Tis the wassailing season

It's been a while. Let us go back in time about a month and a half and do the right thing by documenting what has been going on in the Avenues, starting with...

VOTING! We went straight from work to the polls. We beat the after work rush and walked right in. Both of us were a bit unsure of who we were going to vote for until we were there in front of our voting machines. We really respect both McCain and Obama and felt either would do a great job as our next President. We were thrilled with the outcome of this year's election; but let's be honest, we'd be thrilled with any election that didn't have either Bush or Kerry as the running mates/future President of our country (2004 was a rough year). Jack's main incentive for voting was, once again, his "I Voted" sticker.

I can't quite remember what weekend this was, but we got to play with my adorable nephew Royal. Royal is easy to please, give him some food and a toy, and some more food and he is happy as a clown (but not as creepy).
We watched Lady and the Tramp with him. As you can see from the picture he brought his own recliner. Right as I turned on the movie, he crawled in his car seat and made himself at home. Every once in a while he would look over at me and indicate that he would like a snack or a drink, but for the most part he was quite content. Jack and I had an eye appointment this morning that we took Royal to with us. Have you ever been watching someone else's child and heard people in the background say things that would indicate that you are the child's parent and neglect to correct them? Confession: I definitely did that this day. He's just so cute, I couldn't help it (sorry Meredith).

We spent Thanksgiving in Beaver with Jack's grandparents. It is a cute little town with a charming block or two and Grandpa Hal and Grandma Mare are wonderful! I got to see the J.R. Clubhouse for the first time (by the way, I was unanimously voted into the club November 16, 2008. I'd like to give a special thanks to V.P. Kate, Secretary Becca, and Decorator Cassie) not to mention a variety of antique yard appliances displayed by numerous Beaverites.
We were also able explore two of the finer institutions of Beaver, namely the Junk Store, and the Dollar Store. They sound synonomous but they are a world apart from one another.
The Junk Store, lovingly named by Grandma Mare, is exactly what its name implies. There are about five rows filled completely of junk. Ranging from cap guns, to porcelin clowns that could have been used in the "Poltergist." There are a few things that one always must buy when at the junk store, first and foremost one must buy the cherry candy balls. These are delicious however, they unfortunately come with the grapefruit candy balls. So, you pay double the price for half the amount of cherry balls. The other thing one buys is a Beaver tee-shirt. Usually made for about $2.00 and sold for about $15. This is a neccessity because the shirts are so cheap that you must buy one every visit.
The dollar store, is a new commodity in Beaver Utah and threatens the existence of the Junk Store as we know it. It is the local Wal-mart I would say including flourescent lights. This store sells as much junk as the junk store with less charm, less clutter, and bigger hair from the cashiers. But when you can buy a 12 pack of coke for 3 bucks, it is hard not to make a stop.
Sorry to get emotional, but help us save the JUNK STORE! Next time you are in Beaver, make a stop at Pace's variety store and contribute.
Now, to get back on track, the weekend after Thanksgiving Jack and I bought our first Christmas tree together. We walked in and found this little guy within seconds. We fell in love instantly and gave him a Chinese name of "Chou".

Size comparison picture. Our tree is just a little guy.
Sausha decorating the tree.
Jack decorating the tree.
We searched everywhere for a star, but everything we found was gaudy or just plain ugly. So, until we are able to find a star, Fauna is acting as our angel. We picked Fauna because Maryweather is our angel on our nativity and Flora is a little too bossy to be associated with Christ's birthday.
I wish I had a better picture of our tree in the dark, but I don't.
The next exciting event in the Christensen home happened on December 6th. Every December 5th since I was born my family has placed our shoes either by the fireplace or by the door, then on December 6th we wake up and have a present and treats in them. It is a German holiday called St. Nick's Day. So, December 5th Jack and I left our shoes by the door (I've learned through the years the bigger the shoe, the larger the present, that is why I left a boot). When we woke up my one shoe had turned into three shoes and Jack had a new watch in his. I love St. Nick's day! Yeah for presents! And yeah for adopting foreign holidays! (Don't worry, I do know the true meaning of Christmas, but you have to admit, presents rock too!)
The most recent thing that has happened was our adventure to Capitol Theatre to see The Nutcracker Ballet. Sausha is a seasoned viewer of the ballet, whereas this was Jack's first time dipping his feet into the wonderful prancing world of ballet. So, having looked forward to going to the Nutcracker for about 8 weeks now, we were thoroughly prepared knowing beforehand what we were going to wear. Unfortunately, the articles of clothing we had chosen to wear were all under our dainty Christmas Tree. So, as a result of the Nutcracker we were able to open some presents early. However, both of us (especially Sausha) look smashing in our new outfits and we were ready for a night on the town. We were joined by Cole and Vanessa in our little adventure which started off with some fabulous seafood at the Market Street Grill. We then headed to the ballet. I can't speak for Sausha, but Jack was mystified, mostly by the sword fight. Not only was it amazing to see the talent portrayed, but the music is fantastic. I realized about half way through that I had heard almost every song somewhere in my life, and realized also why the Nutcracker is such a long running ballet. The show was great, Sausha looked great, and the food was great. All together it made for a wonderful evening.

Other things that have recently happened:
Kent and Megan were married last Friday! Congratulations! Will and Tiffani treated us to their company, despite traveling through a blizzard to do so.
We recently watched WALL-E and very much enjoyed it.
Sausha joined the Stone Hill National team as a receptionist, health licenser, and model. She enjoys 8 hours a day of Jack's company.
Jack has finished his semester, Sausha still drinking the dregs of the bitter cup that is finals.
And finally, we increased the heat of our apartment by 15 degrees by realizing that the window to our bedroom has been open 2 inches since October. We have moved from using 6 blankets to 3.

