January Funk

Ah the winter funk of January in Utah. I haven't posted in quite some time. I'll start posts and then delete them. Chris and I are not winter people and we do not participate in any winter sports, so we hybernate. January is almost over, now all we need to do is make through February and things will start looking up. At least that is what I tell myself instead of heading to the tanning bed. The CARDINAL sin for estheticians.

We did have an amazing day January 20th as an African American was sworn in as president of the United States. What an incredible historical day to experience. Below are some of my favorite pictures. The first one, a satellite image of the inauguration - the brown spots are all people.

really, can these girls be any cuter?

Emergency Kit

So, it has been awhile since I have posted. Nothing too interesting has happened, but I want to finish a few posts so that I can talk about bigger and better things. Now, after seeing the gifts that our dogs got from Sandy Paws your might be surprised to learn that they got something from Chris and I on top of that. This year I made a Doggy Emergency Kit. I hope and pray that we are never faced with losing our home in some sort of natural disaster or even just living days without things like power and heat. But, it is quite a possibility and as I work on our emergency preparedness and food storage I realized I needed something for our "children". If I didn't I will be the idiot on the news dying with her dogs because I refuse to leave them behind. Below is our kit. It was really easy to put together, I found a great list online and most of the stuff I got at Dollar Tree.

Darcy's Story

One of the few things I did over the holidays was read a book. It was great. I don't remember the last time I took the time to just sit and read and enjoy it. I generally feel like I should be doing something more productive when I am home - like cleaning. I got a great recommendation from a friend. It is called Darcy's Story. It is meant as a companion book to Pride and Prejudice. It is Mr. Darcy's side of the story. I was rather skeptical when Chris brought it home from the library and it is listed as young adult ROMANCE. Ugh. But it was really good. If you haven't read Pride and Prejudice, then you will most likely be lost with this book. It is very truly a companion book. It does not re-explain details that are going on, which is nice, especially when you know the story line well. I hate book series' that spend the first 50 pages rehashing everything you already know. The author was very good at capturing Jane Austen's style and of course, kept completely true to Pride and Prejudice. If you love Jane Austen, I highly recommend reading Darcy's Story, it is a pretty quick read too since it is only 200 pages. It only took me away from productive activities for a day!

Family Photos for the Christmas Cards

Our friend Kandis graduated last May in photography from the University of Utah. She was offering a special through the holidays as she builds her portfolios. We decided to get updates photos of us taken and include our dogs for the Christmas cards. I think they turned out great! Photographing dogs is not easy! You can check out other families she's done at kjophoto.blogspot.com. Her blog is bookmarked on ours too. Here are a few of our favorites:

Sandy Paws

This year Sandy Paws (Santa for our dogs, yes it is pathetic, I know) came two days in a row. Christmas morning he brought treats in their stockings. Then the next day after hitting the Old Navy After Christmas Sales he brought parkas. Now I realize they have fur, they are dogs, yada yada yada but look at the photos below. They are so darn cute! Sally's hood kept falling over her face and she kept running into things and the last pic is their friend Olive.

Christmas Eve Dinner

This year Chris and I finally had a traditional french Christmas Eve dinner. We always said we wanted to do this. We did the meal in courses so it took a full two hours. We had a salad course, cheese course, main course where we had Duck, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and stuffing and then a dessert course. We invited my parents and our friend Julie. I should have taken pictures because I realize many of you don't believe that I cooked this huge dinner. We set the table really fancy including nametag holders, so after the fact I did take pictures of those:

Anyway, it was a great time and this will definitely be a Lake family tradition when we are spending Christmas Eve at home. Chris and I have already talked about improvements we will make for next time. After the dinner Julie, Chris and I went to the 11pm Christmas Eve service at the Christ United Methodist Church. Our friend Karen's daughters play in their well known bell choir and they were performing at this particular service. It was really nice to remember why we celebrate Christmas. My favorite part is when they turn off the lights and we all have candles and sing Silent Night. I need that kind of perspective before the greediness of Christmas morning. :)

Long Beach

On Friday, December 19th we had a whole day in Long Beach, CA to kill before our plane left the Long Beach Airport at 6pm. It ends out that it was snowing like crazy in Salt Lake City so that our plane was delayed. We ended up sitting in the tiny Long Beach airport for SIX hours! It was miserable, but we were so glad to finally arrive back in Salt Lake at 1am. 4 hours after we were supposed to land. What a rude awakening from the gorgeous sunny day in Long Beach. Before the airport we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. It is a really great aquarium and especially geared towards kids. Below are a few pics, some of which show where we were able to pet sharks and stingrays!