Christmas Decorations

We haven't had a big Christmas Tree since we lived in Ohio, and I was so excited to put one up in the house this year. 7' tall and it looks beautiful. Since we don't have a dining set yet, it will live in the dining room this year for our Holiday Season. We might need to find it a new home next year, but we'll worry about that when the time comes!

The hubs and I poured some egg nog, turned on some Christmas carols and brought out the box of decorations. What had seemed like a lot of decorations in our apartments these last few years now barely seems to fill the spaces. But we have many years ahead of us to find some great seasonal pieces to transform the house. There is just so much potential, and I love it!

I missed my family a lot as I pulled out some old, special ornaments and pieces. I wish I could convince them to move out here to Colorado... there are a couple of available houses in our neighborhood!  ;)

First Thanksgiving in the New House

Last year, we tried to make Thanksgiving a more "formal" affair by setting up a table with nice place settings and silverware. It had been the first time we'd made the entire meal ourselves, and it was a huge hit!

For the first year in our new house, we didn't quite have the same nice set-up. We are still in need of a dining set, and I was suffering from day number 3 of jet lag after traveling home from Asia. However, despite the casual atmosphere, we still had an outstanding meal. The turkey turned out so much better this year, and we seemed to have the routine figured out a little better. I'm looking forward to many left-over meals ahead of us!

First Trip to Asia

My profession has always had a strong connection to manufacturing and building relationships with partners in Asia. I've worked with great companies in India, Korea, China and Vietnam throughout the last 9 years, but I never had been given the opportunity to travel across the world to see what it was all about in person.

My new job presented me with the opportunity to finally take this trip, and it was one of the most productive work trips I've ever been on. We had a really strong team with us, and we approved over 40 styles to the next stage of development! That kind of productivity is almost unheard of, and is especially difficult if you are not working in the factories, right in their offices. It was a huge accomplishment for my career, and I was so glad to have finally gotten that notch in my belt. The time change has been tough to over come since being home this last week, but I hear that each trip gets a little easier (which I'm glad to hear that there will be even more trips to come!)

Some photos from my trip:

The Winds of Fall in Colorado

It has been a very windy Autumn Season this year, challenging us whenever we're outside and pushing the flags to their limits. We planted our UC flag in our front yard as one of the first ways to make the new house our home. But we kept losing the flag off the pole! We'll stick with the seasonal pumpkin out on the porch for now...