Kimberley's Wedding

On Friday, December 30, I had the privilege of watching Kimberley's wedding to Marcos. Kimberley and Marcos were married in Brasilia, Brazil and they streamed the wedding ceremony live on Facebook, love technology! 

Kimberley's brother, Stephen and their mom, Kay.  

 Stephen and Karen.

 First sight of Marcos and Kimberley.

 Kimberley and Marcos praying.

 Kimberley's dad, Ivor, speaking to them about having a Christ centered marriage.

 Princess even watched the ceremony.

 While Facebook live is an amazing invention, you have to be friends with the person who is broadcasting live. Therefore, Lisa couldn't see the streaming video, so after trying to figure out a few video chats we finally remembered that Facebook messenger has a video chat feature - so I held my phone so Lisa could watch on my computer. Again, isn't technology amazing!

 I took these from people posting on Facebook. I love the picture of Marcos picking Kimberley up - they are both radiant and so in love. Makes my heart full. 

 Kimberley is absolutely beautiful.

 

I have known Kimberley and her family since I was 5 years old and living in Battle Mountain. I consider the McKeown's family. Karen, Kimberley and I have traveled all over the east coast together, been to Northern Ireland and of course Texas, Idaho and Nevada. I had the honor of meeting Marcos in February when they came to visit for a long weekend, blogged here. While I was not in Brazil for the wedding I will be in Texas at the end of January for a reception for them, I am beyond excited to see them again as husband and wife.

Random Christmas Events

This last Christmas post is just the random that the holiday brought to me this year. 

My amazing friend, Karin made this awesome gift for me and it all stemmed from a conversation we had when I was in Idaho this summer about how I was thinking of getting an Idaho tattoo with the DC skyline. I proudly now have this displayed in my office and it has been a great conversation starter for a lot of people. I mostly get comments like, "I have never met anyone from Idaho". I still haven't figured out what to say about that.

The weekend after Thanksgiving Alexandria had their annual lighted boat parade on the Potomac. it is cool to see in person, but the photos just don't do it justice.

After the boat parade and dinner at Mai Thai in Old Town we took the metro back into DC and someone was a little tired.

Next, we tried to go to the White House national Christmas tree but as we were maybe, 20 feet away the lights turned off! :( Apparently they turn the lights off at 10pm every night. So we looked at the White House instead.

At work they do a holiday office decorating contest. I stayed at work until 8pm with 2 other people to decorate for our Tropical Holiday. While it was a lot of work, it was a good opportunity to bond with my new colleagues. On the day of the judging I made tropical smoothies for them with my fancy Ninja blender that I brought in (good think I drive now). We did not win - but rather we got second place. Next year we are going for the gold!

Speaking of work - they have these beautiful trees in our lobbies.

It was an Idaho Christmas for me for sure! Yesenia sent me this amazing sign that I have decided to keep at home because it matches my decor. I love love love love it!

And speaking of Yesenia, I sent her husband Lionel some of the famous pumpkin cookies that I hadn't baked in 2.5 years. They are just as good as a I remember them to be.

On Tuesday, December 27, I drove to Springfield (cause I drive now - yuck), to have dinner with my amazing friend, Whitney. We had lunch at Chuy's and then like me she loves bubble tea so we went to a new place in the mall for a super yummy tea. Whitney also gave me an Idaho sign (told you it was an Idaho Christmas for me), that I have in my office. Love this gir1 and so thankful for our friendship.

One of the things I absolutely love abut Christmas is receiving Christmas cards! This year I got so many that I will cherish them throughout the year when I clean off the freezer from last years card and replace it with all these beautiful cards.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 On Christmas Eve Tuf and I went to a Christmas Eve service and then the Mormon temple. When we got home we had homemade chicken and rice soup that had been slowly simmering in the crock-pot.

I also thought it would be nice to have a pie. So I made a super easy Oreo pie that was really good!

One of our traditions is to have a drink and play Phase 10 on Christmas Eve. 

While having the Netflix fireplace going :) 

 On Christmas morning, I made our famous lemon poppy seed pancakes and bacon.

After breakfast and a selfie with Dexter we opened presents!

Sticking with our tradition that our grandma passed onto us - we go a little crazy and Christmas. But we wouldn't have it any other way.

Funny story...now..Dexter ate a few of my presents - he stole them from under the tree and then took them into the backyard to shred. We didn't realize this for at least a few days. A few things were able to be saved and a few were not. 

 

For the afternoon I Skyped with Stacy and we opened our presents. I also Skyped with Marie so we could also open presents. The boys are so adorable!

They got matching PJ's and toys. Adorable!

Next, Tuf and I went to the movies and saw Office Christmas Party. It was hilarious but highly inappropriate.

After the movie, Tuf needed to stop by her office to get her computer power cord. And since it was already 7pm, we decided to have Christmas dinner the next day so we stopped at the Thai place by her work for Christmas dinner.

On Monday, December 26, we took our tree photos and had a wonderful dinner.

For Christmas dinner we had Cornish Game Hens, green bean casserole, rolls, olives, and sweet potato crunch. However, the sweet potato crunch was not edible because rather than adding cinnamon I added cumin. It was disgusting and hopefully not one I will ever make again because I was so looking forward to the wonderful sweet potato crunch. However, the rest of the food was really good and we did not starve :)