Pictures of our first Christmas and New Year together...

D's lights outside the house. You can just barely see the lights from our Christmas tree in through our front window.

A few days before Christmas D said he wanted to take me somewhere. We headed towards the zoo which was lit up with tons of lights everywhere. A select few of the animals were out an about. It was so fun, very cold, and a great way to spend some time together.

D mentioned in our last post that we had fondue for Christmas Eve dinner. It was sooooo good and involved so little cooking. Here's a pic of our delicious meal! We just did it again the other night to use up some of our leftover shrimp and chicken. Yumm!!

And of course we can't forget Christmas day itself. Here's a few pics to help you feel like you were there with us. We missed all our family and can't wait for future Christmas' that we get to spend together!

Puttin' baby Jesus in the manger. We decided to continue the tradition in my family of the youngest putting baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning. Ooops...I guess that means it will be my job until we've got some little Clintons runnin' around :)

Thanks Mom and Dad D and L for your gifts! We wish you could have been here with us!

We even had a beautiful White Christmas. I think it snowed all day! Of course we stayed inside all day in our PJs and played with our new toys! ;)

Since we had plans to snowboard over the New Year holiday, many of D's gifts revolved around that. Santa brought him some nice goggles, snowboarding pants, gloves and etc. Here he is...ready to go!!!

And last, but not least, our delicious Christmas dinner. Some new favorite dishes that we might just have to make our own tradition. I also tried out a Christmas trifle. Yumm. Another tradition in the making!

And then we move onto New Years. We had such a blast snowboarding. Here are a few pics of our New Years fun.

You may be wondering why all the pics are of D. Well, let's just say that I had a lot of time on my hands while D tried to figure out how to navigate himself on a 6 in wide board down a hill of snow. He actually did pretty well. We're both looking forward to many more trips up to the mountains during our stint in CO!

We stayed at a cozy B & B. It was fun. Here are a few pics...

Well, that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed our pictures. We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are trying to get ourselves motivated for the beginning of school again. I've already been back to work and classes start on Jan 8 for both D and I. While we're sad the holidays are behind us, we're always looking forward to what's next. We love you and miss you all. We hope that everyone had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season.

DTC

Our FIrst CHristmas and New Year!

