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our first christmas “together.” here i’m getting down with the wrapping. what i lack in skill i make up for in amount of paper and tape used.

our misspelled stockings were hung by the chimney with care

so, we went down to satsuma for christmas. it was fun….especially for lillis since she got all kinds of presents and i got presents (like a smoker) that were also presents for her. see, i got a smoker b/c the last time we were down there, lillis remarked how much she liked the chicken off off the smoker. so, i guess that’s how it goes when you’re married.

on christmas afternoon we went over to my aunt’s house. she has an elaborate tiny village that would cover most of dauphin island if laid out end to end. here some imaginary kids play with a dog. and an imaginary dude carries home some last minute gifts.

lillis isn’t really this big…..remember it’s a tiny village

throwing the football is an important part of any of our holidays. literally, we typically spend about half the time in the backyard with ronnie and jeremy and i throwing the ball…..actually, it’s pretty much eat, throw football and watch tv. then you go home.

we stopped by the beach on the way back from my aunts. it was much warmer that it looks here…..but definitely no chance of a sunburn.

lil really is insistent that she’s gonna do a yoga pose everywhere we go. so far she’s done costa rica (twice), austin, st lucia, a new york subway and dauphin island……she’ll let me know if i left any places out.

back at the house, ronnie’s son matthew and i wrestle in the den. i was EXTREMELY tempted to set him loose in the tiny christmas village, but thought better of it.

oh yeah, the other thing we do down in satsuma is shoot fireworks. ronnie loves fireworks like marion berry loved crack. he spends unseemly sums of money every time he comes across the florida border. this year, it was WAY over the top. it was like a full on fireworks show. the only problem was, they were working on their “fire two at once” strategy, but a strong breeze and weak nerves kept thwarting their efforts.

anyway, it was a good christmas…..just spending a few days not doing much was nice.

then, for new years, lil’s parents came in town and we went to see cirque and spent some time traipsing about the city. we were very glad to be kicking of ’09 together and can’t wait to see what it has in store.

and here are the rest of the pictures from christmas

oh, and here is some primo fireworks shooting video……or something

we went skiing in park city,

i had the guys in for a weekend to watch baseball and be goofy, lil and i took another trip to costa rica,

we went to texas for a week after the engagement

and then i got to go to southeast asia for 2 1/2 weeks

and nyc with brad a week after that.

we each did our bachelor/bachelorette weekends in key largo

and then we had a wonderful wedding here

and got to go to st lucia for our honeymoon

and chicago the next weekend. all fabulous stuff.

the year was not without difficulty, however. volleyball was MUCH more demanding this year. counting the out of town tournaments (which had me in indianapolis, minneapolis, birmingham, and huntsville, and chattanooga) i spent in excess of 400 hours with my team between jan 1 and the end of may. throw in small group on mondays, pre-marital counseling, and a few other things, and lillis and i got to just “spend time” together maybe twice every 10 days. it was a little overwhelming (at one point, i had a trip 11 out of 13 weekends in a row), but we persevered.

in may, our schedules lightened up and we buckled down with our pre-engagement counseling (which was a wonderful growth experience for us) and on july 5th (after i had dragged her a mile back into the blue ridge woods and got her shoes muddy and subjected her to attack by yellow flies) she said “YES!”

i subsequently left the country and we tried to plan a wedding over skype with me in asia. she started a new job the day before i returned and i found out that i would be out of a job at choicepoint with the merger about a week later. SOOOO, after 8 weeks of EXTREME stress with us planning a wedding, lil having to move her belongings TWICE, studying for the series 65 (which was certainly a shadow on lil for the past 3 months), brad and i shooting our first wedding and me looking for work; i landed at OfficeArrow. since the return from the honeymoon, we’ve been focused on work, getting ready for the holidays and getting lillis past the exam (WHICH SHE PASSED ON MONDAY!!!!). now, we’re just ready for ’09 and beginning to figure out what “normal” married life looks like. i know, those who have been married for a while say “there’s no such thing,” but i can’t think of any scenario where this year isn’t a more relaxed one than last….if nothing else, at least i shouldn’t have to plan any more weddings.

thank you all for the gifts that you have been to both of us (and i am especially appreciative of how many of you have embraced and encouraged lillis) and we wish you every happiness in the coming year. we are blessed to have so many wonderful friends who care so deeply for us. and again, without further adieu, the christmas card.