Christmas Eve Fondue and Pajamas!!

For Christmas Eve this year, we did fondue at my mom's. It was a lot of work to prepare all the food (there was tons of it), but worth it! And then of course our annual Christmas pajamas! I love this tradition and I can't wait to carry it on with my kids. My favorite part of this Christmas eve/Christmas was the snow!! It made it seem so much more like Christmas. Brandon, my dad, and Tegunn went out and shoveled every 15 minutes, and of course Greg was out in the snowplow plowing the roads of Perry! I forgot my camera so didn't get a lot of pictures. I will post a few more when Riley sends them to me! When we went back to the Goldsberry's, we sat in front of the window and just watched it snow. Brandon's mom said that we were just like little kids!

To our family and friends...

This is going to be our Christmas letter. I just wasn't on top of it enough to get one sent out this year! And.. they aren't that fun when there are no pictures and no kids.. so this will have to do!
This last year has been a good one for us and seems to have gone by REALLY fast, which I can't decide is a good or bad thing.
We don't have a whole lot of excitement in our lives.
Brandon is still doing school full time. He has hit his half way mark in school. Only 4 more semesters total--2 course work and 2 internship (hopefully paid). This means that he will be done spring of 09. We hope to eventually end up in Logan, but we might have to wait awhile to get to that point. He is really loving the career that he has chosen. He realized it mostly when he was able to do his internship this summer in Idaho Falls. He stayed with my grandparents in Driggs. He was able to work directly with patients and build relationships with them as he got to practice what he has been learning. He was always excited to tell me about the new stuff that he learned or new exercises he gained while working with the patients. He was sad to leave the people that he worked with and the patients, but glad to get back home after 10 long weeks of being apart. Thank goodness that we got to see each other on the weekends, or I think I would have gone crazy! We had a little break in that 10 weeks that most of you know about.. Brandon had a ruptured appendix and had to have emergency surgery and was in the hospital for close to a week. It was hard emotionally, mentally, financially, and physically for both of us. It took Brandon a long time to become himself again, but we are just grateful that he is still alive and with us! I am so grateful that I listened when the spirit told me to take him to the ER! I don't even want to think what would have happened! For more details... see june and july posts!
I started working from home right around the time that this happened, which worked out really well so that I was able to take care of Brandon but still be able to work. I am still working for the state, Department of Workforce Services, as an eligibility specialist. I really like it, especially because I get to work in my pj's! I do miss the social aspect of being in the office, but I am also able to get more stuff done around the house on my breaks and try to workout in the mornings without getting up too early! I love the challenges that this job brings and every situation is different and I learn new things every day.
Brandon has kept very busy with fantasy football this fall. He has never gotten so into the NFL and usually only follows college football. I have begun to really hate football, but I guess he needs something to fall back on as his AGGIES are not the best team and hard to stay so loyal to, but that he does!
Brandon and I both serve in the primary in our ward. I have been teaching the 11/12 year old girls. Brandon was just called to serve with me and we will be the rotating couple filling in when needed. We are excited to be able to prepare the lessons together and use this opportunity to learn and strengthen our testimonies as we teach. We enjoy the ward and area that we are in, and have developed good friendships while we have been here. We also love having so much family so close to us and having the opportunities to watch the nieces and nephews and spend time with them.
We have truly been blessed and look forward to the other blessings that may be in store for us.
We wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year and hope that you will be blessed also. Thanks for all of your friendship, love, and support! We love you all and are blessed to have you in our lives.
Brandon and Bridget

Mary and Joseph?

Can we be Mary and Joseph without a baby? Hmmm, anyway this was for our ward party.. we went to Bethlehem. The people did a really good job. Thanks to Jen we had some stuff to wear!! I just thought the last picture was really funny! :)

OH CHRISTMAS TREE!!

This is our Christmas tree. We usually put our tree up in the corner and hardly anyone ever comes to our house. This year, I figured that it was too much work if nobody is going to see it, so ee had to do some rearranging with our furniture so that it could be in front of the window. I wanted people to be able to see it!! But nobody can see the best part.. the tree skirt. I have been looking for a tree skirt to match my green and red tree, but I am just too dang picky and have to have it matching exactly, so I finally decided to just make one. Yeah.. that was an adventure, but I did it and I actually kind of like it. It looks a lot better in person.. it is hard to see the green ornaments against the green tree, but those are my colors and had to stick with em! :) Our tree is also a hand me down, so no judging!

First Snow!!!

Yes... I know that I am a little late, (as always) but we got our first snow the other night. It snowed throughout the day! We had close to 8 or 9 inches! It was crazy. It had actually snowed a little the night before. Brandon and I were on our way home from somewhere that night and I love the look of fresh snow.. everything covered in white and the light shining on it. I love when the trees are covered in white too. Beautiful! There is a place just across the road that I love right after it snows.. it looks so cool. I tried to take a picture.. but they weren't very good. I will post them anywayThis is out my front window.. I didn't want to go outside.. way too cold! :)

15 of my favorite things.

Wow! I feel like Oprah! J/K! My stuff is not near as good as her stuff! I wish! So.. some of these might be kind of old stuff.. but I still love them. I am the kind of person that usually sticks with things that I like and don't change much!!

