Catsup, Ketchup, or Catch-up?

We're sorry for the long pause between our last posts...it was my turn, but I kept getting sidetracked on one of the many projects I try to work on. But guilt finally found me.

We rang in the new year by having a simple potato bar at our place with some friends from the ward, after which we all watched The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Potatoes and friends on New Year's Eve 2011

Though nothing extraordinary has thus far changed dramatically in two-aught-one-two, we're happy as always and have been keeping busy. Lisa has been working hard on her sewing skills, and has churned out a few results, including stockings, a blanket, and pajama pants, and is now working on a skirt and jacket outfit.

Cupcake blanket

Flowery pajamas

We completed the transcription of Lucretia Hupper's book of poetry and published it in a 271-page volume. It was exciting to have that project to work on, and we were able to see the original book in the Church History Library (CHL).

Cover of Lucretia Hupper's book

First page...not all of the pages were nearly this neat!

The unique Alfred McCune home, just one block north of the Church History Library

Doorway in the CHL that mentions the commandment to keep records. The Church
has amazing archives and records, but my own personal journal is lacking...

We tried to see the Lights on Temple Square shortly after the new year, but apparently the event ends on December 31st (in fact, it was pretty dark). I think some other people walking around were disappointed as well...we saw someone propose in the dark, but I bet he was planning for lights. Some of the nativity displays were still up, though.

Shepherds on display

The Salt Lake Temple at night

Lisa has been juggling work, school, and home, and still manages to make delicious food:

This French missionary favourite, crème fraîche pizza, is likely second
only to the Bacon Explosion in unhealthiness, but is so very good...

Coconut chicken

Homemade chili and some cornbread

Buffalo chicken pizza

Chicken pot pie

The most exciting news at the moment is the nearing arrival of three nephews in the next few weeks! We're proud of the current example their parents are and hope to live up to the bar they've set for us.

Our latest addition to the family, Gus the Gator!

Christmas letter / 2011 in review

Dear family and friends,

We regret not being able to see more of you more often than we do! We have had a good year and would like to share some of it with you as the year’s end approaches.

January - we started out the year with our cutie pie twin nieces (and their parents & their mom's family)

January - visit to Bountiful, UT temple

January - visit to Grandma Bradshaw in Bountiful, UT

February - Lisa's cousin's baptism

February - Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU's MoA with Dad Jeff

 In March of this year, we celebrated our one-year anniversary. Marriage has been a wonderful adventure for us so far. We live in Utah, where we originally met while attending Brigham Young University. Although we do not intend to stay in Utah much longer than it takes for Lisa to graduate, one of the greatest blessings we enjoy here is living close to several temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which we are grateful to be able to attend regularly.

March - Thomas sang during a devotional for his choir class

March - we had the top tier of our wedding cake to celebrate Lisa's birthday and our first anniversary

In mid-March, Thomas started growing a beard in order to be considered as an extra for a New Testament filming project that the Church had scheduled for this summer. He was accepted and was able to participate in filming for three days total in September before the project wrapped up in October. He ended up shaving his quite impressive beard in November, after keeping it for Halloween (for which Lisa sewed some period costumes).

April - we hosted a Passover meal with some friends

April - we hiked the Y

Thomas finished his undergraduate degree at BYU in April. He graduated with a degree in Linguistics, a field focused on the study of how language works (for the record, he has studied French and a little bit of Chinese). He now works at a hosting company where he offers tech support services via chat.

May - trip to the Bountiful temple with Thomas' dad, aunt, and grandmother

May - our parked car was totaled when it was hit head-on by a drunk driver (the car parked behind ours was also totaled)

May - Lisa's family came to visit us. Her parents were there for a weekend.

June - Lisa's sister Morgan stayed for a week (same trip as mentioned with the last picture).

Lisa is still an undergraduate student at BYU. She successfully completed Calculus II over the summer, which felt like quite an achievement. After having some “focus-of-study crises” she has made a decision that will allow her to finish after two or three more semesters, something we both are looking forward to. In addition to taking classes, she works as a cataloger at a company that offers services to publishers/libraries.

