Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Well we made it home from the U.P. alive! It was actually a gorgeous 7 hour drive home. The roads were clear the entire way and we got to watch the sun set against the trees that had a light dusting of snow. So pretty!*

Here is a short video clip of us departing to the U.P. Dave decided to capture the atmosphere of our trip: our packed car, the music, and my humming (gag!). Little did I know that this was being recorded, and I just found it now as I'm editing our Christmas pictures..

We had a great five days visiting friends and family for Christmas. We stayed with Mom and Dad S for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, then drove up to Aunt Maija's for Christmas night. Stayed with Mom V for mostly the rest of the trip, spending Friday and Saturday visiting many friends and family.

Christmas morning at the Schwartz house! Elise drew Mom's name this year and Dave drew Dad's. We did the classic box-inside-a-box (times 10) trick for Dad's gift. Good times! :)

Mary had Dave's name and Emily had Elise's this year. (Love the cookies, Em!)

Christmas evening with the Stadius-Vertins! We have 'Sister Power' in the first picture -- Holly made each aunt and Mom a beautiful bracelet. We were trying to be artistic with this picture... And the second is one of the dinner tables at Maija's house. Matt and Joel were cracking us all up, and after viewing the picture, Matt was scared he was going bald (turns out it was just a mild case of hat hair, haha).

This year, Elise had Joel's name and Dave had Eric's. (Sorry, we forgot to get pictures of your gift opening Eric!) We got Joel a new golf bag filled with golfing goodies. The top picture is me delivering his gift. For those who have asked me in the past, THIS is why I use a Junior bag and clubs when I golf... :) And below, Joel was thrilled to find a club umbrella in the bag!

And Holly joined us this year -- She made me a gorgeous necklace and earrings set! So talented!

So that was a brief summary of our Christmas holiday. We hope yours was fun as well! Feel free to share your stories as a comment to this post! Now there's more to our trip that we'd like to share...

On Friday, we went to visit our friends Alanna and Ashley (regretfully their husbands, Tony and Craig were both working...but we got to meet Dallas, Ashley and Craig's new baby boy!). Ashley cooked us her delicious Parmesan garlic chicken pizza for lunch. It was so nice to catch up with the ladies and spend some time with Teija and Dallas. The babies are getting so big! We didn't want to leave them behind either -- they're so cute!

Teija loved Ashley's dish cloth -- in her words, "mmmmm"!

Later that night, Dave and I went to the wedding rehearsal for Betty and Bob's wedding. They asked me to sing at their wedding, which was at Faith Lutheran Church (my old church from when we lived in Laurium). I have known Betty and Bob for about 14 or 15 years -- they are like second parents to me! Betty was my choir director at church (for a group called STARs -- Students Together Always Rejoicing) which I joined when I was about six years old. Since then she and Bob have been there for me for many other things, through graduations, plays and musicals, our wedding, and more to come! Dave and I were just excited to be involved in their special day, that we were waiting over 10 years to actually happen! We also helped to decorate the reception hall and were treated to a pizza dinner that night. Then on Saturday, we visited with Lorraine and Larry in Atlantic Mine before heading to the wedding in Laurium.

The ceremony was just beautiful. Betty really took advantage of all the holiday colors and decorations, having a full Christmas theme. She even made all of the bridesmaids dresses, and they were smokin' hot! Now, some of you know what happens when I get up to sing in honor of people very near and dear to my heart...well it happened yet again, even though I tried not to let it. Problem is they put me singing right after the vows, which at my cousin's wedding, I broke down in tears at the same spot. This time I was fine at the rehearsal, so Dave and I were hoping things would go just as well at the wedding. My mom knew otherwise! I sang a song called "This is the Day," an original wedding song written by a christian solo artist. Dave took video of my performance, which I didn't really plan on posting on here, but he talked me into it. Just please try to look past all of the flat notes, cracking and tears. I promise I really can sing if I can keep my emotions in check.. :)

Besides that happening, we had a ton of fun at the wedding and the reception. We got to see a countless number of friends and even some of the Vertin side of the family at the reception.

Eric actually started the ceremony by playing Trumpet Voluntary! He did a great job!!

Well, I think this about sums up our Christmas trip in Michigan. We went to church with Maija on Sunday, then caught lunch at the Schwartz house before leaving for Minnesota. Got home at about 10pm Central time on Sunday night, so not to bad.

We're getting excited for tonight now -- we have big New Year's Eve plans! We're going to a club called The Lounge right in downtown Minneapolis. So look forward to our next post which will probably have some city pictures. This will be one of the first big clubs we've been to since moving here. We can't wait to dress up and go out on the town!

Happy New Year to all of you from us both! We love you!


- Elise