As promised

Honeymoon pictures!

That's a big fish sandwich

My husband is proficient at taking my picture at exact moments I look like a cow chewing cud.

ATV tour in Steamboat Springs!

It was dirty business

So delicious* it made him cry.

*full of horseradish

Other

We made falafel and homemade tzatziki sauce and homemade hummus

Free museum day

BWE** moment.  That is indeed a t-rex Portal shirt.

**best wife ever

Power Dome 400!  Thanks Hopkins!

I made pie for Christmas dinner

Homemade gifts for the mom and dad

New Years Eve, and my first time on the Denver light rail.  We really were excited, just cold.

Merry Married Christmas

Sometimes lists are useful organizational tools.

• We experienced our first "married" Christmas.  Everyone thought it was a big deal and kept pointing it out to me.  "Hey, this is your first Christmas together-- married!" Um, yep. It didn't feel like a big deal to us, mostly because we spent last Christmas together in Idaho with my family while we were dating, but nobody counts that.  Even this last week someone brought it up again.  "How was Christmas?? It was your first together, right??"  Why does it seem important to be married for Christmas?   Because we get a day off work?  We get a day off for Martin Luther King Day too, but nobody is getting sentimental over that.  Is it because of the content?  Nobody gets in a lather over being married during Easter, but that day was just as important in Jesus' life.  Is it because Mormon stereotypes infer a courtship so short that a couple is hitched before sharing the holiday, so it's a sort of benchmark?  More likely.  For the record, I count last Christmas, and that's the only opinion that really matters.  It was a pretty big deal to me, sharing it with him.  Kindly stop telling me it wasn't.
• The big deal this year for me was actually spending Christmas in Denver, which ironically nobody thought was interesting or significant.  It was my first Christmas away from home, that is "Idahome", but it was fine.  I spent every Christmas in Idaho while I was single on purpose since I figured I may never spend it there ever again once I had a family of my own.  I am satisfied with my effort and I was prepared to spend it somewhere else this year. Interesting thing is if we had chosen to spend Christmas with one side of the family or the other, we still wouldn't have ended up at either family's home. They all spent Christmas somewhere else too.
• It was very nice celebrating with just the two of us.  Opening presents didn't take nearly as long.  We ate an entire pan of cinnamon rolls by ourselves (not all at once... we spread it over 24 hours).  Later in the day we made a visit to my brother's family who live nearby, and then we enjoyed Christmas dinner with people from church who had invited us over.  We got their daughter addicted to this game (go on, you know you want to try it) and now they probably won't ever invite us over again.
• The weekend before the holiday, my in-laws stayed with us a few days while en route to spend Christmas Day with a daughter in Kansas, and stopped again one night afterward on their way home.  We all get along just dandy so good times and good food were had by all.  I am proud to announce my batch of well-beloved Hopkins sticky buns were lauded as worthy representations of the favorite family tradition.  And Husband and I planned and executed a bang-up pre-Christmas family dinner that Saturday evening.  His aunt and uncle from Greely came down for it and everything turned out delicious.
• I should put up some pictures.  Maybe soon.  

O Tannenbaum

Our first Christmas tree as married people is awesome, and this is why:

Awesome thing #1: We found a great deal on it and the store was out of stock so they let us buy the floor sample. (Husband didn't think stores did that and was embarrassed when I asked, and this is the second time it's worked.  The first time involved a lamp.)

Awesome thing #2: I had a hunch if I hoarded items throughout my single life they'd come in handy as a married person and I was right.  Good thing I remembered on my wedding day to grab the tree skirt that's been chillin' in my cedar chest since I was 14.

Awesome thing(s) #3: Our tree is multi-cultural.  Ornaments include:

• miniature disco balls from Taiwan purchased when I went there for my brother's wedding
• olive wood cut outs from Jerusalem from my semester in Israel
• a couple of do-dads from China given to me by a friend who made a trip last year
• a felted boot from Steamboat Springs picked up during our honeymoon
• a Tiffany-esque stained glass harp from my trip to Ireland
• old fashioned home-made paper decorations made with love here in the US of A.  

(All ornaments actually purchased on-location by myself or others. Not just like, stickered with "made in China".)  We also have a few fake Gerber daisies stuck in the tree as well (we had to get creative) given to me by my old roommate who is Mexican, but I don't know if that counts.

Awesome thing #4:  It's ours.

Those are totally homemade stockings on the wall.  Crafty wife FTW.