Christmas day!

Todd and I had a very low key Christmas - just us and the dogs.  After a November wedding it's hard for people to travel and we felt the same way.

We started the morning off with Denver omelets, a family tradition for my family...

And a peach torte, something Todd requested that his mom makes...

Then we went in to open some presents!  I swear our dogs know what Christmas is.  Todd caught them sniffing around the stockings before we came in for the big unwrap.  There were much clearer photos than this one, but Lulu's ears crack me up and I just had to use it...

Some of the stocking stuffers for the dogs.  These have a stuffed squirrel that squeaks and a multi-knotted rope for some serious tug of war...

Exhibit A...

The also got a new stuffed duck and a bag of giant rawhides.  Giant because Lulu blows through rawhides and we thought these might last longer...

Rigby and Lulu settled in with all their toys...

Next, it was time for us to open our gifts.  A few wedding gifts came in since the wedding, so we tucked them away under the tree to have something to open on Christmas.  We weren't doing gifts, really, to one another because of the wedding and our gift of house renovations...

Todd opening his gift - a new bottle of cologne...

Me opening my "gift" from Todd. An I.O.U. for a Rachael Ray garbage bowl and...a cell phone charger?!?

 Ok, on to the other presents!

We ordered a vintage chandelier from eBay for our stairwell - another home renovation gift.  Isn't it cool?  Too bad it was broken! The cast was cracked and bent.  It was sent back.  DARN!

Lulu wants to be a part of the gift opening...

Our gift from Candice and Timothy!  A Lennox serving platter and cutting board with a beautiful carving knife and fork!  Thanks, Youngs!

From Linds and Nate.  A really cool wine decanter made of recycled, bubbled glass (I love bubbled glass!).  Thanks, Hoyts!

Also from the Hoyts: this lazy Susan table topper with our names and wedding date.  It's made from the end of a wine barrel. Super cool!  Thanks again Hoyt fam!

From my friend Jana and her boyfriend Joel.  An awesom concrete bowl we put on the registry...

Thanks, Jana and Joel!  Oh, Todd...

And that about does it!  Like I said, really low key. 

We hope everyone had as nice a day as we did!

Our Christmas tree

Todd and I finally got our Christmas tree decorated earlier this week!

We've been busy with house renovations (more on that later) and just haven't had a chance to get the tree all decked out. 

We received several wedding ornaments this year, so we started with those.

This set is from Todd's mom Nancy...

This is from Nancy's friend Judy...

This "T" and "K" are from my parents...

And this one is from my friend Jamie in D.C.

Todd putting the angel on top...

Stage one of decorating: lights and angel...

Todd decorating...

Me decorating...

The finished product!  I love sitting and watching the tree with nothing but the Christmas lights on after it's decorated...

I thought Lulu would be really curious about what we were doing when decorating the tree, but she and Rigby just laid there as we worked.  The next day, however, she had to check everything out, starting with one of the candycanes.  She didn't lick, just sniffed...

On to a few ornaments...

Hmmm...back to the candycane...

"Anything under here for me?" 

Sorry, Lulubelle, those are just some wedding presents we recently received and decided to save for Christmas morning since we're not doing gifts to each other this year - except the gift of house renovations! I'm pretty sure, since you've turned into such a good girl, Santa will leave some new toys and treats for you!

Christmas tree hunting

We took the dogs out yesterday to hunt our Christmas tree.

We were supposed to go last Sunday, but Todd had to work. BAH! We considered getting a tree from one of those parking lot places, but I just couldn't.  I mean, if, for some reason, we were in a pinch and had to, I would do that.  But we still had time and I just couldn't go happily to a parking lot for our tree.  Besides, how could we deny little Lulu her first Christmas tree hunting experience?

Our tree cutting permit was for some BLM land about 50 miles out of town, the same area we went last year. 

We traipsed around for quite some time before finding a little patch with some options.  We went back and forth about two trees and finally decided on this beauty...

It's a big one!  But we have 9 foot ceilings and something short and squatty would just look silly.  The trip to the truck.  Isn't that a nice view (including Todd!)...

Here's another photo of the area we were in...

And another...

The snow was pretty deep - most time just up to our knees, but it was to our thighs in a few places!  We considered putting the snowshoes on, but with how powdery the snow was it ended up being manageable...

Me with our tree...

The dogs with our tree.  They both loved getting out in the snow.  I'm glad we didn't get a tree from a parking lot...

And the road out of the woods...it was pretty deep in places but the ol' truck handled it very impressively...

The tree in our living room.  I'm going to make a nice dinner and we'll decorate it tonight.

From my phone - batch two

I've got so many photos on my phone! 

It's time to clean some of them off and share a few more.

Get a load of the Wyoming sky a few months back.  Something was definitely moving in that day...

My girlfriends gave me these cute little sticky I Dos for the bottom of my wedding shoes...

I went into our bathroom to find this mosquito hanging weirdly over our sink.  It's like The Matrix!  Or that scene from Mission Impossible where Tom Cruise is hanging over the security beams...

Todd's Aunt Barbara painted a picture of Rigby that she and her daughters gave us for a wedding gift!  We had Riggs sit next to his painting and pose...

All of us out in the field (looks like literally) with Todd a few weekends back as he was working. Lulu and I were waiting in the the pickup cab as Todd talked to a rancher/hunter. Lulu is fascinated by cows.  We wonder if she thinks they're big dogs...

Our t.v. - until Black Friday...

Our new t.v. - thanks to Black Friday and Mike and Beth who braved the crowds and picked us up one while they were out!  A new, fancy shmancy flat screen t.v. has been on the wish list for a while, but it's been pretty low on that list.  Other priorities (wedding, house renovations, etc.) have taken precedent.  We couldn't beat the deal Mike found, so we caved.  Enormous? No. Functional and nice and...flat?  Yes. 

From my phone - batch one

I realized a couple days ago that I have a lot of random pics on my phone. 
I thought sharing those pics would make for a good post - some of them were supposed to be posts on their own! 

Here is a first batch, which is in no way in chronological order.

Todd and I on my parents' old pontoon in Missouri this last summer...

Kid Rock performing at Cheyenne Frontier Days 2011.  He puts on a crazy amazing concert!

I love English muffins, and none more so than those served up at Eggington's in downtown Casper.  I ran across this recipe at the cool kitchen store downtown and have decided to try making my own...someday...

My dad loading up some wine for the wedding.  We went to Stone Hill to do some tasting and came out two cases richer!

My parents and I having drinks at the Bank Bar in Hermann, Mo., over Labor Day weekend...

I went out with Todd to work in the field a while back and we saw this double rainbow...

We also saw lots of cows in the road...

Me trying to figure out my friend Whit's veil that she let me use for our wedding...

Our table numbers for the wedding...

The place Todd and I spent our wedding night...

The glasses I'm pretty sure I'm going to get.  I am desperate for new specs!