A YEAR OF WEDDINGS

One way to reflect on 2007, is to recap all the special events (weddings!) that occurred:

March 17th: Greg and Dianna

April 21st: Nicole and Rob

August 12th: Justin and Erin

August 18th: Ross and Jenn

September 15th: Adam and Kelly

October 27th: Taryn and David

And not to leave out our friends and family who got married in 2006, 2005, and 2004:

August 2006: Bret and Michelle

June 2006: Jamie and Chris

June 2005: John and Betsy

April 2004: Vicki and Barry

And coming up in 2008? Robyn and Stephen are getting married!!

CHRISTMAS IN CALIFORNIA

We switch Christmas between coasts each year, and this was a Cali year. It was relaxing, but we did a lot, and I got to see most everyone I was hoping to (we missed Jenn, Karen, and Coach Rap). We hit the Bay Area, the Central Valley, and the mountains. We even had time to take a family photo! The first since the late 80's! I'll have to get mom to scan that old one in for me so we can compare them! Anyway, on with the photos!

Friday night, we went to Katy's Margarita Christmas Party:

Saturday we went into the city to have dinner with Jamie:

Oh, those newlyweds, always kissing and hugging and whatnot...

Here are Grandma, Mom, Jamie, Jay, Taryn, and David in front of the Christmas tree on Pier 39

Sunday we went over to Oak Grove Park to take our family photo. Jay was our photographer! He's going to digitally alter the photo to add Chris (who was finishing his basic training and missed the photo), so I'll post that later, with the 80's photo for comparison! Until then, check out us lovely ladies:

Monday was Christmas Eve and we started the day with a visit to Nicole's new house to hang out with her and Rob, and Michelle, Bret, and Madelyn. We ate snacks, had some red wine, and exchanged Christmas ornaments. I got a cardinal (my favorite bird, not counting the Golden-cheeked Warbler of couse) from Nicole and a sea turtle from Michelle that she picked up in Maui, Mele Kalikimaka! (I can't wait to go to in May!)

Here we are... Nicole with Kobe, and Michelle with Madelyn.

As Christmas Eve continued, Jay and I spent some quality time with Little Man. We walked Aunt Margie's dogs, played with the trucks, and made "polka dots". This lovely photo of Jay and I is courtesy of Barry Jr. He's getting pretty good, though I admit I deleted about 50 other photos that cut off our heads...

Barry Jr., Vicki, and Barry were the only family members willing to keep with tradition and drive around looking at Christmas lights after dark. Barry Jr. had some pretty good comments on the lights, and he especially liked the "tallest Christmas tree" (a palm tree) and the motorcycle with Santa on it. We did the usual, Spanos' house and Meadow.

This is what Jay and I got Barry Jr. for Christmas.

And yes, we know we're in for revenge once we have our own kids, but we couldn't resist!

In addition to the normal, usual gifts we got Mom and Dad (earrings and travel-safe socks), we went in with David and Taryn to get them the Garden Yeti! It stemmed from a "horror" movie involving Takahe that we watched in summer of '06, a running joke since. And by the way, we had thought of this gift and purchased it long before it ever made it onto "Fashionably Loud", although I admit, I did think of it while shopping airborne through SkyMall... My parents loved it! And the scavenger hunt my brother put together to make them "find" bigfoot topped it off!

As Christmas Eve drew to a close, we called Kendall and had him bring over the Karaoke gear. We opened a few bottles of wine and got to singing. By hour 2, it didn't matter who had the mike, we were all just screaming at the TV.

Fun for us, painful for my parents!

Tuesday was Christmas Day. We started the morning off right with Gin Fizzes at the Christopherson residence. We got to meet Adam, Kelly's husband (pictured here with us), and catch up with Linda and GC. It was so fun to see them all!

Wednesday we went up to Yosemite with my mom.

There wasn't much snow on the way in, but we could see Half Dome was covered.

We hiked down Tamarac Creek to get a new angle on Jay's favorite waterfall and bridge in the park. It hurt our Mississippi lungs to get back up the hill, but it was worth it.

