the one with the last month in a nutshell

So in the last month . . .

• Russ and I spent Thanksgiving in Idaho with the fam . . . we both got sick . . . so did pretty much everyone else . . . we watched a lot of Monk . . . and of course ate fantastic food! It was wonderful :)
• Russ and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary! Crazy to think that just a year ago, Russ and I were just starting to date, and now, a year later, we've already been married for 6 months! Crazy how life works out . . . I love it :) To celebrate, we ate a real breakfast . . . 

camel eyes, sausage, and sparkling cider

. . . and then that night we ate the top tier of our wedding cake. She decorated it differently than our real wedding cake, and it turned out beautifully! :) It was a nice day :)

• I also had to study A TON and face finals. They didn't go as well as I would have liked, but not too bad. Not to mention there were a lot of little miracles concerning finals . . . like a teacher being willing to give me some points something I turned in SUPER late, which bumped me up half a grade; a different teacher agreeing to give me back a point on a test because of my reasoning for why I was right (which I didn't think would make much of a difference, I was just asking for it for the principle of the thing) which turned out to be the difference between a B+ and an A-; and I actually survived a 3-essays-in-3-hours test without dying on the spot . . . the real miracle.

And then I've started enjoying my Christmas break from day 1!

• Gingerbread houses (first time for me) with our friends Matt and Marcela (and 2 other couples) last Saturday afternoon . . .

Ta-da! This one was ours :)

Matt and Marcela made a tardis from Dr. Who . . .

This is Mario and Alexa . . . We met them that day.

They made a beach hut, complete with a sunburned person!

I don't remember their names . . . but their gingerbread house was legit! But they got there late, so they didn't get a chance to decorate it before we left.

• Sushi and Motab with the sibs on Saturday night. 
• Games and dessert Sunday night with a bunch people from the ward. 
• Ice skating, cake, and hot cocoa with 2 other couples for FHE yesterday.
• And games with 2 more couples scheduled for tonight, as well as a movie with a different couple later this week!

Man. Life without school is wonderful! :) We're finally getting to be social, spend tons of time together, AND be productive! Remember those furniture projects I mentioned a million years ago? We finally got back to tackling those yesterday, and hopefully we'll finish over the break :) Life is great, and I'm so. SO happy :)