June - Thomas's Peterson grandparents were in Utah and stopped by for dinner

July - we remembered Grandma Bradshaw's incredible life after she passed away

July - we spent a weekend in Heber/Midway at the family cabin

This August, we enjoyed heading to the Pacific Northwest for a Bradshaw family reunion. We had very gracious hosts and a wonderful time! It has been a delight to be able to spend some time this year with both of our families, including having Lisa’s sister visit us in Provo for a week in June.

August - we visited Thomas' grandparents in Astoria, Oregon for a few days before heading to Seattle together. This is us at the top of the Astoria column.

August - we had a fabulous time with Thomas' side of the family at the week-long Bradshaw reunion in the Seattle area

August - we got together with some of Thomas' childhood friends and their spouses when they came through our area on their way to camp/go offroading

October - Thomas wearing the costume I made (well, I didn't make the headdress). Most of our September pictures are from the Jerusalem Set in Goshen and we don't think we can share them here, unfortunately

November - we traveled to California for Thanksgiving. Sacramento temple pictured

November - We spent several days with Lisa's family. We also got to see Thomas' sister Liz and her family

December - for other pictures, see most recent posts... among other things, we prepared our first ham.

We are grateful for new family members and we mourn for those lost. We express our faith in the Almighty and in the saving power of the Messiah, whose birth we celebrate this Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas and a lovely and exciting 2012!

oxox

Well, that went fast!

The week leading up to Christmas was really busy but we got to do a lot of fun things, so it was good busy.

On Monday, Lisa got to go Christmas shopping with Shari. It was fun to get together and not have any tight time constraints! We hit up several stores and got a fair amount accomplished. Lisa made stockings that night while Thomas did some shopping of his own.

One for Thomas & one for Lisa

Tuesday, Lisa had a party at work. She was pleasantly surprised to receive an award for being a top producer for the year. Only the top 5 producers in her department were given awards.

Each evening, we worked to get Christmas gifts together for various people. Lisa finished up a couple of projects on Wednesday. Just before bed, we heard a knock at the door. We were so pleased to find the Magnussons, our original upstairs neighbors, when we opened the door! Since we last saw them, they have had a little girl. It was so much fun to catch up with them.

On Thursday, Thomas and Lisa drove to Bountiful for the annual Bradshaw family Christmas party. We enjoyed catching up with the Bradshaw relatives and eating lots of yummy food.

Thomas and Carlye take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other at every family event

We sat with Amanda & Ryan during dinner.

Lots of folks!

The group in the middle is the Fogg family minus the twins.

On Friday, we went to Draper right after work to meet our friends, the Childs, at the temple for a sealing session. Afterward, the four of us went to Ikea for dinner!

On Saturday, Christmas Eve, we mostly stayed home and got into the groove of our 3-day weekend. Since we were expecting dinner guests Sunday, we tidied up the apartment and did what prep work we could, including making a carrot cake. In the evening, Lisa found a surprise under her pillow: a cute stuffed gator! She decided to give Thomas an animal of his own, too: a chocolate penguin.

We enjoyed our first Christmas "on our own" together. Last year we spent Christmas at Lisa's parents' house.

We slept in and then opened our gifts. Thank you friends & family for your thoughtful gifts and yummy treats! We feel very spoiled. For breakfast, we had our favorite cereals, that we had gotten for each other (neither of us knew!).

Our tidy tiny living room was trashed very quickly...

Thomas played with his camera a bit and got this cool image of the lights on our tree

After cleaning up, we went to church. Since it was Christmas, we only had Sacrament meeting, and we had it a few hours earlier than normal. We sang more songs than usual. It was a very uplifting meeting.

After church, we took a walk. Thomas wanted to get a picture of this sign on a local Seventh-day Adventist Church:

We also put together our Christmas dinner. Our guests were unable to come, but it was kind of fun to have a fancy meal just the two of us.

We spent most of the remaining hours of the day talking to our families via webcams... and trying to talk to our families via webcams while our internet service was acting up.

On Monday the 26th, after sleeping in, we headed over to the mall to see the Tintin movie! We saw it in 3D. It was very good and very visually pleasing. Thomas even wore his Tintin shirt.

(huge) Christmas tree at the mall

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas too!
oxox