Christmas 2007 and New Years 2008

I haven't written an update for a while so I thought I would give a recap on our Christmas and New Years events. Our Christmas events started with us celebrating our 5th Anniversary here in Chicago. We had a nice quiet evening at home on the day of our anniversary and partied the next night in downtown Chicago with Jason and Diana. I had received a few gift certificates to a chain of restaurants called 'Lettuce Entertain You' from people at work for Christmas, so we decided to try one of the restaurants on Friday night. Rob, Diana and I drove downtown and headed to Jason's office to pick him up from work. Once we picked up Jason we walked over to the christkindl market at Daley Plaza. We wandered around the market for a bit admiring all the little shops, the big Christmas tree, and the giant Christmas story book on display. We made our way into one of the shops that was filled with Christmas tree ornaments. When we made our way back out of the shop we owned a pickle ornament. :-)


After the christkindl market we walked over to Macy's to see the giant tree they had on display. As we were making our way through the mall we became distracted by more than one thing. We stopped to admire all the large stuffed animals, laugh at the headless mannequins in the children's department and we lounged in some very comfortable recliners while we watched part of a movie in the furniture department. Once we were done at the mall we walked over to 'Shaw's' to eat. This was a very nice restaurant that served seafood. Once our waiter finally realized we were seated at his table and he started to help us we had an amazing meal. We ate crab legs, crab cakes, some amazing clam chowder and a few other delicious items. We also had oysters, this was a complimentary item given to us from our waiter for neglecting us for so long when we first arrived. In other words it was an item we didn't order for a reason, yuck! The desserts we ate after our delicious dinner were absolutely amazing though. Ahh... yummy food at an expensive restaurant that we normally wouldn't ever get to try, it was so exciting. :-)

The next day we flew out to Utah to spend a week for Christmas. We had all kinds of fun while we were in Utah, thanks to so many of you. We spent lots of time playing with the Johnson kids, watching movies at my mom and dad's and a few at the theater, we got to see baby Chloe, open presents, eat lots of chocolate from the fountain, made a trip to Wingers, hit the slopes for a day, and saved Rob from what could have been a disastrous fall in the shower. :-)

We had so much fun while we were in Utah it was hard for us to come home to Illinois and get back to life. No time for rest though, it was New Years Eve! We met Jason and Diana over at Target to do a quick gift buying game for the four of us, and to grab a few last minute things, then headed over to their house for a party. We had lots of food and lots of noise makers. When everyone else showed up we were ready for a party. We played a few games, laughed a lot and ate all the yummy food to pass the time until midnight. Once midnight hit we made a lot of noise and danced around for a minute or two then we headed home to hit the sack.

Rob didn't have to go back to school until the next week so he studied the rest of the week and I headed back to work. Ugh, we liked it much better when we were on vacation! We have finally started to feel like we're getting back into the swing of things. I'm keeping myself busy with going to the gym, young women's activities, reading books and getting my house back in order. I also made cinnamon rolls for the first time last weekend. They needed a little more brown sugar and cinnamon in the middle but for my first time making them I would have to say they didn't turn out too bad. Rob is back at the library studying his little heart out trying to hang in there until he has to take boards. Any extra prayers on his behalf to help him make it would be appreciated.

With my lack of updates the past couple months I have also slacked on writing my three best things. I am really going to try to keep up with this again. It really helps to keep life upbeat and positive. So here it is, my three best things for the year of 2007.

1. My amazing husband. He has so much drive and desire to succeed for himself and his family (me and our future posterity) that he puts everything he has into his studying. This year as he's been contemplating what field to pursue his focus has turned to 'what will be the best for my family' instead of 'what will be the most fun'. I am such a lucky person to be married to a man who puts so much hard work into succeeding so it will benefit his family. He also makes sure that he puts just as much time into showing me that he loves me so I know how much he appreciates what I do for him. Again, I am one lucky girl to be married to such an amazing person.

2. Our Heavenly Fathers willingness to listen and answer our prayers. This year I have been able to experience what it means to have prayers answered. I know that when we pour out our hearts to our heavenly father he listens. He will never let us go through life alone and I am so grateful for the comfort I have received through out this year. I am excited to see what guidance and comfort he will give me in the year of 2008.

3. Being called as the young women camp director and then being put in as the beehive advisor. I absolutely love my calling in the young women program. I get to surround myself with beautiful daughters of god every week and they bring so much happiness and joy into my life. I used to feel like I never really shared my testimony with anybody and I used to think about how I could change that in my life. Our heavenly father knew the desires of my heart and he opened a door for me, I get to share my testimony of the gospel with these girls every week. If any of the mothers of these beautiful daughters are reading this, thank you for sharing the sweet spirits of your daughters with me.


We love all of you. I hope you enjoyed my recap of the close of 2007.

Tiff