the end of '11

For Christmas this year, we had a lovely time staying cozy in our own home. Due to work schedules (I had to work Christmas Day), we couldn't travel. It was fun spending Christmas with just us- we watched lots of movies and tv shows, ate lots of sweets, and stayed up late. John switched to my sleep schedule for the two weeks he had off from school. It was such a treat to have him up with me on my nights off and not spend most of the holiday alone.

As far as gifts go, I gave John two new white cuff-link shirts for church and a game for the PS3, Batman: Arkham City, which he played a lot before school started again. John got me a few books about improving my writing and a blue sapphire snowflake necklace that I picked out (so, obviously, I love it). My family did a white elephant style gift exchange where I won a tree skirt and John got a coin jar that counts the value of the coins when you put them in. John's parents gave us a video camera and a picture camera. We were so excited! They will be perfect to document everything that's going on once we move on with the new chapter of our lives. I have some pictures to add, but haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. So those will come in a new post soon.

New Year's was a fun adventure, too. Victoria, Craig, and a friend of Victoria's joined us for some Chinese at Wild Ginger, then we went back to our apartment and played Rock Band, then watched Signs and The Mummy. We watched the ball drop in New York on TV (both at 10 and at midnight, so we had suffer through that terrible song by Cee Lo twice) and blew on noisemakers. What can I say, we were crazy with our mocktails and candy.

In other news, I got a promotion at work and now work full-time. I work 40 hours one week and 32 the next, so it's a total of 72 hours every paycheck. It's such a blessing to be able to be making more money to save up for our up-coming plans, and have a little extra to spend every once in a while for dates and such. It's very different, feeling like I spend more time at work than at home.