Well, we first want to thank everybody for their wonderful CHristmas cards and phone calls. It was wonderful to hear from everyone and we are glad everyone enjoyed their holidays.
T and I began sending out our Thank You cards (finally) and hope everyone will receive them soon. My sister and my mom both had a birthday over the holidays and the Clinton extended family was blessed with a new beautiful baby girl on my sister's birthday. Happy New Year, Madison!
Our Christmas was fantastic. We really got to celebrate the reason for the season. I have saved many Christmas sermon CDs from SOuthbrook, our old church, and listened to them while cooking, doing work, and cleaning, or just relaxing. We also attended a Christmas Eve service at a local church and it was beautifully decorated, we sang a few God-centered Christmas songs, and we're blessed to hear another great sermon.
T and I blended our family Christmas traditions together and were able to create some new traditions. My family likes to open gifts Christmas Eve, eat Mom's canned green beans and thumbprint cookies, help out a local family through gifts and/or a donation and watch a few Christmas movies. T's family have stockings hung by the chimney with care, open presents on Christmas Day, eat goose and cranberries (which is now a new favorite for me) and place Baby Jesus in his trough in our Nativity to make sure we remember why we are celebrating.
T really out did herself when she created our Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning, and Christmas Evening meals. Our new tradition for Christmas Eve dinner is fondu. We marinated chicken, steak, and shrimp and combined those with mushrooms and potatoes and had at least 7 different dipping sauces. It was delicious. We also have new Christmas drink traditions. We have December 23rd, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day drinks. All different. All tasty.
I have a tradition of my own that I got to invite T to be apart of this year. Each year on Christmas Eve, I take a walk close to midnight. I usually take along a walkman or ipod so I can listen to Christmas music, a sermon or a Christmas story from the radio or from a CD. T and I got bundled up and put on our Ipods and took a walk under a nice starry sky and headed for a place to sit and enjoy. It was beautiful and inspiring, not to mention relaxing and connecting. I was glad to introduce my wife to something I enjoy so much. (I do miss my walks under the lights along Troy's levee, though.)
T and I spent all day Christmas Eve cutting up vegetables and getting things ready for Christmas Day. That night, T and I talked to my folks back home and my sister and her fiance' over the phone, and we opened some of our presents to each other while we talked. It was almost (I said almost) like we were there. When we woke up on Christmas, it was snowing. We opened our presents in our stockings first (another T tradition) and then went to put our already prepared breakfast casserole together (our new tradition). It was delicious. It contained diced potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, shredded cheeses, and eggs in a pie shell. I'm drooling just thinking about it.
After we ate, we opened our gifts from T's family and then our gifts to each other. Naturally, we then cleaned up all the wrapping paper and boxes and proceeded to play with our new toys for the rest of the day.
Christmas dinner was a masterpiece, as well. We cooked a goose, which turned out wonderfully, ate wild rice stuffing with cranberries, greenbeans, cranberry salsa (a recipe from a colleague that is now a new favorite of ours), scalloped potatoes, and wine while listening to Josh Groban. For dessert, T made something that I hope becomes another Clinton tradition.
We spent the next few days enjoying each other's company, playing with our new toys, and cleaning up the house. We also got ready for New Years. We planned a snowboarding trip to Keystone. We made reservations at a little bed and breakfast outside of town and got our season passes and gear on base. We drove down Sunday and boarded all day. I took a lesson while T carved up the slopes. After my lesson, T took me up a green run where we found out that other skiers apparently do not like it when people cut them off or continually fall in front of them. Who new? It had been snowing and windy all day but the real snow hit when we left the slopes. A blizzard hit the area and 2,500 people became stranded. They had to open up the area schools and rec center to accomodate all the people caught in the storm.
We left there and checked into the bed and breakfast. It was nice and the owners were very polite. We ended up meeting a nice young couple there who became our Yahtzee and card game buddies. We boarded the next day, I fell twice as much and T did not have a good day, either. That night we celebrated New Year's Eve with our new friends and ate pizza from Pizza hut that tasted like Pizza Butt. (We ordered out because the B & B owners were having a party upstairs and we didn't want to lose our parking spaces to any of their guests , plus it was cold and crazy outside.) The man in the couple told us that he was majoring in philosophy, theology, and biology in college because he wanted to find out the meaning of life and what it was all about. I found this fascinating and allowed him to share all he had discovered so far. It pretty much came down to this, "There is a God and he is not Him." I wanted to tell him that he probably could have come to that realization with a dollar and twenty-five cents in late charges from his local library instead of $20,000 dollars a year from his local college but hey, each walks his own way and each creates their own project. (Project is my new word for "life" that I got from a magazine article from "O.")
Tuesday we all went shopping at the local outlet malls and found great bargains. Everything was up to 70-80% off. Since I'm cheap (or thrifty as I like to call it), I thought we had died and gone to heaven. We found some really nice things and enjoyed a apple pie dipped apple that T and I and our new friends found to be quite tasty. (It was a green apple dipped in caramel, white chocolate, graham crackers and sugar. Again, I'm drooling over here.)
We played some more Yahtzee and went to so we could rest up for our last day on the slopes. (I feel so cool just saying the word "slopes.")
Our last day, I took another lesson and finally went down the green run better prepared and more confident. We both had a blast and a bumper crop of bruises and blisters but it was all well worth it. We're back at home now getting ready for work to start back up and plan for new snowboarding weekends.
That's all from us. We had a very blessed and enjoyable holiday. We hope everybody had a fun and safe holiday, too. Stay in touch.
Oh, by the way, I finished the 4th Harry Potter book a couple of days ago. It was over 700 pages long. I picked up the first book over Thanksgiving break and haven't stopped reading them. They are well crafted, well written books and would recommend them to anyone. I cannot get over how complex and sophistaced they are, yet how addictive and easy to read they are. I can't wait to read the next one.

Turkey Dinner, Christmas Decorations, and more...

Hey folks,

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season. D and I are having a wonderful time enjoying these first holidays as a married couple. A little quiet at times, but so relaxing and romantic. We've been takin lots of pictures of not only Turkey day but of getting our house all ready for Christmas, so we thought we would post a few of them.

Our delicious turkey dinner!

We had it all! Turkey, stuffing, green been casserole...and the list goes on. It was delicious...and of course...we had...lots and lots of.......LEFTOVERS. I think we just finished the last of them this week!

Of course, here's the man of the house carvin' the turkey........

...and doing the dishes. I've trained him so well :)

Turkey day sure was fun. I had such a blast cookin'. I even tried out a few different things this year such as French Silk pie. I think D is a fan! Before we move on to the next holiday, we realize we never announced a winner for our famous turkey contest. Of course, we all know that I won...and because of that D says it's my decision. So....I'm going to have to go with my Dad's vote...Gob and Bull...took me a second to get it...but pretty clever! Thanks to all for your contributions. We enjoyed our little Thanksgiving competition. We're working on coming up with one for Christmas.

