The Accidental Boilermaker

Last night we saw Purdue play Illinois. We both were cheering for Purdue, but they lost. That's okay though since I am a true Fighting Illini fan anyway. Warm-up It's a full house Game time

Penny got a water fountain drinking bowl for Christmas from Mimi.  She was quite intrigued when we first put it together.  The kitchen floor was all wet from Penny putting her paw in the water spout.

Christmas in Decatur was wonderful.  We got lots of lovely gifts and just had a fun time hanging out with family.  Here are some fun pictures from the weekend: The women in the kitchen Fun with bows Opening presents Igloo penguins Kate's chocolate crinkle cookies

This concludes my Advent-themed blog. Even though every picture did not relate to Christmas, I hope it helped count down the days to today. Nate and I had a wonderful Christmas in Hudsonville and a very nice Christmas today just the two of us. Nate has gotten some really nice biking stuff, a new wallet, mug, and sweater. I've gotten some great running stuff (new tights, grips to run on the snow with, and a hat that I can put my ponytail through) and fun paper for crafting. Plus those sweet bodywrap blankets. Homemade pizza for Christmas dinner Penny scoping out a good lap to sit on Everybody loves the body wrap blankets

Christmas Mimosas Christmas Breakfast Christmas Gifts

Between playing hand and foot, watching Willy Wonka, talking to Sondra, I almost forgot to post a picture for today.

Cookies for our cat sitter.

Christmas cards

Christmas Tree

After my final tomorrow I get to start making Christmas cards!

Study break : )

Not the best picture, but I wanted to try and get a shot of the beautiful, full moon tonight.

Tonight for dinner we made butternut squash soup. It may not look very appetizing in the picture, it was pretty good. Let me know if you want the recipe : )

Christmas brownies

Today is a two picture day We had yummy stir fry for dinner tonight. And this is the homework station. Doesn't it look like fun?

Our first Christmas card of the season, complete with cookies!

Penny slept on this blanket by the table all day long. We left for small group and came back and she hadn't moved one inch. This is exactly what I plan to do once Winter Break starts.

On the bus.

Today's Advent calender update comes in the form of a story and a picture and really has nothing to do with Christmas. I got the mail today and found a letter from the Bursar's office.  It looked exactly like another letter from the Bursar that Nate and I had received almost a week ago.  When the first letters arrived, Nate opened his, but I didn't bother because our tuition fees are the same.  But today, I opened the second letter and then opened the first and immediately discovered why the Bursar needed to send me two letters.  In the first, they tried to bill me for over $11,000!  Lesson to be learned, always open every piece of mail. The bill on the left is the one I got today.  The one on the right is the first letter that I didn't open until today.

Look at how fast his legs move! If you're gonna eat all that holiday food, you've gotta exercise.

It is the beginning of the Advent season and while it has been several years since I had a real Advent calender, I thought I could use my blog as a makeshift calender to count down the days till Christmas. So for the next 25 days I'll post a picture of something interesting that I see or do or something that reminds me of the Christmas. For today I'm kind of cheating by using a picture that was taken on Saturday, but I wanted to start off with a picture of my family. Enjoy!