100th Post!!

It's pretty sad that I've had my blog for 2.5 years and I am only now reaching 100 posts.  Someday I will be a good blogger, but let's face it, that probably won't happen for awhile!

When thinking about what to write about for my 100th post, I was trying to be creative and do something exciting.  Well, I'm just not that creative, so I decided that I should probably give you all a little update about our life.  I probably should have done this back in December but we were busy...  Well, Eric got a job!  A real big person job.  It all happened really fast.  He applied on a Tuesday evening, he got called on Wednesday for an interview that day, then again for an interview on Friday, and then offered the job Friday afternoon.  He is now the Director of PR and Marketing for the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.  Yes, that's right, we are still living in Utah, and it looks like we will be for at least a little while longer.  Apparently there is something in Utah that we still need to do:)  For now it's working out well.  I was able to keep my job, so we are now a double income family and we like it.  Eric likes his job so far.  The good thing about it is that the title is Director so it's not entry level.  That will definitely look good on his resume.  We feel very blessed that Eric was able to get a job during this time.  We also are happy that we get to stay around our friends for awhile.  We have some great friends here.  Now we just need to find a bigger place to live OUTSIDE of Provo and get a dog.  Eric is dieing to get a dog!

So there you go.  That's what's been going on with us lately.

Happy 100 Posts!

I'm a Blogging Slacker

I know that Christmas was almost a month ago, but since my blog is kinda my journal, I figured I should still write something about it.  While in Colorado, we did the following:

*drove down to Broomfield to play games with our good friends the Walton's.  Charlotte had made her famous cinnamon rolls that I ate far too many of.  The girls chatted while the boys watched the Broncos game.  Afterward we played a game that I can't remember the title of now.  All I know is that you had to know famous people's names.  I was bad at this game...

*while in Broomfield we took Eric to Tincup Circle.  There is this house that goes all out for Christmas that we used to always go to growing up.  Eric had to see it.  Here are some pictures:

I can't imagine what this guy's electric bill is like!! 

*on our way back to Castle Rock we stopped at some botanical gardens place.  I had never heard of it before, but my mom got us some tickets to walk around and look at the lights.  It was really pretty and really cold, but we still had fun!

*my parents live right by the outlet stores, so naturally we had to take a shopping trip to take advantage of all of the great deals.  Both Eric and I got some great stuff.  We're spoiled!

*one day we went down to visit my grandparents in Colorado Springs for dinner.  We took a little detour to The Garden of the Gods.  This place is beautiful!  We then spent the evening with my grandparents and ate so delicious pizza!

*we met up one day with our good friends Mike and Lisa and their little guy Carter.  Lisa and I had bought a Groupon to Nordstrom Rack but weren't able to go before we left.  Since it expired on 12/31 we met up in Denver and shopped a little.  Then we met Lisa's parents on the 16th St. Mall and ate at The Cheesecake Factory.  YUM!

*we braved a snowstorm to go visit my sister Heather at her work, Johnny Carino's.  I hadn't eaten there in years.  It was good. 

*my grandparents were staying at my Aunt and Uncles house, so one day we went to pick them up.  We took a little detour to go and eat at the BBQ place that I worked at for many years.  I just have to stop in whenever I'm in town. 

*For New Year's Eve we played some games, had some root beer floats (Eric's tradition with his family) and set off a canon at midnight in negative degree weather.  BRRR!!

*New Year's Day my mom's family came over and we celebrated by eating a lot of food and playing even more games.  We also had to get ready to leave the next day....  I wasn't ready though.  Vacations are just so nice, but we had to get back!

Our Christmas vacation was fun and very relaxing.  It was great to spend so much time with family.  I wish we lived closer together so we could see each other more often.  Maybe someday...

Christmas

This year Eric and I got to go to Colorado for Christmas.  I was excited because Eric could finally experience a DeLange Christmas like they were when I was little.  We spent the evening with my grandparents, aunt and uncle, 3 of my cousins, and their children.  We always have cheese soup and clam chowder to eat.  I LOVE both of these soups.  We had pies galore and apple pudding.  Also very delicious.  After stuffing ourselves the little kids acted out the Nativity.  My brother Jason also joined in by playing the donkey:)  It was pretty cute.  Afterward we played a mixed up Christmas story, a family tradition, and then we played the chimes, another tradition.  It had been 4 years since we had all been together for these traditions.  It was great.  After visiting awhile longer, we left to go home to open our Christmas PJ's.  I always look forward to getting cute new PJ's to wear for the year.

Mary riding the donkey with an angel in the background.

Christmas day was very relaxing.  We woke up around 9 and walked downstairs in true DeLange style, youngest to oldest!  Santa made it to my parents house and brought us some great stuff.  I really got lucky this year.  Some highlights are the  beautiful bracelet Eric got me from Brighton, snowshoes from Santa, and a food processor from my parents.  Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts!!

After opening our gifts we ate a delicious breakfast prepared by my mom.  My other grandparents came over in the afternoon and then we ate a delicious ham dinner.  Later in the evening we web-chatted with my brother's family.  We sure missed them this year.  To finish off the Christmas day we watched Inception.  It was a great Christmas holiday.  I'm glad I got to spend it with my family. 

Christmas Trains

It's been nearly two weeks since Christmas, but I have been too busy/lazy to blog.  Therefore, you get to hear all about our Christmas now!  Before we left for our Christmas vacation we got together with our friends Chris and Corey to make candy trains.  This is a family tradition in Corey's family.  Eric and I had a lot of fun making our train.  Eric really got into it and had a lot of great ideas.  He is one creative guy.  We went with the traditional train model with an engine, a coal car, a log car, animal car and passenger car.  There was also a lake with bears fishing.  It was a great little train.  We liked it so much that we transported it all the way to Colorado to show it off, and to eat it of course.  Check it out:

Here are Corey and Chris's train.  They did a train robbery theme.

Thanks for inviting us over Corey.  We had a lot of fun.  I think we have a new tradition now!