Speaking of...we were so excited for the Christmas season to get started, that we headed out and cut down a Christmas tree on the Saturday right after Thanksgiving.

We proceeded to decorate the rest of the living room on Sunday. We had such a blast and the house looks great. We also just purchased a nice coffee table and console table to help our living room more...well...lived in :) Check out our decorations. D also put up some lights outside...I'll have to post those pics soon.

The finishing touch!

And the final product!!!!

We can't forget the nativity scene and advent calendar. I think we'll even stick with the tradition in my family of putting baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning.

We thought we would be kids again and sleep under our newly decorated tree that night. I woke up with sore back...definitely not 19 anymore! We had so much fun though! We have gotten all our Christmas music together and we are really enjoying this time together. I love this whole teacher thing...I mean it's like I get Christmas break all over again just like in school (well, sort of...I still have to go to work...I just get a little break from the cadets). As much as I love the job, every once in awhile you need a break. It will be a very nice rest.

We plan to enjoy the beautiful snow-covered mountains here soon. Since D is a novice on the slopes, we're going to take it slow and smart. I think I'll put him in a lesson...a marriage saver! :) Hopefully he loves it as much as I do. We'll let you know how our first trips up the mountain go. Hopefully we'll get a little more snow here soon.

Although we are having such a great time, we really can't wait for all the future holidays we will get to share with family. We sure miss everyone so much, especially during this time of the year. We love you all, and wish you the best this Christmas. Until next time...happy Christmas season. Remember to slow down and remember why we all celebrate this time of the year with such joy. Sometimes its so easy to forget with all the hustle and bustle. But, He is the reason we have so much to celebrate and be thankful for!

With Love,

DTC

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day everybody! The day is here and the vote is in. T and I had a lot of fun with the turkey contest and we appreciate our family, friends, and colleagues participating in the fun. The turkey that recieved the most votes was . . . turkey #2. That means that T wins the contest...some of you guessed it right...her detail-oriented personality gave it away. Congratulations, T...the best turkey won! Now let's eat some real turkey.

We began making our Thanksgiving meal yesterday. We made sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and french silk pie, and pumpkin and cranberry muffins. Today we make the turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, greenbean casserole, corn (to put on top of the mashed potatoes, of course), and rolls.

T and I have been getting out our Christmas decorations which we will probably set up tomorrow...of course after do our annual tradition of going to cut down a tree (something we've been doing since we first met). We are so excited. There is snow on the ground and a chill in the air. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I have already downloaded the tv listings of the Christmas movies and tv shows for the next month. Our must sees are Miracle on 34th St. (both the black and white and color versions), The Polar Express and the classics like Rudolf, Frosty, and The Grinch.

T and I are still trying to get out and have some fun. I attended a seminar a few weeks ago and took a lunch at a nearby park. The weather was fantastic the next morning so I took T to the same park and we walked around the lake, played on the equipment, fed the ducks and talked for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun.

We went to Denver the next week and walked around Larimer Square and The 16th Street Mall. It was another wonderful day out and a great time for taking pictures. We stopped at this little outdoor restaurant that served nothing but crepes. They were huge and delicious. Especially the dessert crepes. We walked around the river and bike paths and then finished our day shopping and stopping in all the stores along the 16th Street Mall. The street mall is just that, an outdoor mall that is spread out along a street. The whole thing is about a mile long (16 blocks). I am guessing that there is some law in Denver that requires Starbucks to be on each one of those blocks.

Last weekend, we went to a park close to the house and broke out our lasso golf set. We played a few games, enough for T to beat me twice, and walked around some more. I am a new fan of this game. I figured since my whole family plays horseshoes all the time that I would destroy T when we played. That was not the case. So far, she has beaten me in Texas Hold'em, Mario Cart, Lasso Golf, and Mancala...not to mention the most recent turkey contest. She's lucky that we don't have Guess Who? The Mystery Face Game!

T and I also went to a marriage conference at New Life Church. We read the book, Love and Respect, before we were married and the authors of the book had a weekend conference that was just phenomenal. We learned a lot and were very energized by it. We would recommend it for everyone.

Well, we miss everybody and hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving! Ciao.

