recap.

I think I've put off blogging now for so long that I don't even know where to start.

We made the 800 mile drive to California and spent Christmas with my family. The weather was so nice the entire time! It didn't really feel like Christmas though, since we usually have at least some rain or cold weather, if not snow. We went into Sacramento with my sister one day and had sushi at Arigato, my favorite place. It was amazingly delicious, as always. Sterling even loved it. Then we finished up last-minute shopping at the mall, which was incredibly crowded and crazy. After being in Idaho for the past year, California overwhelms me a bit at times. And it's weird how diverse it is!

Christmas was good, we got lots of good stuff. I'm excited to put our new fitted sheets on our bed, Sterling tore off our old ones every night in his sleep. So we spent a week in California in all. It was sad leaving. What made it so hard this time is the fact that I have no idea when the next time I'll see my family is.

Then we made our way to Grace to see the Stoddard side. Have I mentioned how much I love Southeast Idaho? We took a new way to Grace this time, and we definitely liked it better. We also stopped in Ogden on our way back to use a giftcard at a restaurant that we got for the wedding. It was for $100, so we went a little crazy. Hellllo lobster, prime rib, and bacon-wrapped tenderloins! Pretty delicious.

We had our Stoddard Christmas party on Thursday night. Sterling got a Dallas Cowboys knit hat and argyle socks that he just loves, and I got a good new cookbook. And I pretty much owned the Candy Bar Game, I must say. In the very last second of the game, I won back the much-desired Idaho Spud Bar. Oh yes :)

We went over to Sander's Furniture in Soda Springs the other day to use the money that people gave us there for the wedding. We had over $1000 in credit there! So we picked out a nice new bed and a dresser. We still have a couple hundred dollars left to spend sometime down the road when we want to buy a nice dining room table or something. We're leaving the bed and dresser down here for now though, since we're only going to be in Moscow for another 5 months or so. I can't wait to use it! 

Last night, we went down to Dayton to view the pictures from our wedding. We're really happy with them! We picked out over 100 that our photographer will make prints of for us. I'm excited to see them and put together a nice photo album. 

So here we are now, we'll stay in Grace until Tuesday, then we'll head back up to Moscow in time for my birthday on Thursday. We'll be coming back to Grace again at the end of January because Sterling's sister is leaving for her mission. 

Tonight is New Year's, but we're just going to be an old married couple and hang out at home. I will make sure we stay up until midnight though, at least!