Happy Christmas to all of our faithful readers.

double double toil and trouble....

I think it pretty much goes without saying that I love Halloween! Not only do you get to dress up and eat candy, but it is my birthday. I decided to skip class on Thursday night so Jack and I could do the responsible thing by celebrating Halloween Eve by carving pumpkins and making sugar cookies.
I made Jack do all of the scooping...I know I am a baby, but it was the week of Sausha and I chose to have my sweet husband take care of the dirty stuff for me.
Here is Jack's scary faced pumpkin and his own equally scary face.

A symbol of hope in a dark Gotham. I'm responsible for this one.
The sugar cookies turned out mighty tasty, but I think it is because the frosting was practically pure powdered sugar. Powdered sugar makes everything taste better...and apparently Blue Bonnett margarine too.
We don't have a cooling rack so we improvised. The white thing is a steaming rack for my rice cooker and the rest are various utensils (anything we could find with holes in them for ventalation).
Here are the finished products.
All in all I had a great birthday. My sweet husband bought me beautiful roses, took me to the Body Worlds exhibit and then to dinner at Thaifoon. We ended the night by watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (we felt a Tim Burton movie was appropriate for Halloween). I love my birthday and I love Halloween!

Aminal Adventures

There comes a point in every married couple's life, that they must visit the Zoo. We're not sure it is written anywhere significant, but if it isn't, it is now. Yesterday we visited the Zoo together. We may have been the only adults there without children, but it didn't matter. It was a beautiful day and we loved every minute of it. However, Jack was a little dissapointed. Since his youth the Zoo has shrunk significantly. It used to take five hours to see every animal in the Zoo now, along with his wife, they were able to see everything in two.

This is Christie the Elephant. She is a year pregnant. We believe she is a distant cousin of Babar.

This is Jack torn about which animal to see first. He was anxious to see a beaver, hence the hat, but was left disappointed.

Sausha really, really likes Giraffes. She was as giddy as a school girl.

We thought that the Giraffes looked a little bored. I believe it was at this point we considered putting together an elaborate escape plan.

As we were waiting in line for the carousel, Sausha saw the Praying Mantis (which we just found out can also be spelled Preying Mantis) and knew that was the animal she was to ride.

The Turkey is a very overlooked animal. I bet millions of kids go through the Zoo without ever riding the Turkey. Think of all the wonderful joy Turkeys provide during the Holiday Season. I thought he deserved a little bit of my attention to ease his loneliness.

We're lucky the Mantis didn't attack Sausha. Maybe it was too ecstatic after winning the race between himself and the Turkey to be violent.

Second place is almost as good as first place. At least that's what I told my Turkey.

Cousin Jack: King of the Kids

Jack, being the master of blogging that he is, keeps updating our blog and I haven't had a chance to contribute at all. So today, seeing that have have a few spare minutes (finally!) am going to take my turn.
A few weeks ago we had my cousin Kevin's kids over for a Sunday afternoon. Knowing that they would only be over for a few hours, we decided to do whatever we could to trick them into thinking that we were the coolest adults around. Well, it worked and all it took was....

1. Cooking Chocolate Chip Cookies together.

2. Playing horses together.


3. Playing Guitar together.
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4. Playing Captain Hook together

5. And watching Sleeping Beauty together.
I think Jack was definitely the favorite of the day (as the previous blatantly pictures prove)

Honeymoon Pictures

So, these pictures were taken on our honeymoon. We're sorry they are a little delayed, however work, school, and baseball are not conducive to keeping up a blog.

Here we are at Lincoln City, Oregon. It was

pretty cold and windy but none the less beautiful.

We got out and took this picture as we were

driving along highway 101.

Here we are at a beach I think it was called

Pirate's Cove but at any rate it was very beautiful.

Here we are all done up for a night out on the town. Well, Sausha at any rate is all done up. Isn't she cute?

Here we are at about 5:30 AM searching for

sand dollars. My beautiful wife guaranteed

that we would find some. Turned out to be

an empty promise.

Here we are at Sausha's favorite place on earth.

(That she's seen thus far)

I think we're a cute couple.

Baseball

It is at this time every year that a young man's focus is diverted from his studies and he focuses on a far loftier sphere, that of baseball. Once a year spectators see men turn to boys as they come from behind to stay in the playoffs. Every year Cubs fans' hope is resurrected only to be dashed to pieces. Every year people find themselves rooting against the perpetual evil that is the Yankees. In what other game do fans around the world 2/3 of the way through an intense game sing to reassure themselves it's only a game? Baseball gives us in modern society the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome.

A brief photo journey of the past 6 months

I call this "in-law discomfort"







Cole and I failed to pull the stone out of the stone. I'm beginning to wonder if we are cut out for this royality thing having tried to pull the sword out of the stone several times.






This is us in St. George. Isn't she cute?






One of our many engagement photos, but this one is what we used for announcements.






Our photographer told us to be serious in this photo, I don't know how good we are at it.

I call this bean bag and guitar

Life in the Avenues

So, being our first blog, we decided to talk a little about our way of life. Having just been married as of July 18th of this year, we're just getting used to married life, working full-time, and school. Despite the setbacks of school and work, we are able to enjoy the two hours everyday that we get to see each other in our little apartment in the Avenues of Salt Lake.

To answer everyone's incessant questions about married life, we are loving it, we haven't been in a fight, we're not sick of one another (in fact quite the opposite), and we're not expecting. But apart from that, we are full time students at the U of U; Sausha studying anthropology and Jack beginning the long, and somewhat painful, journey of becoming an English professor.

Sausha works as a receptionist/model at a local OBGYN office. She is the main bread winner, doing actual work as opposed to pretend. Jack spends most of his time getting paid for surfing the internet at an insurance brokerage.