Life can be so busy ...

My goodness, time has just been flying by!

Lets go back to last month to Christopher's ruck march with the National Guard.  Christopher volunteered for an 11 mile ruck march while carrying a 70 lb. backpack on his back. Kinda crazy, I know.  He was kind of nervous the night before because he had no idea of what to expect. So, he woke at 5 in the morning to head over to Camp Williams.  When he arrived, he found that he was the only Private to volunteer for the ruck march! All of the others were either Captains or Sergeants. So they started walking and about halfway through the march, he began to feel some discomfort in his boots. But he had to ignore it and continue on.  When he got home later that day, he finally got to take his boots off.  When he pulled his first sock off, it revealed a bloody blister that covered his entire heel (not an exaggeration). It looked so painful! Then, he took off his other sock and revealed another mammoth blister. These were not your normal new shoe blisters.  I felt so bad and could not believe he hiked that far with those on his feet! My man is so tough!

Then we had Thanksgiving! We love everything about this holiday.  We really wanted to focus on the things we are thankful for, so for the whole month of November we kept a running list inside our apartment of the things we are thankful and grateful for.  I think we may have found ourselves a new tradition! It was wonderful to reflect and to constantly be reminded of the blessings in our lives.

For Thanksgiving, we got to spend it with friends and family.  We hosted Whitney and Griffin, my brother Griffin, Griffin's brother Seth and his wife Missy, their other brother Ammon, and Missy's brother Matt.  We all contributed to the dinner which was really fun.  Christopher and I made the pumpkin bread, stuffing, cookies, and mashed potatoes.  Whitney and Griffin brought the ham, gravy, and some drinks.  Missy brought vegetables, rolls, and pie.  Ammon and Griffin both brought drinks.  We had quite the meal, and it was SO good.  We all pretty much ate ourselves sick, as I think a lot of people do.  After we ate, we needed time to digest so we watched some football, Skyped our families, and some of us (namely my brother Griffin) took naps. After we were all digested, we gathered for a nice game of Redneck Life. Now if you have not heard this game, you have now and must play it.  It is the most entertaining game I have ever played.  The three couples paired up into teams and the three single brothers were on their own teams.  We all got pretty competitive, but nobody got as competitive as Whitney and Griffin.  They were winning and would NOT let that change.  I think they forgot it was not real life.  They would seriously talk about a decision before they made it as if they were making a life changing decision. It was SO funny.

So now we are in December, and the semester is rapidly coming to an end.  Finals are next week...HALLELUJAH!  I am surprised I made it through this semester and am that much closer to graduation. Christopher and I are so excited for our first Christmas together.  We are happy to spend it with each other, his family, and then see my family for the New Year.  We love this time of year and the reason for the season.  We know Christ lives!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!