Outlet Christmas Party at Our House!

This past Saturday Dave and I hosted the Outlet Christmas Party at our house! The Outlet is the Sunday school class that we attend. It is a group of 20's and 30's singles and married folks that meet together to learn more about the Lord. It's a great group filled with people we love and it is growing! On any given Sunday we pack out the room we have at the church, and now we invited them all into our home! It was a little bit crazy, but definitely fun!

Here is our decorated Christmas tree. We picked ours up on our way home from the Thanksgiving holiday at the Home Depot. We picked the first tree we saw, got a great deal and were out the door in about 20 minutes. I love our tree!

With 100+ people invited to our tiny town home we had to get creative with our space. We used tablecloths to cover up the shelves in our garage and used our washer and dryer as a dessert buffet. It worked out pretty well and kept the flow of traffic moving from the kitchen to the garage.

My sister Sarah and her college friends came by to help us all celebrate! Here is Heather, Whitney, Sarah, and then Outleters: Me, Tara, and Lacey.

The hosts with the mosts! We had so much fun opening our home to about 80 people on Saturday night. There were lots of people, lots of yummy food and lots of Christmas spirit. Merry Christmas!

Chargers vs. Chiefs

We came back from Thanksgiving a day early to celebrate our friend Jonathan's birthday (belatedly). His wife Lacey wanted to surprise him with tickets to see his favorite team the Kansas City Chiefs, and employed Dave's help in making the ticket selection and keeping it a surprise. It worked! We picked them up Sunday morning and told him we were going to breakfast before church. Then we got on the freeway and Lacey gave him the football tickets. He was so surprised!

Our tickets were 5 rows back from the KC bench. We had great seats!

Here are Lacey and I showing off our team spirit. (The Chargers won!!!)

It was a really fun day in SD and a great way to celebrate a birthday. Way to go Lacey with the great surprise!

Week of Thankfulness

Dave and I left the Saturday before Thanksgiving to head up North to celebrate with our families. We spent a few days in Merced with Dave's folks and got to celebrate his brother's engagement to our soon-to-be-sister-in-law at her parents house up on a mountain in Mariposa. We also spent a few days with my family in Modesto and doing our annual traditions (or "coincidences" as Bryan calls them.) We had so much fun getting to visit with everyone and have so many reasons to be thankful this year.

Here we are in Mariposa celebrating our first thanksgiving of the day with the Nordmans. Here is Dave, Charlie and Christina's brother Brandon doing what boys do best: watching football!

Now at the crazy Harden house with Sarah and Dad putting the finishing touches on their famous sweet potato casserole. It's so yummy!

Sarah and I toasting with her amazing pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

She's so good!

My parents brought home their new puppy Molly right before we came home. Hannity was not thrilled with the new arrival but eventually they became friends and spent many hours chasing each other through the house. This is the best picture I could get of both of them together. They move too much!

On Friday we went to our Columbia (a small, old mining town in the foothills) to celebrate our day after thanksgiving tradition. Apparently no one checked the weather report and it rained on us. Here we are making the best of it! Jessica, Sarah, Mom and I using our scarves to keep out of the rain.

Then Dad decided to make fun of our ingenious head scarves. I told them this should be their christmas card picture this year. :)

Here is Sarah bowling in the Columbia bowling alley.

And Dave and I in front of the blacksmith shop.

It was a whirlwind week of family, food and friends. We are so thankful to have such amazing families to spend the holidays with. We love going home and we love eating two thanksgiving meals!!!