We're Back!

Technically, we've been back for several days, but I am just now getting around to getting our pictures off the camera. Yep, you heard that right, we took pictures! (I now feel compelled to confess that they were all taken at the same location and while we really wanted to get a family photo of all of us (Ian's immediate family), somehow it didn't happen. But, hope you still enjoy what we did get!)

So the weather was actually great in Colorado. Unlike the dumping we've been getting in So Cal, it was sunny with a blue sky pretty much every day. On Thursday, we had some snow flurries that were pretty fun, but otherwise, it was dry and about 40 during the heat day. Not too bad. Though seriously, dry doesn't even begin describe the lack of moisture in the air up there. Each night, it was like all the saliva was sucked right out of our throats. And whatever ailed us, we just blamed the altitude, which made for some pretty funny jokes. Well, funny to us.

ANYWAY, onto the pictures. About three miles from the cabin that Mom and Dad McCurry rented for us all, there was an awesome lake that was totally frozen over. The first time we walked around it, we saw people ice skating on it. They were having so much fun!



Then the second day we went for a walk there, we saw people ice fishing. I've never seen that in real life! They had drilled a whole in the lake and set up camping chairs and were fishing away. Very cool!



Here's Heather, Rob and Rowan (who slept through most of the walk that day), as we're getting a little exercise and enjoying the brisk weather. On this particular walk, it was about 20 degrees outside. Burr!



And here's us, standing by the frozen lake.



In addition to walking around the lake, here's a few other things we did while in Colorado:

• Read in the cabin
• Cooked Christmas breakfast together
• Watched a couple of movies
• Drove to Colorado Springs several times to see family
• Met about 20 members of Ian's family
• Visited with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousin's kids
• Sipped hot chocolate while eating popcorn (one of my all time favorite combos)
• Opened presents
• Monitored the temperature - I already knew this about myself, but I'm pretty obsessed with watching the temperature. Lucky for me (and everyone else), our rental car and our cabin both had thermometers, so I was never without a chance to announce, "It's 19 degrees out right now!" =)
• Found out a friend here got in engaged
• Slept in

All in all, it was a nice trip. It's probably not something we'll do again soon, but we were glad to be with the whole McCurry family for this special celebration.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

We're Off!

Well, pretty much. We're leaving in just a few minutes to head to the airport for our trip to Colorado. We're having the McCurry Christmas there this year. Ian's parents, sister (and fam) and us are all flying out from California. Then several other aunts and uncles are coming in from various other places, to join up with the folks that are already in Colorado. There should be a good group of us (maybe 40?), several of whom I've never meet before. It should be a fun, busy and cold trip! We're really looking forward to seeing his family and having Christmas with them - we feel a little like this might be a one-time adventure, so we're going to make the most of it.

We're also really looking forward to a change of scenery - we both love Colorado. Ian went to college there and my family went there every summer of my childhood to a family camp. There is just something about Colorado - it smells so...crisp. And clean. And it's so beautiful. We'll be in the mountains about 20 minutes from Colorado Springs. Surprisingly, the weather is better there than here, where it's been raining for 6 days straight. (If you're following this blog and you read the last post, here's the update: the leak situation has escalated from just towels on the inside ledge to a fan and heater on the damp carpet and trash bags and tarps on the outside. And we're leaving town! Yikes!) So we're looking forward to seeing the sun!

I'm also excited to celebrate and remember the first advent - for I know what it points to. Come Lord Jesus!

Merry Christmas all.

PS - We just bought a camera! So watch out, blog world - a whole new Esther is on her way for 2011!

Musings on the Rain

I'm sure it comes to no surprise to anyone that I prefer the sun. Just this morning I was struck nearly speechless by the whiteness of my legs. Yikes! Thank goodness I have on tights today with my skirt! Even given my love for the sun, though, I do still like rainy days. Yesterday, it rained all day (the third day in a row of that), and after we got home from church, we never went out again. I baked a cake, Ian did some writing, we both read, we watched Little Women (I consider this a Christmas movie, so I subjected Ian to it), we sipped coffee - it was LOVELY. I really enjoyed sitting in our family room with the Christmas tree all lit up, watching the rain trickle down our windows and listening to it on the roof. There are many nice things about the rain.

What is not nice are leaks. We currently have two. One is coming from a vent in the family room, the roof of which we JUST PAID $1,500 TO HAVE FIXED. They must have not sealed the vent properly. The location of the previous leak is fine, so apparently they did okay with that. I guess the vent just slipped off their radar.

The second leak is also in the family room - which does make our leak maintenance a little easier. We only have to man one room, though sometimes we do have to double team it. But seriously, I feel like we are baby sitting our family room. The second leak is coming from a ledge under a window that is partially outside our house and partially inside. I have NO IDEA what the original design was for, but it almost looks like a pass through bar from the family room to the patio (though why you would want that, I don't know). Problem is, when it rains, water gathers on the ledge on the outside portion. Then as it builds up, it begins to seep in between the ledge and the window sill so it comes through into the inside portion of the ledge. That probably doesn't make any sense, but the crux of the matter is that we have to consistently rotate towels to soak up the water. If we don't, it eventually spills down from the ledge/bar onto the carpet, which is obviously not good. Yesterday we went through three or four sets of towels - we even had to do TWO LOADS of towels (just the dryer part, so that helped) because we ran out. I had to go home on my lunch today to check the leak and switch out the towels, even though I had switched them out right before I left for work. It was all we could do not to get up in the middle of the night and make sure the towels were holding.