Thanksgiving Turkeys

So D came up with the idea to get into the season by taking ourselves back to our grade school days by making some turkeys outta construction paper (it must be his continuous exposure to the kids at school...or maybe he's just that much of a kid still :)). I can't remember the last time I made construction paper turkeys...scratch that...I can't remember the last time I made anything outta construction paper! Anyway, it was a great way to get ourselves into the season, have a little bit of fun, not to mention make a few things to make our house look a little more seasonal. Ok, so now that our turkeys are done...we just can't seem to decide on who's is the best...go figure. So.....that's where you come in. We decided we'd leave it up to our friends and family to decide. There's a catch though...we know you may be biased, so no telling who's turkey was made by who. Just send in your vote and we'll announce the winner on Thanksgiving. Oh, and one more thing...we can't seem to decide on a name for them...so send in your ideas...and we'll announce our favs when we post the winner. Hey, it never hurts to spice things up with a little competition once in awhile, does it?? Have fun...and may the best turkey win! :)

Turkey 1

Turkey 2

Halloween '07

Hey everyone,

So D and T celebrated their first halloween as a married couple. It was the first time I'd ever handed out candy before since I've always lived in an apartment until now. The little kids were so adorable. Especially some of those really little ones who looked like they had no idea what was going on. I mean, if you really think about...you walk up to strangers' houses, ring the doorbell, say "trick or treat" and you get some candy. I mean, a pretty strange custom if you think about it...yet fun all the same. Of course D dressed up for the little kids at school. He pulled out his old hippie costume with a huge black afro wig. It was too funny. I think he probably scared quite of few of them (see the picture below). A few weeks ago, in anticipation for halloween, I went out and bought an entire paper bag full of candy. Since this was my first time handin' it out, I wasn't sure how much we would need...and I certainly didn't want to run out. D didn't mind b/c he figured whatever was leftover he'd just help himself too. I made sure to hand out at least 4-5 pieces of candy per kid. We actually managed to get rid of most of it...yes! Hope you all had a wonderful halloween! Take care...DTC

USAFA game, pumpkin carving, and more...

Hey folks,

D and I have been busy these last couple weeks. We finally made it to a USAFA game despite the fact that I am convinced they lose everytime I watch a game (not that I'm superstitious or anything). But, it was cool for D to see the antics of a service academy game. It was a gorgeous 70 degrees and sunny (we actually got quite sunburnt...on just the left side of our faces of course). When D went back to school on Monday everyone was giving him a hard time that he took his "sick" days before the weekend and took off skiin'. Amazingly, I have yet to catch the cold that his little elementary school kids likely gave to him. Here are some of the pics from the game. It was my first USAFA game out of uniform. For some reason, it's so much more enjoyable that way!

March On! All 4000 cadets...old news for me...in fact one of the dreaded cadet activities. But D enjoyed it...definitely different than the OSU games...

Cadet mayhem...I remember those days...and I'm so glad to be past them!

Now they have just a weak little "push-up flight" of freshman when they score. Dare I say the words that every grad eventually utters..."Man, it was so much harder when I went through..." DTC enjoyin' the game

The 70 degree and sunny weather on Saturday was of course followed by below-freezing temps and snow (our first of the winter!) That's CO! This weekend we had some friends over for the very first time in our new home. Of course it took numerous hours of cleaning, organizing, and food prep, but it was all worth it. We got some pumpkins, pulled out our pumpkin carving kits and enjoyed a relaxing evening of pumpkin carving, socializing, and eatin some seasonal goodies (pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, caramel apples, and some mulled apple cider...yum!) We also had some seven-layer dip and spinach-artichoke dip - two of my newest recipe experiments that have become new favorites. We had a lot of fun...and also have a new motivation to enjoy our time together now before kids come along (yes, our friends brought their 18 month old and 6 month old along...sweet kids...but, it's tough to carve a pumpkin when your kid tries to eat everything that comes out of it). Here are some pics from our night with friends...and some more of our house. A little bare still, but we're taking small steps... Can you guess who made which one? Yeah, let's just say I kinda broke her broom...not bad for two relatively non-artistic people...we did have a kit however :)
Some pics of our clean house!! A little under-decorated...but we're takin baby steps... Today we went outside for awhile to enjoy some of the simplest of activites...throwin a baseball around. Man, I haven't done that since I was probably about 10 years old. Then we tried out our limberness with a few gymnastics moves (don't we look like pros!). It sure is nice just being able to do those simple activities together. No big planning...just a nice relaxing afternoon spent together.We've really been having such a great time in first few months of marriage. We are so excited for the holidays. We miss everyone so much! It's been tough to meet folks out here. We're still trying to find the right church for us. We're definitely becoming experts on all the different churches available in C-Springs. But, we are definitely anxious to find a church home...get into some small groups...and hopefully make some lasting friends during our time here. We hope everyone is doing well. Call us...write to us...let us know how you are doing. We miss you all! With love...DTC