Then he gave to his siblings...

Lots of things. Brandon's sister wanted him to paint her snowboard for Christmas, so we spent the morning doing that. He actually got the design from our bedspread and made it very purple.

On the first day of Christmas, my Brandon gave to me

Snow boots that are warm for my feet. I got the black ones. He said he didn't want to carry them all the way to Mexico so that I could open them on Christmas. And it was snowing like crazy this morning.

Another reason I love Brandon

We were watching a home improvement show on Saturday (I think those shows are pretty cool) and Brandon already knew how to do everything they did on the show. He even made fun of them for using fancy tools for easy work. Wow, I am going to have a cool house when I grow up.

There goes my incentive

It is no longer beneficial for me to work a closing shift at work. The Cougareat changed their policies and employees are no longer allowed to take home leftover food after closing. This officially sucks.

pictures from Thanksgiving

Opening presents-- Brandon tried on the hat his mom made for him, but she realized it made him look like a girl.

Mia had fun decorating the little castle I made for her.

And here is the house Brandon and I made.

Hauling in the enormous Christmas tree--that thing barely fit on the Suburban.

And here I wanted to show Mom how my would-be wedding dress turned out.

6 whole months

I had a startling realization while I was at church today: Brandon and I have been married for 6 months. Then I realized that this time had gone by so fast that soon I would be graduating, having kids, getting old, and wishing I was once again a newlywed. So now I am going to list all the reasons I am glad to be married to Brandon.
- He lets me take naps whenever I want to.
- He doesn't make me make dinner every night, he loves to help me.
- He doesn't care that I'm not a very good cook.
- He cuddles with me every morning when he wakes up.
- He makes me take calcium pills every day because he doesn't want me to break myself when I'm old.
- He takes me on dates.
- He gets me to tell him what's bothering me when I'm grumpy.
- He doesn't care that I have a useless major.
- He encourages me and tells me that I can finish things, even if it takes me a long time. Like the 10-mile hike that took me all day-- he was so proud of me just for making it to the top.
- He is good at everything that I'm not.
- He is thrifty to a degree that I never thought possible.
- He helps me through my frequent attacks of self-doubt.
- He loves me even when I'm weird.

Things I learned in Idaho (in no particular order)

1. Brandon is exactly like the rest of his family--none of Brandon's family can make decisions. It's starting to worry me, because eventually someone will have to wear the pants in this relationship, and neither of us want to.
2. One of my pet peeves is being woken up in the morning. I haven't realized this because I have gotten up on my own since I was about 10 years old and I know exactly how long it takes me to get ready. Somehow, even though I'm 20 and married now, Brandon's siblings still think they need to be my personal alarm clock.
3. Brandon and I make awesome graham cracker houses.
4. Brandon was Elvis in his 6th grade school play. He sang and danced and combed his hair for all the world to see.
5. Nature is not very good at growing Christmas trees. I never knew how hard it was to find a full, teardrop shaped pine tree in the wild. It takes hours.
6. No one should ever eat anything that Brandon's dad and brother cook. They made jalapeno poppers for me and gave one to me last night. However, they hadn't taken the seeds out, they made it with an extra-hot red one, and I'm convinced they dipped it in hydrochloric acid. I took one bite and had to drink about a gallon of water and run to the bathroom because I thought I was going to throw up. It was by far the hottest thing I had ever tasted. Bryce and McKay thought it was really funny.