A lot of celebrating...

the year boldly came to a close w/o my notice. actually, last night i think i fell asleep around 10:15pm? haha, am i an old lady already? yes, but i'm excusing my exhaustion w/ all the recent festivities...

Thanksgiving:
like so many years of my LA life, i spent this special holiday w/ my family away from home. This year, there were two additions - D and this special girl:

such cuuuute chubby cheeks! (for those new to my blog, that's not my daughter...haha)

the day after Thanksgiving, we headed up to Santa Barbara where we met up w/ the Muggs for some touristing and shopping.

we ran into some friends along the way: B. Franklin (pictured above), Aristotle, Plato, and then some real friends: the Searcy's =)

Anyways, i realized recently that i love traditions and am trying to set a Thanksgiving one: reminding all my friends what they were thankful for last year and asking for their new lists... i think some of them find it annoying so we'll see how long this "tradition" lasts but you know, it's always good to pause & reflect on what we're thankful for.

my favorites from their lists:
-one of my friends finally having a job that she's passionate about
-new babies (for several of my friends!)
-family - even through all the tough parts
-a defiant peace thru the unknown and a storm of outer circumstances

my '08 list:
-how much i've been wow-ed by the deluge of answered prayers this year. a real lesson in faith.
-opportunities to serve that become opportunities to grow and learn
-a bit of freedom from my worst tendancies - that God can work miracles in freeing me (bit by bit) from my idols.
-and lastly, for d. cheesy but true. i've learned a lot about undeserved love from him.

which leads to The Anniversary:

on Dec 6th, D & I celebrated our 1-year. it was a wonderfully sweet wked - filled w/ tenderness and laughs. =)

this is us at one of our favorite restaurants: C&O's.
who can beat the yuuummy seafood linguini and being a skip away from the beach?

in trying to set another tradition, we re-lived a holiday event from last year - decorating gingerbread pieces together. this was the time last year that d found out what a control freak i can be when we had "differing opinions" on how to best decorate our gingerbread choo-choo train. so this year, i got us gingerbread men for us to decorate separately. =)

we each got 4 men to decorate. d's 3rd gingerbread man is on the right. he was my favorite of the night - his face expresses the horror at what he's wearing. haha...

and this was the favorite amongst d's friends - a nerdy Rand guy, just like all of them! =)

Then there was Christmas:
and a most unusual one it was...on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean!

we stopped briefly in the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.
this pic was taken from the boat off the coast of St. Thomas (a US virgin island) on Christmas eve.

d & i traveled to the east coast to celebrate his Mema and Popi's 50th anniversary. and what a party wk it was! 17 of us together on the Mariner of the Seas, my first cruise. there was beach time, JETSKIING!, card games, towel animals, dancing, and lots and LOTS of food!

everywhere you go on the boat, there are ppl who want to take portraits of you. on this night, Mema coordinated all of us to match - girls in black and guys in Hawaiian shirts. this was the best one we got b/c in all the other takes, the little guy on my lap kept making faces at the camera man. haha...

i was a little nervous before the trip, but his family was so generously sweet to me! i loved getting to know each of them better!

and here we are on the first of our formal nights. it was my 1st time to see d in his uniform. if i may say so, doesn't he look dashing? =)

what a year it's been. i need to go back and reflect on it like i've done the past couple years (haha, another tradition!) but that'll come later. for now, HAPPY NEW YEAR!