Christmas and such

I have been waiting to give everyone an update on our lives for a while now. Seems like everytime I get a chance to sit down at the computer something else comes up and I decide to wait, just a teeny bit longer. Next thing I know it's been a month!

Well, we had a very good Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Anthony's family and our good friend Ross. Linda brought home a bingo set, so we all played bingo for extra prizes. And for the first time in my life I won! Until then bingo and I had an ongoing feud. Why? I'm not completely sure. But I wound up with a case of Dr. Pepper (the perfect prize for me)...which Anthony promptly lost out the bed of the pickup on the drive home. Oh well.

Christmas morning Anthony and I spent together. As usual, we spoiled our animals with treats and toys...turns out cat toys are apparently husband toys as well. We got the kitties a laser pointer so they could get some exercise in the winter months. Anthony's hand has been attached ever since. In his words, it's the best Christmas present he got this year. Not really sure how I feel about that. Haha! I had a wonderful morning watching the cats go crazy over the lazer pointer and enjoying my grandma's fudge while watching A Christmas Story.

Later that night we headed to my parents house for our traditional Woods/Hicks get together. Now that Jessica and I are both married it has transformed into the Woods/Hicks/Lemons/Dixon party. Still just as fun though! My mom likes to come up with a fun dinner idea every Christmas, so this year we had a Mexican buffet; fajitas, tacos, salad, rice...pretty much any Mexican food we could think up. Dinner was followed with Mom's holiday Jello dessert (anyone who hasn't had it is missing out) and many rounds of MarioKart on the Wii.

It was a wonderful Christmas Day to be sure.

On to the updates...
Anthony is still working for his dad and at the scooter shop. Business has slowed down significantly at both places however, so Anthony took up soccer to keep preoccupied. He started playing with a couple of friends this summer and decided to join the indoor league once winter hit. Unfortunately the indoor season isn't very long, but he had a great time playing while he did. We're both eager for the outdoor season to start so he can stop complaining of boredom at home. ;)

As for me, I've had a few major changes happen in the last little bit. First, I no longer work at Great Harvest. It's been an adjustment, but looking at things from a distance, I now realize that I was quite miserable...at least for the last little while. Thankfully it only took me a week to find a new job, and I am really enjoying it. I'm now a secretary/office manager for Open Spaces Property Management. The job really is much more suited to my personality. My bosses just expanded their business and are in the process of setting up the Idaho Falls office. So I got to come in here and set things up/organize things so they would make sense to me. Not to mention I'm beginning to thoroughly enjoy real estate; took me by complete surprise!
The second change for me was that we had to put my family's cat, Stripes, down the Monday before Thanksgiving. I did and am still having an extremely hard time adjusting to the fact that when I visit my parents he won't be there anymore. However, he was 16 years old and was having an incredibly difficult time surviving day to day. It's hard to accept that it's time to put a loved one out of their misery, but it really was the kindest thing we could do for him.
Well, after a streak of bad Mondays, good news finally paid a visit to the Hicks/Lemons household. I was accepted to a top notch photography school! The acceptance brings with it the most drastic change Anthony and I have experienced so far. The school is in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. So, come late August/early September...East Coast, here we come! We've both had a hard time wrapping our minds around the concept that we ACTUALLY will be moving. Before everything was hypothetical. Now we HAVE to figure out how to pack up all our belongings and drive them, plus two cats and a dog, clear across the country. I'm beyond excited though. We'll be living about three hours from both New York and Boston, so we've got some road trips planned already. Obviously, it's still a long ways off, but we've started planning already.