1-- Special K red berries cereal/waffles. I really like any of the special K products. Brandon got me stuck on the cereal awhile ago when I said I wanted to find a healthy cereal. He suggested that not knowing how expensive it was and would become! :) I just found the frozen waffles and love them!! I have to now watch for the cereal to go on sale.. 4.12 (at walmart) is a little steep for me right now! I know.. I am cheap!

2--scentys. These are so cool. I love that the scent is so strong and you can smell it all over the apartment. I also love that you can change them out every once and awhile. And with all that.. perfectly safe!

3--Mirabella makeup. I have been using this for quite awhile also. Elise took me to a little makeup party open house thing at Fran Brownlike 5 years ago as they were introducing this. They put it on me and I loved it. I have been wearing it ever since. Cute colors.. and good quality makeup for reasonable prices! I love the lip glosses especially.

4--800/1000 thread count HOME sheets from Target. I say 800/1000 because last black friday I bought the 800 thread count and we absolutely LOVE them, so I really hoped that they would have them again this year. Well.. this year they had 1000 thread count. I bought them but haven't put them on yet, because I thought I might want a different color and they don't have the different color in yet!

5--my new micro fleece blanket from Target. Super soft and warm! We put ours on our bed. Very nice! Also got this on black friday.

6--PROACTIV! I don't even know what my life would be like without this stuff! Seriously.. I should be on an infomercial for it! I LOVE IT! I never had really bad acne untill my junior year in college (21-22). I totally broke out.. my face always felt like it was burning and on fire and I would try to hide it, but there wasn't anyway. I went to the dermatologist and we tried different things, but it was getting worse. My last option was to do ........., but my mom refused to let me, so we tried ProActiv. My face cleared right up and all the scars went away! I never thought my face would be normal again, but this stuff saved my life! I look back at pictures and all I can say is OUCH! I still remember how it feels just looking at the pictures! I still use the proactiv and don't dare stop using it! I can tell if I even miss one night! I guess I am just one of those unlucky people who has adult acne.

7--Hot chocolate/cocomotion. YUM!! I love when it gets cold enough to start drinking hot chocolate. I love to cuddle up and drink hot chocolate. It is even better to make it in the cocomotion to mix it up perfectly.

8--Car power adapter. I don't even know if this is what it is called really, but it plugs into your cigarette lighter in your car and it is a power outlet so anything you can plug in at home, can plug in in the car! On our ride to st. george we hooked up brandon's laptop and watched movies (I know.. that is what portable dvds are for, but we don't have one of those). I just remember thinking like 8 years ago how cool it would be if you were running late one day and you could blowdry your hair in the car. Well.. now you can!

9--chocolate strawberries. I have always loved these! I love strawberries and to add chocolate to it! YUM!!

10-- Any scrapbook supplies. I love to just go to Roberts and look at all the fun scrapbooking stuff. They have so much cute stuff! I find myself buying all this stuff and I just store it and don't do anything with it! I really am going to pick up where I left off and start being a good scrapbooker again. I especially LOVE ribbon.

11-Mary Kay eye makeup remover. This stuff is great! I have used it for who knows how long, but I love it to remove the eye makeup that doesn't like to come off with just a normal facewash!

12--My "SLEEK" shampoo. Again, I think I have used this for like 5 years, but I really really like it. My hair gets really snarly and hard to comb out with most shampoos. This makes it so easy to comb and really soft. Thanks Cara for gettin it in the gallons for me! :)

13-- my fuzzy socks. You can get them at Target. Really I don't know what they are made out of, but SUPER soft and warm. My feet always are so cold and they are awesome for working at home and I don't want to put shoes on!

14--my black down puffy coat. I got this last year for christmas. It is from old navy. I love it because of course warm for the cold winter and you can dress it up or just wear it casual.

15--Sani wipes. These are basically the clorox wipes, but the cheap kind. I love that they sanitize all surfaces and make cleaning really easy. Good also when you live with a germ freak! :)

Hope that was entertaining for you all!! That is kind of hard! I thought about it for a whole day! :)
Tagging: Alyssa, Cara, Steph, Emily and anyone else that wants to do it!

Christmas Candy!

What would Christmas be without the Goldsberry candy making extravaganza? Okay, so not really an extravaganza, but it is a tradition. Every year Brandon's parents say no more because it is too much work, but Brandon insists that they keep doing it (just like the salsa), so we get to be the helpers! :) It is actually kind of fun and a tradition that we will continue to look forward to. I don't think that we have missed a year since we have been married. I think that we might be the ones to take over and carry on the tradition! :) We make nut balls (like the ones at idle isle and peanut clusters. I got to do the chocolate this year! What a job! My hands were covered in chocolate! It was hard not to lick them constantly.. no worries.. I didn't! :)


Starting the candy making routine

The dipping nuts

YUM!! CHOCOLATE!!

The two candy making pros

Making the clusters

This is Brandon watching THE game (BYU/UTAH). Brandon was really upset.. it is a good thing we were done by the end of the game.. we didn't have a very happy person. We would have had nuts and chocolate EVERYWHERE! :)