Setting up our first Christmas

The other day Danny and I pulled the little Christmas tree that my grandma gave to me a few years ago out of the attic. We waited till we were in a particularly Christmassy mood and then we went shopping for ornaments and lights. When we got home we warmed some cider and turned on some Christmas music to be festive and connect with our hundreds of years of Christian heritage. There really is magic in the Christmas season and in the celebrating of it. We laughed and smiled so much my cheeks hurt. We sang a little and tickle-fought a little and kissed a little and it was perfect. We only bought a few ornaments, and we didn't find a tree topper (we want a classy but not glamorous or glitzy star), so we left it because it's only our first Christmas and we're ok with starting off small and building as our life together builds. I have added some red berries since though and I'm glad; they add just the right contrast of color to make it look balanced. After the tree, we went outside and put up some retro-looking, big-bulbed, multi-colored lights that we both love. I danced.


And, yes, that's a black eye - what's left of a funny accident with the car door at the end of a long day on Thanksgiving.

One weekend this autumn Danny and I went camping with his sister, Ashley, and her husband, Matt, whom we love and really enjoy hanging out with. We went to Danny's favorite place where they used to go camping as a family when he was little and where he and his dad have gone many times just the two of them. He's taken me there before, and I too think it's a beautiful place. Late one afternoon we all wanted to go down to the river to hunt for trout. Ashley caught the only one and it was big and beautiful and super delicious, as we found out later. On the way to the river we walked through an empty campsite and nearly stumbled right into a fairy village at the base of a great old tree. Abandoned by its inhabitants for quite a while, it had fallen into disrepair, but its magic lingered in the air and I had to take a photo.

Then, toward sunset, Danny and I went back to camp to start the fire for dinner. He was chopping at a big stump of wood when the ax broke and the head stayed in the wood. He tried everything to get it out, but it was not going anywhere.
I think my husband is so dang cute! Notice the light on the mountain behind him; isn't that gorgeous. Arizona sunsets are often really breathtaking.



One day, after a week of negative thinking and ingratitude when I was particularly homesick for Utah beauty I was in the backyard watering plants and sweeping and stuff when I turned the corner onto the side of the house and saw this:


It may not look like much, but the colors were so vivid and the carpet of purple was so dramatic in a world full of neutrals. It was more beautiful than anything I had seen in days and was just exactly what I needed. Heavenly Father shows us he loves us in the most unexpected ways sometimes.

Mom and Dad's visit

For my birthday in October, my parents gave me the most wonderful gift: they came to visit. We had a blast the entire time they were here. I don't know how we managed to pack in everything we did, but it was awesome. We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and spent hours strolling through spiked cacti, some of which look an awful lot like oceanic coral and other-worldly creatures, and tiny-leafed trees, and flowers which desperately struggle to attract bugs to pollinate them. Here are a few of the photos from that adventure. As you can see, I thought the people were more worthy of pictures given the limited life of my camera's battery. Mom got more photos, and they are much better. I'll see if I can get them from her.
After that, we went to Monty's which is a restaurant here in Tempe that is in one of, if not the oldest standing building in the valley. It was yummy and fun and so wonderful.
The next day Danny and I took them to our favorite grocery store, Trader Joe's, and they were mightily impressed with all the natural, healthy, inexpensive and various items for sale there. They loaded up on all sorts of food they can't get at home. Back at the house we sat around and talked and ate cheese and crackers and fruit. It was so wonderful to just sit with them and discuss ideas and politics and religion; all the things people tell you not to talk about with family, but we loved it. It's sad to me that religion and politics are such taboo subjects because if you think about it, religion and politics are pretty much the two most powerful things in this world that can have the power to build or destroy entire civilizations because of their influence over people's agency. They should be discussed regularly, deeply and thoughtfully. If we could learn to really discuss these two things respectfully, I think we'd be well on our way to figuring out how to live peaceably. After we couldn't sit anymore we went into the back yard and worked together on removing some of the oleanders that I've been chopping at for months making no progress. I have missed working in the yard with my parents. It was one of the things our family did together on a regular basis, and I think it's the reason I developed many of the character traits I like most about me. My parents are so wonderful. I couldn't, in a million life times ask for any better. I love you Mom and Dad!

Danny's ten year reunion

I finally downloaded some photos, so here we go:


In October Danny had his ten year high school reunion. It was really great for me to meet some of the people who knew him before I did, and to hear all the wonderful things they thought of him. I heard over and over, "You got a good one!" and, "Danny's such a great guy, hold on to him." Of course I knew all that, but a part of me liked hearing it. It made me proud and grateful. I liked it especially because we didn't have a typical courtship where we got to watch each other interact with other people at church or school. I never got to crush on him from afar before dating him, and pretty much all of our dating was long-distance, so it was just really fun for me to see him with other people who know and respect him, and to hear some stories from his high school days. It was two nights and two locations, only the second of which we had a semi-functioning camera. Here's a picture of one of his good friends, Matt and his awesome girlfriend, Lindsay, whom I spent quite a bit of time with.