Stockings are hung...

Well, it's our first Christmas in Portland and I've spent the evening preparing the stockings, some presents, and getting ready for the tree decoration. We went and got a little tree that's going up in the office and I'm really excited for it to be decorated. I have a feeling I'll be using it as my primary source of light during those early morning work hours. ;-)

Here are the stockings. We don't have a mantle, so I hung them from the book shelf in the living room. All of the animals have a stocking (which will have some treats by Christmas), and ours already have a stocking stuffer apiece in them. It makes me really happy to have them up and have them with little presents in them. I plan on filling his up with a few more goodies (probably to eat) before it's all said and done. 

It's definitely going to be a quiet holiday for us. We don't currently have any plans, other to go look for Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. We may even just take a stroll through the neighborhood with the bear before snuggling in for the night. I'm not sure yet if we're going to cook anything, but I'm kind of hoping that we will so we have some leftovers to capitalize on. That was the one thing I missed about Thanksgiving; since we didn't cook, we didn't have any leftovers. We did volunteer, though, which was a really awesome experience. I don't know if they have any volunteer opportunities for Christmas, but depending on what we do, I may look into something for us to do. It's nice to be around people since we don't have family here, and there is something really special about donating time and helping others out. 

All that aside, I'm ready for the holiday season! I'm ready to have warm fuzzies, warm drinks, the surprise of gifts (I have a few tricks up my sleeve!) and the joy of just acknowledging and being thankful for all that this year has brought. It's been a doozie of a year, that's for sure! So much change and so much excitement. It'll be nice to have a chill holiday and spend it with my favorite person ever, my best friend. 

I love you

I just want to mention that I love the one who blogs here. I mean really, she/he is my super person :)

Roma Coliseum

Bloody Mary, Falcons football, and a homemade shirt. This is the Sunday I love!

It's coming!

And I'm a little nervous about the impending gloom...

Looking Back

Looking back, it's really weird to see when this blog started and how this adventure began. We celebrated our first three months of being here last week, and it's just so weird how time has flown by. Truly, I couldn't envision what this moment would look like or feel like, but it's been amazing just being somewhere else.

Apparently, we are in a true Indian Summer here, as I was informed this afternoon that we are currently experiencing record low levels of precipitation, in fact, this record goes back to something like the 1890's. Our averages show 1.54" in September, however, this past month we only clocked in at .4". That's pretty intense. From what I understand, October should see us having about 3.5" of rain, but so far, and on the forecast for the next 10 days, it's all nothing but sunshine. Low to mid 70's through the 11th... it feels funny to me to have brought the desert sun and dryness with us to the Pacific Northwest. Especially given that NM has had one of its wettest summers with the monsoons. I really feel like we've switched climates for a while.

But all that aside, we've been here a little over three months and it's still sinking in that this is our home. It's still funny to me that we're actually here. Two years of talking about it, wanting to do it, and here we are. It's amazing what just putting it out there does for planning, you know?

Kimbra!

Was amazing!!!! So much energy, such a voice, and so much talent. She layered her vocals so she was singing her own backup, jazzed some songs up, switched some things around, and she was awesome! We sat in the balcony, so we could chill and enjoy the show from up high, which meant we had a great view, unfortunately my camera on my phone isn't amazing, so the views from it aren't as awesome as the views we saw... But here they are!

Show time!

So we are midway through a concert at the Wonder Ballroom and the opening band was the Step Kids. They were cool... Trippy but cool.