Happy Holidays

This is the first Christmas Branden and I have spent together as a married couple! We were so excited to finally be able to spend all of the holidays together. Branden was especially excited because it was his first Christmas home and with family since 2009.

The first thing we did after Thanksgiving was put up our Christmas tree and lights on our patio. It really got us into the spirit even though we didn't have any ornaments!

Bandit of course had to make an appearance

A few weeks later we finally got all of our ornaments from my parent's house and finally finished our tree! We were both quite pleased with how it turned out.

Our next task at hand was to make some ugly Christmas sweaters to wear on Christmas Eve. We decided we wanted to start a new trend and wear them every Christmas Eve. We found a holiday pillow at Ross and decided it would be perfect to cut up and make a sweater. By the time Christmas Eve rolled around we both had some pretty awesome sweaters (although Branden's was much better).

You can see Elf peaking his head out of my vest :-)

Christmas Eve was spent with Branden's family in Thornton and it was great seeing his entire family. We had lots of fun and made sure to take lots of pictures!

Christmas morning we drove to Sacramento where we spent the morning with my family. We opened presents and had our traditional breakfast of hot dogs and scrambled eggs (I know it's weird), along with a homemade bread given to us every year by a family friend. Everything was delicious!

After breakfast I decided that I was going to jump in the new pool my parents got. Nobody had been in it yet and I wanted to be the first. Thankfully it wasn't too cold outside but the the surface of the pool read 52 degrees (brrrrr). On the count of 3 I was ready to jump in! I definitely felt the shock of the cold water as I hit but it was worth it! Now I can say I did something that nobody else can: I was the first one in the pool!

We then drove to Sonoma where we had our traditional dinner of prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, creamed spinach, and mashed potatoes. I can say that all of us were stuffed! 

It was great being able to spend time with both families over the holidays and I cannot wait until next Christmas!

UFC in Sacramento

Most of you probably know this, but Branden is a HUGE mixed martial arts (mma) fan. He has been following the sport for as long as I have known him. He could probably tell you the results of any fight you ask him about.

Naturally, when we found out UFC  was going to be in Sacramento we decided we wanted to try and go. Tickets were pretty expensive and we opted not to buy them. However, I have a friend (thanks Edris!) who told me that Dana White (the president of UFC) tweets out free tickets to almost every event. After much research we decided we wanted to take the chance and drive to Sacramento.

We got to Sacramento just after the weigh-ins finished on Friday evening and decided to hang around Natomas in case he tweeted them out that night. We spent 4 hours at Buffalo Wild Wings enjoying ourselves and constantly updating our twitter pages. At 9pm we gave up and decided to head to my parents' house since they live much closer!

On Saturday morning we decided to drive back out and take our chances. We went to Starbucks at the corner of Del Paso and E Commerce and planned on drinking coffee and waiting there. We ordered our coffee and as we were waiting Dana tweeted out that they were giving free tickets!

I did a quick search to see where exactly that was and realized it was at the next major intersection!

We still hadn't gotten our coffee yet so as I ran to get the car Branden got our coffees. We thankfully made both lights and pulled into the shopping center and then ran to get our tickets. When we walked up the guy giving out the tickets told us we were the first people there! Man it felt great to get some free tickets! He even gave us 4 tickets so that we could go with some friends.

 We had great seats in the lower level!

We called one of our old friends, Tyler, and invited him and his wife to come with us. They quickly found babysitters and we were on our way to the fights! We enjoyed every minute of it and it was great seeing a hometown favorite get a huge win!

 Great seats!

 I can't believe we got these for free!

 I'm so glad Branden was able to finally see UFC!

 Branden and Tyler enjoying themselves

So happy to have the chance to go!

One thing is certain, we will never pay for UFC tickets!

Tis The Season

With Christmas coming quickly we decided to have Branden's mom, sister, and our niece come and visit us recently since they haven't seen our new place yet. We had lots of fun watching movies, barbecuing, and just catching up.

Alameda is a great town do do fun activities. I heard about a Christmas tree lane just a few miles from us and we all decided to check it out. We were all so amazed with the decorations and every house on both sides of the streets participated in the festivities! There was even a house that had music with a light show about every 15 minutes. This was Kianna's (our niece) first trip to see Christmas lights and her eyes were big and bright and we could tell she really enjoyed herself.

 Kianna in front of the elf making toys (which actually had a conveyor belt of moving toys)!

 A view down the road

 This one had flamingos as part of the decor

 Christmas and Star Wars?!? Winner!

 Thomas the train, Star Wars, and Marvel Comics characters!

I love being able to spend the holidays together!

 Kianna and I are watching Ice Age 2!

 Branden is enjoying Kianna's company!

Trying to get Kianna to roll over for the first time! She finally succeeded!

We are so blessed to be able to spend time with family more! I can't wait for Christmas :-)

Crosstown Showdown

Well the holidays are upon us and Branden and I were able to spend our first Thanksgiving together for the first time in 5 years. It started off with the annual alumni basketball game at Del Campo. This year I was the oldest one on the alumni team and I couldn't believe it! I had a blast playing and we even won by 2 points!

Thanksgiving morning brought us back to Del Campo where Branden played tackle football with some high school friends (Tomas, Tyler, and Drew). It was great seeing them all back together playing football just like in high school. I enjoyed watching all of them play and I know Branden enjoyed playing as well.

After football we went back home and got ready for dinner. We went to my aunt and uncle's house for appetizers and then went back to my parents' house for some delicious turkey! We had 2 amazing turkeys: one from the oven and one smoked by my brother in his Traeger. My brother loves taking pictures of his Traeger creations so here is a photo of the turkey, compliments of Taylor.

After dinner we headed to Branden's sister's house where we spent time with his sister, mom, and our niece. We all hung out and watched a movie and it was wonderful getting to spend time with both families in the same day.

On Friday we drove down to LA because Saturday we were going to the USC-UCLA football game. We had high hopes going into the game. We started off with some great tailgating with awesome people. Unfortunately USC lost the game but we both had a great time and are sad to see football season at USC come to an end. Hopefully next year we will get our victory bell back!

 Playing some tailgating games

 The amazing cookies that were made just for the game!

 We love hanging out with Sarah and Daniel!

 The whole gang!

Fight On!