Hey everyone, we hope you are having a great time this holiday season! Every year we do a video Christmas card (our little video nerd tradition) and so if you are new here, you can click the links for our past cards (2007, 2008, 2009).
So enjoy number four of our video Christmas card tradition 🙂
Here’s a picture too…and no, it has nothing to do with the video…maybe next year!
today is my birthday. birthdays in december are always a little tricky. my parents were good about keeping christmas and my bday separate but i still would have loved to have swim parties like my brother got to do every year. as i’ve gotten older, i’ve grown to love my december birthday, the cooler weather, the decorations, and…ever since college…themed parties! my roommates and i started doing them for each other our senior year and i’ve been hooked! who says you should only get to dress up in a costume for halloween? not me 🙂 so here’s a photo from our latest – we’re dressed like hermey the elf who wanted to be a dentist and yukon cornelius from the old school claymation rudolph movie!
what theme would you have for a party?
i know some of our ‘favorite things’ don’t come as much of a surprise [i’ll have to work on that] but seriously, thanksgiving is such a fun time. my favorite thing about it is hosting. over the years my family has celebrated in a variety of ways and it’s been a fun, changing holiday for me. for jared it has been more of a traditional tradition if that makes sense and merging holidays has been so fun for both of our families. this year, we hosted and it was great! both of our families breaking bread together under one roof, the smell of mulled wine and the brisk cool air…mmm
and i tried something new…i sewed!
so potentially this could be a new favorite thing, we’ll see. but i made pumpkins for everyone to take as favors in wonderfully warm fall colors.
so, what’s your favorite thing this fall/thanksgiving?
november 10. yes it’s a favorite day of mine because it’s the day i said ‘yes’ and married my best friend. my love. today marks three years of marriage and it blows me away to think how fast it’s gone! we’ve learned a lot together and grown a lot together and it’s so special to experience this God-given bond together. i know it seems obvious that my anniversary would be a favorite day but i feel like it’s important to celebrate marriage especially when many don’t work out. we are so proud of our parents to have toughed it out through thick and thin and have been really great examples for us, and we’re thankful for our friends’ marriages and all their good advice. you know that saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’…well i think that saying can go for marriage as well…sometimes it takes the encouragement of friends and family to work through the hard times, but also to celebrate together when things are great.
i’m so glad that i waited for my husband and that he waited for me. it took us a little longer to find one another but i’m glad we did.when we did. it was perfect timing.seriously. we actually grew up a mile away from each other and never met until i was 25 and he was 30 but people ask me if i wished that we had me a long time ago and i always say ‘no’. there is no way i would have been ready or in the right place or mindset if i had met him any sooner than i did. and he would say the same. i’m grateful for my husband and am happy to celebrate this day every year with him!
what’s your favorite day?
photo by susie linquist
We had such a great time shooting the animals at Nurtured by Nature. They are a non-profit organization who bring unique experiences to disadvantaged kids. I used to work with kids like the ones who get to do this program and it is so cool to me that there are people willing to give back like this. In fact their story is pretty cool, after their house burned down in the 2007 San Diego fires this couple was so overwhelmed by their community support to help them get back on their feet that they decided to start this program. They were animal collectors before and so they worked on growing their collection and now they have all sorts of animals you wouldn’t expect to see in Southern California, like Asian small-claw otters, Fennec foxes, a wallabe, a sloth and others. They are updating their website and flyers so we did a photo shoot with the animals and boy was that challenging! Some of them were posers like the Armadillos but others had ADHD and couldn’t focus for a second like the otters. They were so cute and friendly but fast! I think we got some pretty cute ones nonetheless and we even got to swim with them later 🙂
If you’re interested in going to their fundraiser, the info is here on their facebook fan page. Here’s their website they haven’t updated it yet but it has info about this program.
here are a couple behind the scenes shots, a little perk from the shoot 🙂
enjoy this little slideshow that we made for their fundraiser as well!
fall. i know it’s weird for a california girl to even have a favorite season since we have such moderate temperatures out here but i do have a favorite. and it’s fall. it wasn’t always my favorite. i used to like summer the best because we could swim in our pool ever day and i always wished i had a summer birthday so i could have pool parties. but now i have many more reasons for fall to be my favorite. i love the subtle weather changes especially the crisp mornings when i can wear a jacket and scarf for at least part of the day. i love that some of our trees get that it’s fall and we actually see some of them changing but i also love that on a single street some trees are in fall mode, some in winter mode and some look like they are ready for the spring! i love that i got married in the fall and get to celebrate every year in my favorite season. i love the colors of fall and decorating my house. i love the festivities and holidays especially the food that goes along with it…like pumpkin muffins! and there’s something about fall that makes me pensive and creative and i love feeling that way. maybe it’s the shorter days or the cooler weather, whatever it is i’m happy when it’s fall.
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what’s your favorite season?