Thanksgiving Festivities

The holiday season got off to a great start, as Mike and I hosted our very first Thanksgiving dinner! My mom came over on Wed. to help me prepare some dishes, so most everything was ready to go by Thursday. I made a pumpkin pie, a jello mold, and the stuffing! We also had turkey (of course), corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, apple pie, and rolls. Everything was so delicious!!

Aside from Mike and I, my parents came over as well as my best girlfriend since we were 11 years old. We enjoyed a lovely meal followed by a rousing game of Scategories!! The meal went off without a hitch and everyone had a nice time. With our first Thanksgiving under our belt, I think we both feel pretty confidant in hosting anything in the future.

Ali and Mike-proud hosts of Thanksgiving 08!

Lis and I with our pies!

My dad and I.

Mom in the middle.

At Thanksgiving, tradition has it that you say all the things you are thankful for. This year for Mike and I, I think the thing we would both say we are most thankful for is each other. We spent a lot of time with the wrong people, but we both finally got it right! We praise God for bringing us together, for our families and friends, our crazy canines who make our lives complete, our beautiful home, health, and the joys of life in general.

We avoided Black Friday like the plague. After 3 years straight of working it, I had had enough! We took care of some business this morning, and followed it up with a trip to the gym to burn off all the good food we packed into our bellies! After that, we both came home and crashed. Hosting is hard work!! When we woke up, we decided it was time to get in the Christmas spirit, so we went out and got our Christmas tree!! Now, I am very particular about my Christmas tree. Sadly, we only have 9 ft ceilings, so an 8 ft tree would have to do. I begged Mike to cut a hole in the ceiling, but he convinced me the logistics of it just wouldn't work out. ;-) Ohh well.

We started off on the great Christmas tree hunt, and we only had to go to 2 places. We started to leave the second place after not seeing what we were looking for (tall and fat!), but we were told they had tons of trees in the back and they would find us the perfect tree. So we said OK, and the staff was very kind to pull out 3 more trees for us to look at. Sure enough, one of them was the winner, and we strapped it on the roof and headed to Home Depot for a stand, a skirt, and we also picked up a beautiful poinsettia, and some electric candles for the windows. We got our perfect tree up tonight, and plan on decorating it this weekend. Once it's finished, we will post pictures! It is definitely starting to look like Christmas around here!

We hope everyone had an equally joyous Thanksgiving and are enjoying the holidays as much as we are!!

Ali and Mike

A Fiery Send Off

Today, Mike and I were doing some yard work and were gathering a mounting pile of weeds and debree from a wilting garden, some dead little trees, and a mini grape vinyard. We are clearing out our back yard to make way for our agility field! We will both be so excited when we are done. We will have our very own place to train without having to drive 45 mins!

So, with the waste piling up, we decided that it would be best to burn it. We made a fire pit and got a grand bon fire going in the back yard. Given Mike's history with fire I was a bit worried, but we had "water" close at hand. We remembered we each had an item in the closet that was still linking us to bad past relationships. What better to finally put the past in the past, then to burn them!! Mike had a suit from Sherri that he never wanted to wear again, and I had a t-shirt that I had made to speak to Rob when I couldn't. I grabbed them, and we each joyously sent the items and the past relationships up in smoke and flames! It was very liberating, and cementing for us to do together, really solidifying our realtionship! The smell of burning polyester is really not to be desired thogh!

Here the fire is just getting under way...

This is Mike's suit before it hit the flames.

Mike officially saying so-long to "Crazy"

My shirt before hitting the flames.

So long to "Cheater"

Tomorrow brings upon more math homework for me and also trying to get some pictures taken for Christmas cards. We will probably try to get the flea baths done on the dogs as well.

Ali and Mike

Life Together

Welcome to our new blog! Don't know how much we will be able to update, as we are both very busy, but we think this will be the best way for our friends and family to stay up to date with what is going on in our lives.

Our first month of marriage has been wonderul! We are adjusting to everything just fine and enjoying all the perks that have come along the way. Mike is staying busy with his work at INC, and stays busy on Monday nights teaching classes for Teamworks.

I have been absolutely pushed to the max with school this year, as it seems I always have something to do. I took three classes, and it was a very full load for me. I just finished writing two papers that were due on the same day, and I think Mike is as equally glad that I am done with them as I am! We haven't been able to spend a lot of time together! I am really looking forward to this semester being over with. A couple of presentations and exams left to go.

We joined a gym a few weeks ago, and have enjoyed working out together! It is much more fun to work out together than by yourself.

We are currently preparing to host our first Thanksgiving dinner togther, and though the number of guests will be small, it should be a fun occasion, and we are both looking forward to it! After that will be our trip to California, where Sadie and I will be competeing in the AKC Agility Invitational. I am so thrilled she gets to go, as making it for shelties is quite the honor, seeing as though there are so many of them!! It will be nice to be in Cali in December as the temperature falls here in Raleigh.

We enjoyed our first little snowfall of the year here today. It was short and sweet, but still cool to watch snow falling from the sky. In my opion, snow is the only good thing that comes from cold weather. If it is going to be cold and not snow, then there is just no point!

Hope you enjoy reading our many musings and life adventures!

Ali and Mike