jed hanging out with his childhood bestie, Gorillie
sistahs!
Nova's present: a dog "IQ puzzle" which she loves
Jed's sister, Melinda, and family stayed for 10 days but split the time between Matt's family in Oregon City. Then Jed got a super cold and Eve only took 5 days off work. But the little time we did get we played with the kiddos, watched lots of Dora the Explorer, and played cards with the adults. We hope to get down to San Diego, where the Jensen clan moved a few months ago, so we can spend more leisurely time with them.
i love swings. seriously.
natural cold fighters!!
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