Oh The Holidays :)

Stewart has been having bunches of fun at his new job! It is right up his alley and he is finally doing something he enjoys! It's so nice to see him so happy and excited to go to work. He has been answering 911 call and doing a little bit of dispatching. Working for a university is a lot different than a city because he has a lot of responsibilities and does things that cities don't normally do. He even took a 911 call about a guy who got robbed at the dorms and they ended up talking about it on the news. It was fun to see him get all excited about it. He's too cute. His schedule has been weird but we have adjusted and I know it has made us appreciate the time we actually do get to have with each other. It's been such a wonderful blessing.

So our adventure into our new ward at church has been interesting. It seems no one has talked to us because we live in "the apartments"... Apparently the apartments are all the newly weds who come and go and are pretty much invisible. We are used to having a lot of responsibility in our ward and knowing everyone and everything. So it was a weird transition from the best ward ever to a family ward where everyone has kids and seems much older than you. Finally, after three months of being in the ward we got a visit from some guys in our bishopric. They gave us callings. YAY! We were ready to serve and finally get to know people. I  was called to be a primary teacher and teach our 3 year old sunbeams! They are so darling and innocent and I am so excited to get started. I think they gave me this calling in an attempt to make me baby hungry or something because kids seem so appealing when your able to give them back to their parents at the end of the day. :) Stewart got called to be a ward missionary. We think its because the ward mission leaders name is Stewart too and he seemed to be the only one who would say "hi" to us on Sundays. Stewart is excited. He served a mission in Chile and has been home since May 2010. He is a wonderful missionary.  He is a great teacher and has so much knowledge about the gospel. For those of you who don't know Stewart, he is great with words and has a way of making it easy to understand. :)

We are super duper excited for Christmas! I am really NOT good at keeping surprises a secret. I love buying gifts for people. It's so fun to get them something they really want or need. I already bought all my husband's gifts. Let's just say he is a little bit spoiled. This is our first Christmas as a married couple and I went a little over board. All his presents are already wrapped and under the tree. He only knows what one present is and it's SO hard to wait till Christmas to let him see what the rest are. He is much more patient then me. We balance each other out.

This year we decided to start a new tradition! We went to the mall and picked out "Christmas Angels". That's were you basically pick a kid and go buy them what they want for Christmas. These are usually children who's parents cannot afford presents and since the economy is not the greatest there is a lot of children who need gifts.  We picked three children, two boys and one girl all under the age of 9. We were so humbled to see the Christmas Angel tree with all the tags hanging from it. We picked very carefully and it was hard to pick just a few children to buy things for. Some children need things as simple as clothing, shoes, and jackets. It was so sad to think that children go without these basic essentials when we are spending so much money on ourselves. We bought all the presents the children asked for and returned them to the Christmas Angel place. We left feeling so good and happy because we knew we did something special for someone in need. It really brought to perspective what Christmas is all about. Its about Christ and how he sacrificed everything for us, but yet it's so hard for us to do the same in return. It's a season of giving and serving. Truly the most wonderful season of all. :)