The MEGA Post

Um... so I haven't posted in a whole month. But this is an attempt to fill in anyone interested, on this last month . . .

We left off December 9th - wow. Perhaps my excuse for not posting squat during the holiday season is because I was completely enjoying myself the entire time and absorbing every relaxing moment I could!! We went to some fantastic Christmas parties, which included A party at Gate's SLC apartment - it was a white elephant gift party. We came with two presents: the most random fairy princess garden water fountain thingy (DI) - and two awesome books (DI) and came home with: A stapler in Yellow Jell-o (The Office) and the movie "A Series of Unfortunate Events". It was a lot of fun, great people with great laughs! We also went to my work party, which was another white elephant gift party and a potluck dinner, mmm mmm. And we had a party at our place!! Seth's work friends came over, we did a white elephant gift exchange as well, it was a blast! We had dinner, the gift game, and then played a number of group games that was just so much fun. I had a great time at least... As for the white elephant gifts that night: Seth gave away his stapler in jell-o gift (we all got a kick out of it) and I gave away 5 big boxes of movie candy... we came away with 5 big boxes of movie candy ;) and a new SHOWER HEAD!!! I know this probably sounds funny, but the usage of all caps and 3 exclamation points is to emphasis how excited we were to have that white elephant gift. We've been wanting a new shower head for a long time, but just haven't paid the money for it. Showers are amazing now, the water pressure is awesome! Thank you Ali and Jed, you thought it was just junk around your house to go to no good at a white elephant gift party... but behold, it was what we always wanted and wished for. Here are the photos we have of those parties...

The night before leaving for Iowa (where we spent Christmas) we went out to Pleasant Grove for the big family dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's. We didn't stay long so we could make it home at a good hour to finish packing and get lots of rest for our big drive the next day. But we loved seeing the whole family, and it was a yummy dinner.

So we drove to Iowa Friday the 19th, Seth actually drove the entire time, we were incredibly lucky for amazing weather and clear roads. We listened to a book on tape (Ender's Game <-- highly recommend it.) which made the long drive just fly by like nothing. I absolutely LOVED being home. It was a fun filled house packed with everything going on. . . A few highlights: Rockband <-- a huge hit we all enjoyed, movie - Valkyrie (recommend it!), bowling, puzzles, shooting, after Christmas shopping with mom and Alicia, last minute errands with mom, Seeing friends I haven't seen in a very long time, and the Hartley Christmas. We played lots of fun games with the entire Hartley family too.

For a great summary on the joys of Rockband click here, and other highlights here. One of my favorite things was actually helping decorate the house for Christmas. The Christmas tree, garlands, wreathes, etc made the whole place beautiful, and it was especially nice because it was my home, my real home. It was a lot of fun to be with everyone, it went by way too fast, but I think I took advantage of it all as much as possible. I'm really glad I got to see Grandma and Grandpa Hartley, I really do have the cutest Gparents in the world, all 7 of them!!

Christmas presents: Seth got a hard drive for his computer, white shirt/black belt/black socks (awesome), charge and play Xbox360 thing, a sweater from me, fog less shower mirror to shave (with a radio - which I LOVE!), a HD atenna that picks up some awesome channels for our TV, and some sweet stocking stuffers. I got a air popcorn popper (I've used it almost everyday), rice cooker, a very clever present from Alicia - a framed back stitching of the quote I said in a post a few months back "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted" (Randy Pausch - the last lecture), and A SEWING MACHINE!!! I was pretty surprised, and it was a perfect present for me. I can now finish the quilt I started before I knew Seth :) It was an exciting present opening experience, we are extremely blessed.

We were blessed with perfect weather on the way home back to Utah as well. We left Sunday morning, the 28th and we listened to another book on tape, Ender's Shadow (<-- highly recommended!) and Seth drove the whole way. :) I am so grateful for a husband who loves to drive, and does it well. We got back to Utah without incident in no time. And it was back to work the next morning! I'm so glad it was just a 3 day week and we had another holiday break because it was really hard to get back into things after a long drive and vacation home.

For New Year's we had a few couples over and we played games and ate yummy food. We watched the ball drop and I think we watched a movie after that??? I can't even remember. But It was a very nice 4 days off to enjoy. Since then it's just been getting into the groove of it all. With a new semester we've both been busy - Seth with a new schedule and Megan working with all the new students and sick patients at the Health Center. We hope you all had a happy holiday season! I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff... but that is my update of our last month.