Christmas Day with J & Bee

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Thanks for all of our wonderful Christmas cards and presents. We had a great Christmas so we thought we would post a few pics to give you an idea of what our day was like.

Christmas morning at our place means a sweet treat and some chocolate milk, but our much anticipated Monkey Bread breakfast didn't turn out so well. However, the chocolate milk was simply divine. I would like to know where they keep the chocolate cows. Do they graze on coco beans?

We had a joyous time opening presents!
(we didn't even have any mistletoe!)

Then we headed to some friends for Christmas dinner and some games. The food phantom struck again and the carrots got a little too toasty so instead of carving a turkey, we carved the carrots. Although Bee didn't care for the new dish, J liked the smoky flavor (probably because it reminded him of a delicious tinfoil dinner).

And that's how we do it in the VA.

We hope ya'll had a very merry Christmas!

The Festival of Lights at the Mormon Temple

It's been said that there are 3 "must see" events in the D.C. area during December. "The Festival of Lights at the Mormon Temple" is one of them.

We headed north to see what the temple had to offer and enjoyed a performance by the Virginia Bronze Bell Choir, dozens of nativity scenes from various countries, and, of course, the lights...

They also have a live Nativity performance outside the visitors center. We caught the tail end of one the night we visited, but lucky for us, they left the camel behind for everyone to pet and feed. However, it had parked in the fire lane and was quickly ushered out.



While enjoying the Visitor's Center, we were approached by a very nice sister missionary who told us about the Book of Mormon. While she was talking, Bee kept wondering to herself, "why doesn't she know we're members of the church?" When the missionary finished, she asked if we had ever had a chance to read the Book of Mormon and J told her he had read it many times. Then she asked if we were members of the church. We told her we were and then she said we "looked too stylish" to be members.

A Night in Bethlehem

For this year's Ward Christmas Party, we dressed in biblical attire, sat on the floor of the gym, and watched a live nativity scene.
We had a great time!
Here are a few shots of the event....

December in VA - 2005

December was an eventful month for us....

Work parties

Bee's birthday...

I can't seem to find the pictures now, but for Bee's birthday, J took her to a fancy restaurant, then downtown to look a the lights. J got a little lost on the way home and the car started to make this really loud sound as we drove. Although we could still drive, we decided to pull over before we made things any worse. We weren't sure what to do so we said a prayer. As soon as we ended the prayer, the phone rang. We were sure this would be the answer to our problems...instead, it was Bee's uncle calling to sing her "Happy Birthday!" At least this put things into perspective.
We called AAA and they picked us up and towed our car to a local shop. They also mentioned that we were not in "the best area" of town. Later, we found out we were actually in a very bad part of town and were lucky something terrible didn't happen.....
Happy Birthday Bee!

And, of course, CHRISTMAS!

Since this was our first Christmas officially on our own...in another state, we decided we could start our own Christmas dinner tradition. Since we were in Virginia, J was set on having a ham instead of a turkey. Since Bee doesn't like ham, J had plenty to eat for the next several months.