I know that I am a big hypocrite. When I look at other people's blogs and notice that they haven't updated in a while I think " c'mon I want to see the new stuff." And considering my last post was over a month ago, I have no room to talk. We have just been really busy. Chris is finishing his job at the White House. He has been working in the speech writing department for the last 5 months and has been asked to extend until the Inauguration. He was supposed to be done the end of December but they wanted him longer. However, that means that he is home at decent hours now. He was working until 11 or later some nights. We are really excited to be here during this historic Presidential Inauguration. It will be really cool to tell our kids about some day. The only downer is that next week is going to be insane with all of the people pouring into D.C. They are expecting traffic to be more than a nightmare, and all of the hotels are already booked for 150 miles!!! I guess we will see how all of that pans out.

I have been working a ton lately. I am currently at the Art Institute of Washington. I love my co-workers and I have really good benefits. But only having been there a few months, I do get stuck working a lot of long hours while everyone else takes vacation days. Which is fine with me because we still live pretty close to family. We were able to spend Christmas with Brian G. and Robin. It was nice to be with family and yet not feel overloaded with all of the extended family and relatives. Bryce went to Utah to spend the holidays with his new girlfriend's family. (I guess they are getting pretty serious.) So it was just the four of us, plus Tia the dog..we missed her so much. I didn't take too many pictures...I know, I know. But here are a few of the festivities over the past few weeks.

Concourse from West to East wing. There was an entire tree made from poinsettias. We were only able to take pictures in certain areas, so there aren't any of us inside the oval or anything.


Outside the West wing front entrance.

Christmas tree in one of the conference rooms of the EOB.

1 Degree. It felt that cold the day we were there, and if you notice Bryce isn't wearing a coat!!

The whole fam, plus Aaron (who is as close as family anyway.)

Relaxing at home after a short break with the family.

Brian G. got us Guitar Hero - World Tour for Christmas, and I am so addicted. Chris mostly just watches me play. ( Not because he doesn't want to, or because he couldn't totally kick my butt.) I am just such a dork when I play that I sing, dance...and "rock out" if you will. Apparently that is more fun to watch.


My big number item this year was a table. Our last one was an old hand-me-down that was in bad shape and uggggggly. Not to mention that Chris "sat" in one of the chairs when our home teachers were over and ended up on the floor with pieces of seat in his hands. I think he got the picture after that. So for the past few months we have not had a table. Thank you Robin, and thank you IKEA!!! (Also, thanks Chris for putting it all together) It is perfect for just the two of us now, and it has two leaves so we can have people over. Not to mention it is in BLACK! I seriously have a major Thing for simple lines and black anything. I love the color black so much I want to take out behind the middle school gym and get it pregnant. (No one take offense to that please....we just watch a lot of 30 Rock.)

I got Chris the new Nano for Christmas so he can hook up his Nike+ for running. He has been arranging our millions of songs on iTunes to fit what he likes. Apparently I like too broad and bizarre of a spectrum for him. I say "What's wrong with Smashing Pumpkins followed by a little Moulin Rouge soundtrack?? I love them both."

We also got a ton of great stocking stuffers. "Santa" brought us a iPod car stereo player so I can play my tunes in the car. Chris got both seasons of 30 Rock on DVD. (If you know us, that is a GREAT gift. We have to watch our shows on DVD because we watch each episode over and over and pause our favorite stuff a million times just to appreciate it more. I am currently working on getting all of the seasons of Scrubs. To go along with our Office, Arrested Development, Pushing Daisies, 24, and so on.) Goons, I know. Also, Robin found one of the greatest stocking stuffers ever! We each got a bag of delicious "charms" from Lucky Charms. Basically it was just the marshmallows from the cereal, that she found at some random grocery store where you could buy it in bulk! What a treat. Bryce said he has never been so happy.

So that is the last month in a quick niblet. Sorry we don't have any adorable family pictures with Santa or slide shows of tree lighting and present opening. Maybe that will all come next year, if I can remember to take the pictures. Perhaps we will do a BIG family Christmas next year, especially since our family is growing. My sister-in-law Shannon just told us this week that she is expecting and is due sometime in August or early September. YAY!!! We are "ready and super-psyched!" I have also resolved to post more in the new year, so look out for at least monthly updates of our lives....because we know you want it! Happy New Year everyone!