Before Santa Came...

We were plenty busy! Matt wrapped up his finals while I spent some quality time with my girls...

... then I flew out to Colorado to celebrate the end of his second-to-last semester.

We went out for fondue at the Mona Lisa in Manitou Springs, which was all decked out for the holidays.

Then bowl practice ended and Matt got to come home! He made it just in time for my work's Ugly Sweater Christmas Party.

I took home first place for my tacky ensemble (those are jingle bells on the tree) but had he been eligible for the contest, Matt would have beat me by a landslide. Feel free to click on the picture below to see what I mean!

We traded in our ugly sweaters for nicer attire that night and went to our friend Kristalee's gorgeous wedding reception before seeing the lights on Temple Square and heading up to Brigham.

Lokalgrown (Matt's brother Nate's band) put on an awesome Christmas concert that Saturday.

And then we enjoyed the Morman Tabernacle Choir at Music and the Spoken Word that Sunday with my family
(it's a tradition of ours to go the Sunday before Christmas).

And in other good news... one of Matt's best friends, Mike, just got home from a semester in Spain! We went to the Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place State Park with him & his super cute date Molly.

Then came Christmas... which I'll get to when I get back from Dallas :-) Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

It's Matt's winter break right now so we've been busy!
I'll have plenty to blog about when he heads back to the Academy, but until then we just wanted to say

Merry Christmas!

We're so grateful for our Savior and the true meaning of this holiday.

PS-Isn't this Simon Dewey painting beautiful?

To answer your questions...

Nicole is apparently 50 years old. And I am 60.

Remember that good ol' broken hip I had a couple years ago? And the water aerobics rehab?*

Yes, well on top of that, Nicole and I just recently discovered that we have bunions (it's genetic).
I don't have time for surgery and she did, so she is now the proud owner of a walking cast and normal feet. I hope to get my normal feet in approximately two years when I've accomplished my running goals.

In the meantime, all Coley and I can think about is that awful commercial with the grandma from a few years ago. You know the one: "I've always wanted to dance at my daughter's wedding, but with my painful bunions..."

No laughing, please.

*Just for the record, Liz and I fully enjoyed my water aerobics rehab. AND we were very good at it--beat the grandma's down the pool every time :-)

Is it December already?

Wow, that one flew by fast! I guess time flies when you're having fun... and it especially flies when Matt's in town. He got here Tuesday night and we kicked off the holidays my favorite way on Wednesday by going to Savior of the World, a beautiful play about Christ's birth and resurrection. The Savior and His gospel are the two things I am most grateful for in my life, and I love being reminded of that in such a powerful way this time of year. I've been lucky to spend this holiday season with the other things I’m most thankful for—Matt, my family, and good friends.

That includes our favorite brunettes, Sterling & Alicia, who came to the play with us :-)

We spent last Thanksgiving with the Davises and this was an off-year for the big Graf Thanksgiving, so we just had a nice Thanksgiving at home with my family and my Smith grandparents.

It was rather relaxing.

After shopping on Friday, we headed up to Brigham for the weekend. I somehow managed to get zero pictures of the festivities up north but we had a good time watching football (OU-OSU anyone?), playing games and just hanging out.

We also did some shopping with Matt's mom and sisters in Salt Lake on Saturday, which allowed us to sneak away for a little bit to join my family (including my aunt Janell from NJ!) on our annual Temple Square lights trip.

I think Joshie was glad we (read: Matt) made it.