In truth, it's been more funny that frustrating - I guess we're still in the honeymoon stage with our house, where it can do no wrong. So we haven't been too bothered, in spite of my seemingly negative paragraphs above. =) I think I am ready, though, for this 4-day stretch of rain to pass by. And according to weather.com, we still have two more days of this!

My B-Day Weekend

What a wonderful weekend I had! Because I had the last week of my fall semester ladies' Bible Study at our house on Wednesday (my actual birthday), we didn't get to celebrate the big day until this weekend. But when we got around to celebrating it, we really went for it! Ian did such a great job and I felt very loved - not just by him but by all of you who also emailed, called, texted, sent videos, cards and gifts! Thank you, dear friends and family.

Here is the celebration run down. On Saturday, we had the family over for a joint party for me and Mary (whose birthday was actually that day). We had a great time. We played lots of awesome party games, such as musical chairs, Hungry Rabbit (a marshmallow throwing game into a cookie jar shaped like a rabbit), and pin the tail on the donkey (pictured here). We also ate great Greek food (catered from a Downtown restaurant), had cake and presents and really enjoyed the time together.



All the little black marks on our garage are the various attempts. Not pictured is Heather's (my sister-in-law) attempt, which is on the cement wall to the right, and Ian's, which is on the side of our house to the left. Guess the McCurry side struggles with the spinning effect. It was hysterical to watch everyone walk dizzily to the garage and attempt to pin it on there. Seriously, if you haven't played that game since the 2nd grade, you've got to incorporate it into your next event. Nothing says Christmas party like pin the tail on the donkey. =)

Then on Saturday night, Ian took me out to L'Opera, the restaurant where we had our wedding reception. It's obviously a favorite place of ours and we had such a great time. We enjoyed our dinner and talked there for over two hours, about the coming year and what I'm hopeful for and looking forward to. It was wonderful.

Here we are, by our tree, right before leaving for dinner. So fun!





But that's not all! For our wedding, the worship pastor at my dad's church gave us gift certificates to the Orange County Performing Arts Center and this weekend, we finally found the perfect way to spend them. We went to see Peter Pan in a 360 degree tent - they did this awesome thing with the sides/top of the tent, showing scenes and making you feel like the kids were flying all over London (and other locations). I can't do it justice; go see it if you get the chance. It was amazing. My parents came with us too, which was really fun. I am now a big fan of theatre in the round!

Whew! By the end of the night last night, I felt like a tired little kid after a day at Disneyland - worn out by all my fun! But I wouldn't have traded a minute of it. And there are still so many fun things to come, with our Gondola ride on Thursday, our Christmas Cookie Open House on Saturday and our trip to Colorado for Christmas just 9 days away! (If that doesn't hook you into continued reading, I don't know what would!)

Thanks again for celebrating with me.

Faith Muscles

You know how when you haven't exercised in a while, your muscles atrophy? Or if you don't work them out at all, they are small?

That's how my faith muscles are. My life, up until now, has been pretty easy. On the one hand, that is great - who doesn't want an easy life? But now that I'm being taught the very painful lesson that I'm not in control, I find that my faith and trust muscles are very small and very weak. It's hard for me to not look into the future and be worried. It's hard to feel that God is good. It's hard to trust his timing. My muscles are weak.

Thankfully, they have been put on a strict workout routine that involves daily exercises of patience and trusting. So they are growing. He is helping me to be brave. And just to throw yet another sports reference out there, it's true what they say: no pain, no gain. It's hard to have my faith muscles being worked out this way, and I'm fearful. When I'm honest with myself, I would rather have an easy life where everything goes the way I want it to and have puny faith muscles.

But that's not my choice. So, I'm sticking with the workout plan and pushing through the pain. I'm hopeful that the next time I am forced to remember that I'm not in control, my faith muscles will spring into action and be super strong.

Watch out, 2011, because a better Esther is on the way!

Ten Things I Love About December, In No Particular Order

1. This morning on my jog, I could see my breath. So fun!
2. Our house smells like Christmas trees.
3. Christmas lights - on houses, around trees, over fire places, in garland, in vases- our house is lit up (in a sober sort of way).
4. That I get to write my Christmas letter.
5. My birthday.
6. Disneyland is a winter wonderland - we were there on Sunday and it is so wonderful in December.
7. Parties - we have our Board holiday party, then our staff holiday party, then our open house, then our Sunukjian Christmas, then our McCurry Christmas, then a celebration with just me and Ian - so many parties and so many special treats!
8. Christmas.
9. Vacation days.
10. My husband cuddles with me all night, because he's cold too! Man, I love December!

What do you love about December?