Christmas

This year, our Christmas celebrations began on Christmas Eve. Marcel and I attended church and then headed to my mom's house for our Christmas there. We had delicious appetizers and desserts, which is our normal food when she has us for Christmas Eve. That group of people is getting quite large as just about all of us have spouses/significant others to bring. It was a lovely time together, but we didn't get any pictures.

Marcel and I asked for money for Christmas so we could jump start our cruise fund, but my mom still got us a few presents. I got new slippers, an iTunes gift card and a bathroom scale, which I already love having (especially this morning when it said I've lost a few pounds!). Marcel got a new purple argyle sweater, which he has been dying to have, and blank DVDs. Also, one of the traditions for our stockings is to get lottery tickets and I've never had much luck with them but this year, Marcel and I together won $33, hooray for more cruise money!

We hung out for awhile before heading home for a short night of rest before Christmas. Marcel and I got up at 5:45am, so that we could have our own Christmas before heading to my dad's at 8am. Yes, it was early, but it was so wonderful to have that time together. We continued our tradition of having monkey bread for breakfast and not having stockings. We'll start that one either when I find semi-matching stockings that I like or when we have kids, whichever comes first!



Our tree with presents

Trying on my too small slippers from my mom

Marcel's corn on the cob grilling tool, but the picture is even better because we both wrapped just about all our gifts to each other in either cereal, oatmeal or frozen waffle boxes.  We LOVE breakfast at this house :)

Marcel also decided to seal every edge of every box with masking tape so I had to cut them all open

Marcel got me a new wallet (which I desperately needed and asked for constantly) that I love and new slippers

Marcel and his Harry Potter movie collection (Movies 1-6)
I think it was what he was most excited to receive and now we're about to have a HP marathon

2nd married Christmas!

After presents, we headed to my dad's for our 3rd Christmas of the year.  We enjoyed another delicious breakfast of egg mcmuffins (are they still called that if they aren't from McDonald's?) and spent quite a bit of time opening gifts.  And yet again we were spoiled!  Payton & Presley got each of us new pajama pants, while my dad and Cindy got us a new knife block (the only thing we asked for) and a box full of $1 bills!

New hats from Aunt Dede

Payton & Presley each showing off their new iPods, which they LOVED and used all day long, even before they had music on them, bcause they record videos and play the radio.

A fun gift to receive :)

Emily and Matt were very happy to get a blu-ray player and surround sound system but are now asking to take Marcel home with them so he can get it all set up.

So excited to receive a box full of books (including the whole Harry Potter series)

Again, with the excitement for books.
Hope one day my kids will love reading as much as I did at this age (and these 2 do)

We enjoyed a great ham dinner and then hours and hours of playing Wii Sports Resort & Rock Band 3, where I was finally able to move up to medium level on the guitar/bass! We also watched the Top 40 music videos of 2010 according to VH1.

Overall, we had a GREAT Christmas season.  It always seems to be over so fast, but it is always so much fun!

Marcel's Program

Thursday, Marcel had his program.  Well, the 3rd graders had their program and Marcel got to direct it.  There were 2 performances, which worked out well for me.  I took Lilli and met my mom for the first one.  Lilli LOVED it.  She kept pointing to Marcel and blowing him kisses and since they started late she tried wiggling her way out of my lap to go get him, so we walked around until it was time to start.  After each song, Lilli looked at my mom, in such a way to get approval before she could start clapping, but once she started she's a clapping machine. 

The next performance was so much better!  And I was able to get in a few pictures and recorded all of the songs.  I even got to meet Marcel's mentor teacher from George Fox, who was so proud of all his work, but honestly, I think I'm much prouder!

All 4 of the 3rd Grade Classes and their student teacher

So, Marcel told all the kids to always have smiles on their faces because his wife was going to take pictures and they'd be so sad if the pictures had frowny faces in them.  We found it ironic, that 1 of the few pictures I got of Marcel had him not smiling.

Welcme speech at the night performance, tux and all!

One song from the performance

In Our Life

A whole month without blogging.  Not typical for me.

We haven't taken any pictures, so that must mean we haven't done anything too exciting, so in summary...

MaryBeth
*Still absolutely loves Miss Lilliana to pieces!  She's 14 months old and the things she is picking up on is fascinating.  She's officially walking (she's been able to walk for awhile, but it has finally overtaken crawling as the primary mode of transportation).  It should also be noted that when I first started watching her, when she was 5 months old, she served as great birth control for me, but those days are long gone!  more about this at the bottom of the post!
*Started working at Michael's as a seasonal employee and is already counting down until January 1st, when she is "let go".  Even if offered to become a regular employee, that is not happening!  It is good for our budget to have this other job, but it is not good for my sanity (and therefore Marcel's) for me to dislike it as much as I do.
*Is just about caught up with scrapbooking for 2010 and is VERY happy about that accomplishment.  I haven't printed pictures from our trip to Yellowstone but I think I'll wait until the holidays are over to consolidate orders.
*Has started a countdown to Marcel's graduation and as of today we're only 179 days away!
Marcel
*Is in his last week of student teaching in his elementary school placement.  His cooperating teacher has a VERY different teaching philosophy and style from Marcel but he's made it through just fine.  Now he's just got to put the big work sample together so he can get licensed, which can't officially happen until after the next round of student-teaching.
*Looking forward to his next placement, which allows him to be in a middle school AND a high school because that's what his cooperating teacher teaches.  This is the same teacher he worked with when he was helping with the marching band.
*Still keeps plenty busy volunteering at church on the sound team and the worship team playing drums.  He loves it, but I'm selfish and hate having him gone Wednesday nights for practice.

We're both very excited for Christmas.  We are still on the hunt for a gift for each of our mothers and Marcel to get my presents, but I'm done and it feels wonderful.  Our tree is up and decorated and while I had hopes of hanging more lights in our house, I don't think that will happen.  And by working at Michael's I've become jealous about not having decorations for our house but realize it is just stuff and we're only spending money to pay our bills (and finish Christmas shopping); everything else is out of the budget for now, because...

We've decided to go on a cruise in June, after Marcel graduates.  We're not entirely sure where we're going, but I'm pulling for Mexico.  And it is still very tentative because even though we'd be able to pay for it in CASH (the only way we'll vacation or pay for anything now, thank you Dave Ramsey!), we may need the money for savings if Marcel is unable to find a job or if we need it for moving expenses, which could add up fast if we move to the other side of the country :)  And we'd totally be okay with that.  Yes, we'd be terribly sad to move away from family but trust that God will move us to where we need to be.  So it is still up in the air, but for now it has been great motivation to not spend money and it feels wonderful that I haven't swiped my debit card in a few weeks!

When I put the cruise plans on facebook as just a BIG celebration to being done with school, my sister started a bad thing saying she was hoping for a nephew and then people went crazy telling me how great of a mom I'll be, etc.  There is still no Bailey Baby in the picture!  Marcel came home from school (his college) one day and had a classmate very upset and just wanting it all to be done because her kids asked her when she'd spend time with them again.  It made me realize how happy I am that we've decided to wait at least until Marcel is done with school.  We struggle to spend enough time together with his hectic schedule and couldn't imagine adding a baby to the mix.  We talk about it like we talked about and planned our wedding before we were even engaged, just knowing it is coming sometime in the future.  After June 4th, we'll start praying for God's guidance and know that we'll become a family of 3 (or 4, if my mom gets her wish of me having twins) at just the right time!