The valley had quite a bit of snow and Jay got some really good photos. The problem was that the weather had been warm earlier in the week, melting much of the snow. When it got cold again, it created an ice pack on almost every trail and parking lot, so it was hard to get around.

Towards the end of the day, we decided to check out the Ahwanee Hotel, since we had never been before. We were really impressed with their fireplaces (you can actually sit INSIDE them to warm up from the cold) and the back-to-back pianos in the main hall. Very cozy. It was fun to see the families in there putting puzzles together and playing games. Maybe some year our family will go spend the holiday in the park...

TURDUCKEN PARTY

Haven't heard of Turducken? Well, it's a southern thing. It's duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey... poultry to the max. It's weird, and it looks funny, but it tastes great! Generally served around Thanksgiving and Christmas, with all the normal fare: green bean casserole, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce, apple pie, you get the idea. I don't have a picture of the turkducken (I was at the end of the food line and you couldnt' really tell what it was by then), but here are a few photos from the party, which was hosted by Erin and Jeff (coworkers of ours at ERDC):

Tom, Natalia, and Christina

Ed, my team leader at ERDC

JAY'S BIRTHDAY

To start Jay's birthday, I took him out to lunch at Walnut Hills, a good 'ol southern cookin' restaurant here in Vicksburg served at a big round table with a lazy-susan, buffet-style. His coworkers Jim and Christina joined us.

After work, we went to see "I Am Legend" at the new theatre in Madison (just north of Jackson). The movie was great, a bit scary in some scenes and definitely suspenseful. We thought Will Smith did a great job, espeically since he had to act alone through about 90% of the movie. After the movie, we checked out the new shopping centers in Madison and found 2 of our favorite restaurants, PF Changs and Bonefish Grill. Of course, sushi sounded good too, so we went to Nagoya, a Japanese steakhouse that also serves amazing sushi. I was really impressed with my choices. Problem is, there are so few good restaurants around, and it was a Friday night, so the place was packed (it's no fun eating delicious food with 25 people staring you down). When we got home, Jay finally opened his gifts. Here are the highlights:

From Jean, and yes, he was surprised!

Compliments of Gir and Hyde. Those guys have good taste.

From Mom. No photo of Jay putting his new weather station together, but Mouton sure seemed to enjoy the box!

BOWHEAD CHRISTMAS PARTY

Jay's contracting company, Bowhead, threw their annual Employee Christmas Party at Borellos, the Italian restaurant in Vicksburg. The food was OK (Borellos is not such a good restaurant, and we have no idea why... it's just not that hard to make spagetti taste good!) and the entertainment was OK (karaoke is fun, but most of the "performers" were not so good), but the door prizes were good (every employee got at least one, because not everyone who RSVP'd showed up). We cut out early...

Here we are at dinner. Nobody shared a table with us, so we entertained ourselves.

Here's Jay with his door prize, chocolate and cookies!

Back home, I just had to show off our new bedroom furniture. Here I am in front of the armoire.

OUR 4TH ANNIVERSARY

We went to dinner at Bourbon's, at the Ameristar Casino. The food was great, but overpriced with small portions (except the deserts, which were HUGE).

When we got home, we opened cards and gifts. Some of our favorites this year were the grills (a George Forman grill from my parents and Weber charcoal grill from Jay's Dad) and the annual Christmas ornaments that Jean gets us (this year I got a Stellar's Jay!)

Here is Jay with his Eskimo ornament.

Mouton likes to help us open presents, especially if there's ribbon!

4TH ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND TRIP

Every year for our anniversary we take a weekend-long trip to a local state park and stay in a cabin (no TV, no cats, no distractions). Rather than give eachother gifts, we think spending a little quality, quiet time together is the best present! This year we went up to Legion State Park.

Our home for the weekend, Cabin 2.

The lake was low, we were able to walk across to the other side...

Watching "Fox and the Hound". And yes, I always wear my wedding tiara on our anniversary weekend!