December is a very special day. It's the anniversary of the day I married my best friend, Clyde*. It's always a little crazy celebrating so quickly after Christmas, but it will be so much easier to celebrate living in Utah. Almost every year we lived in Oregon, we spent our anniversary traveling or hosting visitors for a Christmas visit. (Which was just fine with us!
Before we did our anniversary celebrating, I had a chance to meet up with two wonderful friends that I have known ever since I can remember. Stephanie and Emily. We've known each other since Kindergarten, I think. We went through high school together and have kept in touch all these years. The last time I saw Stephanie was when Sarah was a baby and she visited us in Portland. I think it's been longer since I've seen Emily, but we've e-mailed and kept in touch. We decided to get together while Steph was visiting from Washington. It's funny how good friends are so easy to just hang out with no matter how long it has been. Emily and Steph look so great! Exactly the same as I remember, and it doesn't feel to any of us that we are so much older. It still felt like we were high school friends out for a girls night. Only we talked about different things like kids, travel, and careers rather than tests and boys. I am so grateful for such good friends. I was always blessed with good friends growing up and think I turned out pretty good, in part, because of them. When I look back on my growing up years, my memories are so good and fun, with very few regrets, because I had wonderful friends surrounding me. I hope that my girls will be blessed with the same kind of friends. There's nothing better than a friend you can just be yourself around and who makes you a better person. Emily and Stephanie are those kind of friends.
What a fun day I had! After a fabulous afternoon with girlfriends, I had a hot date to look forward to with my man. (o: The girls were excited to have a night with grandma and grandpa and we were thrilled to have our first date where the babysitting would be free!
I was so excited when I found out Utah has a Ruth's Chris downtown, just like Portland. So of course, we planned to head there. It's been our traditional anniversary date for years. I am so happy we could continue this tradition. Clyde* made reservations a little later, so we had time to just do what we wanted. We ended up at Emergency Essentials! Now is that romantic or what? We had a great time and spent a good hour there! We looked at all the emergency preparedness stuff, talked about what we'd like to work on getting, bought a few things and sampled some of the flavored milks. It was fun, believe it or not. (o: We must be old. Then we headed downtown and enjoyed a fantastic meal at good old Ruth's Chris. We must have been there for two hours - we got lots of good food and just talked and talked and reminisced. It was a wonderful night. I can't believe it's been 14 years! I am so lucky - it has been a wonderful 14 years and I can't wait for more.
New Year's Eve was lots of fun this year. We invited mom and dad over to celebrate with us. We made the mistake of watching Marley and Me right before they arrived. So we were feeling a little melancholy, but the mood picked up quickly when we ate some of these . . . Frank's* famous ribs. 
Yum. I could almost lick my screen they look so good! 
It's not a party without a little Rockband! Frank* got the Beatles Rockband for Christmas and it's been so fun! I catch my girls singing Beatles songs now! 
We came out at midnight and made some noise. We were surprised how many neighbors came out to do the same. What a fun neighborhood! (o: It was FREEZING so this lasted about 45 seconds.
Just after Christmas, we got some pretty good snow. We heard grandma and grandpa had a good hill close to their house so we planned a spontaneous sledding party! Grandma and Grandpa and Lisa and Kelly and the kids came! It was the perfect hill and there was plenty of room. We had so much fun trying out the sleds Santa gave us. We had a blast and laughed our heads off - all the adults took turns, we tried making trains and we even did a few runs where grandpa counted and everyone came down at the same time! I love Anna's hot chocolate mustache in the picture above. What an awesome day! The girls loved this new winter activity! By the time we were done, we couldn't wait to warm up, but it was fun while it lasted. 
Sarah must have gone up and down at least 30 times. She was crazy! 
Cute Cameron! I love getting more time with my sweet 
Natalie was pooped by the end and just collapsed in the snow.
