Looking Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! Being in a new home, it has been fun to decorate and add our own touches of Christmas spirit.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is receiving mail!! We hardly get mail besides bills and advertisements, but that all changes during the holiday season. Packages are the best and Christmas cards are just as fun.

Thanks for the package, Claire! You are the best :) 

 Following in my mom's footsteps, we post all of our Christmas cards on the door.  I love that a lot of my extended family sends a card, even if I haven't seen them in a long time. Thanks cousins and family for thinking of us!!

Even though we only have one box of Christmas decorations, that didn't stop us from decorating the house as much as we could. . . don't have a fireplace but still need a place to hang stockings? Hang them on the game cupboard!

We also busted out our nutcracker collection, which is inspired by my grandma who has collected many nutcrackers over the years. So far we have a fisherman, soccer player, cowboy, and fiesta nutcracker.

Even the outside of the house has some Christmas cheer :) Durant came into town and spent the first two nights with us. I took advantage of him being here and suggested that he and Brodie hang up some lights.

 As far as school goes, I'm on break for the next TWO WEEKS! Christmas Break is the most anticipated break in the school year. Especially for the students. Man, they were one crazy bunch that last week before school got out. I tried to keep them occupied by doing lots of crafts :) Below are the sock snowmen that students made - the kids love it, but it stresses me out! Imagine trying to lead 22 ten year olds in a sewing project. Yikes. At least they turned out cute. This is a picture of them making a "snowman face" hahah.

And of course, Christmas Break means teacher presents. Seriously a great perk about being a teacher. I think I have over $50 in Starbucks gift cards and 10 pounds of chocolate. Oh and I got this Harry Potter scarf :):)

And now that school is out, let the Christmas festivities begin! We went to downtown Portland to listen to "Tuba Christmas". Cohan (Brodie's brother) plays tuba and participates in Tuba Christmas each year. True to the Northwest, it was raining (well actually downpouring) through the whole hour and a half program! But that definitely didn't stop the crowds from coming. Check out the video of a tuba song here. 

 umbrella and rain jacket city

tuba players

Fish Fam supporters

Christmas is only 3 days away! Things to look forward to: Christmas Eve bowling, family talent show, hiking, seeing the Lambert Fam in Seattle, Star Wars, and my birthday!

Christmas Tree Lighting

Last year we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting Festival in Camas. We weren't Camas residents, so we felt a little out of place. I remember showing up an hour early in order to get a parking spot and the traffic was crazy.

This year it was much different different story because now we actually live in Camas just a block away from downtown. The tree lighting was at 6:30 and we got to walk out our door at 6:25. It's crazy how much changes within one year!

with our friends, the Pratts

The festival had live music, free hot chocolate, and of course the giant Christmas tree! The mayor gave a speech, we counted down from ten, and then the tree was lit! And this year they brought out a special surprise . . . fireworks! I didn't record it, but my friend Christina did. You can watch it here. 

The next day I spent the entire morning/afternoon at the annual Heppler chocolate making event! All of the Heppler women (my mother-in-law's side) got together to dip homemade chocolates. Grandma Heppler makes several different flavors of fondant, 10 pound bricks of chocolates are melted down, the fondant is rolled into balls, dipped into the chocolate, and then topped off with a nut or candy. There is a lot of work that goes into it. I have progressed from topping the chocolates to rolling the fondant (ha I'm moving up in the world!) Maybe one day I'll be trusted enough to be a dipper!

hundreds of chocolates ready to be boxed up!

It really is beginning to feel like Christmas! And for the first time ever, I have actually finished all of my shopping well before the 25th, which is truly a miracle. All of the gifts are wrapped and sitting underneath our tree :) Christmas is only 19 days away!

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving Break is the first break of the school year that I have more than just a 3 day weekend. Thanksgiving Break means a 5 day weekend, and let me tell you. . . it was glorious!! 

The fun started when Durant flew in on his birthday. The night he flew in we headed out to see Mockingjay. 

