A Lovely Year

So, we are all set up here for a romantic Valentine's Day night, but it's still January and so I would like to take a bit and remember this incredible 2007 our family just had. It was a big ol' year for us: I left Pier 1 and Lindsay stopped teaching at the College of New Rochelle (an hour and a half from home). I (with my two great friends Adam and Katie) wrote a play that I am very proud of and that was seen on both coasts. Lindsay passed her French test (which means she can translate French now... so, that's handy) and she passed her "First Exams" which consisted of a panel of professors quizzing her on any part of Theatre they wanted (any part) for two hours--this following her 4-hour written exam. So we're pretty glad that's over.



We also went abroad. For Christmas last year Lindsay gave me tickets to Paris and 6 months later we were with my brother Spencer and his wife Joanie (Pead) in the deep reaches of the forests of France (incidentally, there are monkeys in those deep reaches). The picture above was taken at Haute-Koenigsberg , a restored medieval castle in the Alsace region of France. It was life changing, and will be a fondest memory always. It is one thing to be in a beautiful place, but to share it with people you love makes it all the better.

We also made it home twice this year: First for the Livingston trip to Flaming Gorge/ Adamson trip to Lagoon (both sublime), and Second for the actual Holidays (working retail, you tend to shift your holidays to a few weeks later, when you're allowed to leave your store). It was fun to head out on adventures with our families, but the people are the real draw, and they were at their prime.

Here at home we have lost some great friends to moving (Liz and Jared (then Hank) headed off to Zion), and we have gained some great friends to moving (Nathan, Suzie, and Syd, Lord Love a Duck where would we be with out you?!). We live in a great ward that is full of great people who we love. We teach the 5-7 year olds and it's great; also, in October we celebrated our 1-year anniversary of working in the Manhattan Temple, a calling we adore and are reminded every week we work how blessed we are.

It has been an amazing year, and what's more, we have an amazing year ahead. We've already been to LA (Disneyland and Adam's House) this year, and Lindsay has been accepted to present at three different conferences this year (one in LA, one in Buffalo, NY and one in, that's right, Honolulu!) And I have just been offered a job at Anthropologie at Rockefeller Center, where I am an Assistant Manager of their Home Department (and could not be more excited!)

And so we blog and hope to keep it up (Liz said we need to be consistent for two months before we'd be forgiven). So keep with us, gentle reader, and we will (hopefully) give you reason to.