Our first Christmas

This is a picture with my good friend Heather.  When Dan and I were 'unofficially' engaged, Heather put us in contact with her parents (who are from the same town/ward we now live in) who helped us find somewhere to live.They are salt-of-the-earth people and have been quite a support to us as we have been starting out here.  Before Christmas, Heather was here visiting her family and we were able to play multiple times while she was here.  It was fun to do stuff here, on her stompin' grounds.  For her birthday, we went to the Saturday Market in downtown Portland. 

One of the shops we visited had these awesome hats, and we couldn't resist, so we struck a pose :)

There were even jolly carolers to offer some festive cheer. 

The Broberg family, in our ward, invited us over Christmas Eve to participate in their annual talent show.  It was a blast!  There were multiple musical talents, some comical - others just fun, stories, a finger-tap dancing video, and more.  As my talent, I decided to share my favorite children's story, Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and Dan showed his impressive gum-drop catching skills.  We had a wonderful time and felt blessed to be a part of such a neat family tradition. 

While we were sad not to be with family for Christmas, we had a wonderful first Christmas together.  This was part of the spread Christmas morning. . . . We had eggs, bacon, sausage, cinnamon rolls, hashbrowns, o.j., yogurts, and hot chocolate.  That is my kind of breakfast!

Because we were traveling most of December, we didn't really have time to get a Christmas tree; so we decided to make Kris Kringle our pseudo tree instead. 

Here is what Santa Claus brought us.  Dan got luggage and a few ties; I got a skirt, calendar,and a few other odds 'n ends.

Opening presents. . . unfortunately, we didn't take pictures of later Christmas evening.  We were invited to dinner by our good friends, the Hedgecock's who made an amazing duck dinner - a first for all of us.  We ended up laughing, eating and playing games most of the evening.  All-in-all, a wonderful holiday season for us!  Merry Christmas!