Thanksgiving was spent with Brodie's extended family. We are so blessed to have family (from both sides) that live so close. And lucky that Mom Fish is so good at taking selfies!

Overall, Thanksgiving Break was as amazing as the Thanksgiving turkey. Even still, there were a few drawbacks, like getting pink eye (aka wearing glasses for a week). . . 

. . . and we have a clogged sink. We were in charge of making mashed potatoes for the big dinner, which was my first attempt at making real mashed potatoes! They turned out fantastic, but all of that washing, peeling, cooking, and mashing left us a real messy kitchen. With no dishwasher and a broken sink, this was the result. . . 

To finish off the break we prepped for Christmas!! We weren't planning on buying a tree, but Saturday night we found ourselves driving home with a tree strapped to the top of our car. As we drove home we had to take a quick stop at Fred Meyer because we realized we had no tree stand or lights. And when we got home we realized we had no place to even put the tree! Which is why it ended up in the middle of our living room. 

After a Sunday afternoon of lighting, tinseling, and ornamenting the tree was finished! And Brodie took a well deserved nap. Oh, how I love him :)

i'm gonna make this place your home

It took me four months to snap a few shots of our new home. . . probably because our lives are consumed with school. We are out the door at 7am and come home just before 7pm. But probably mostly because it is rare that every single room in the house is clean. Let's be honest, there's always that one room with the pile of laundry waiting to be folded, right? 

To say we love our home would be an understatement. Each night I am still saying prayers of gratitude to God for giving us this adorable place. Yes, there are definitely quirks to this little home. The home was built in 1910, so it is definitely not new. We have no garage and live on a one way street, so we park around the corner. The closets are minuscule (they are so tiny and cute!) and there is no dishwasher. And yet I still love everything about it! 

We live one block from historic downtown Camas, which is full of places to eat, shop, and run errands. We walk to the grocery store, library, post office, hardware store, and any other place you could think of. I honestly feel like we live in Stars Hollow (Gimore Girls, anyone?) where everyone knows everyone. And even though it's small, we were able to fit all of our mismatched Craigslist furniture inside. 

Ready for the grand (650 sq. ft.) tour?? Here is our tiny, historic, bungalow home :) 

our home 

front porch

front porch

entry way

entry way

entry way

living room

living room

living room

kitchen

kitchen

kitchen

master bedroom

master bedroom

master bedroom

master bedroom (with our tiny, baby closet!)

guest bedroom

bathroom

bathroom

laundry room

front yard

front yard

side yard, featuring Luna :)

back patio

back patio

Halloween 2015

Brodie and I were just reminiscing about all of our Halloweens together (really not that many . . . only 4). So here's a quick walk down Halloween memory lane:

Peter Pan & Wendy (with Anne, my niece, as Tinkerbell) - 2012

Katniss & Peeta - 2013

Kristoff & Anna - 2014

Thor & Jane - 2015

As you can see, each year we dress up as a couple from a movie. So far we have been able to stick to the blonde hero and brown haired heroine. We'll see how long we can keep that up! 

This year we settled on Thor and his girlfriend Jane. We came up with the idea while watching the Avengers with my parents in Seattle. Brodie had about a month to grow out his hair . . . which obviously didn't ever reach Thor's full length, but it was long enough for me to put in a mini ponytail! 

If you look closely you can even see two tiny little braids by his ear. It was as close as we could get to Thor's real hair. . . 

Jane is not as well-known of a character as Thor, but we modeled my costume after Jane's dress that she wears in Asgard. Everyone could tell Brodie was Thor, and the true Thor fans knew who I was. But I also had some people guess I was Helen of Troy or a Greek princess. Oh well, close enough!

We were able to go to our ward party as well as Cohan and Emily's ward party. They dressed up as Fix it Felix, Wreck it Ralph, and Vanellope. We love living so close to them! After Danner went trick-or-treating and to bed, we played games and ate some of his candy :) 

Now we need to start brainstorming ideas for next year!! Hope everyone had a happy Halloween weekend!