merry christmas

I know it is a couple of days after Christmas but oh well. Things have been going pretty well in our lives lately. We are very much enjoying the holiday festivities. Christmas Eve we went over to Brett's parent’s house for dinner. Then Christmas morning we walked over to some friend’s apartment for brunch and fellowship. Afterward Brett and I came back to do our own little gift exchange. A couple of months ago we had bought each other coats for Christmas, so we limited our Christmas morning giving. Brett bought me a book that I had been wanting and a fun wall hook I liked at Urban Outfitters and I gave him Guitar Hero One so he now has them all. That afternoon we went back over to Brett's parent’s house to do gift with his family and all the exchange girls. We got many fun goodies including lots of food and cooking stuff - they know us so well :).

Last night we went out for a very international dinner. Mary T's (the Brazilian) family is all in town visiting and Lena's (the German) sister and sister's boyfriend are also visiting. So we joined all them along with Brett’s family and a former exchange student from Ukraine for dinner and ice cream after. It was chaotic and fun. I will try to post pictures from that soon.

Today is Brett’s and my 6-month anniversary. We had a relaxing morning of sleeping in and then brunch with some popovers I made. (Check out my other blog for the recipe). Now he is at work and I want to try to figure out what I can make for a special dinner tonight.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

serving and snow

Brett and I have had a lot of fun these past two weekends. Last weekend we volunteered as leaders for an outreach thing that Liquid, our church, was doing. They are opening a new campus in New Brunswick and as a way to reach out to the community, they gave away coats to the homeless and underprivileged of that city. They ended up giving away over a thousand coats that day and there were still people waiting in line. The groups that Brett and I helped lead went to different neighborhoods around the church location and handed out backs with info about the church and encouraging notes. We had a blast and got to serve with another young couple here for a few months from Australia.

This weekend was another great weekend. Bek and Sim, the Australian couple, joined us Friday night and we all went to a Christmas light display. It was one of those drive through things and at the end had a light show set to Christmas songs. They also had a little shop where we picked up some Christmas ornaments and found some candles with funny names.

Saturday was a gloriously lazy day. I made banana bread, adding the coconut and pecans left over from a pie I made for Thanksgiving, watched a couple of movies, and had the rare opportunity to just relax. That evening we went over to some friends' apartment for Chinese food, a movie, and good conversation. Then to top everything off it snowed last night and everything was wonderfully white this morning.

the group that led bag distribution


coats

me - trying to stay warm

brett with the funny candle

smell my nuts?