Thanksgiving Over...On to Christmas!!

Well, I didn't quite get this updated as quickly as I'd wanted. Jeff and I have been putting in long hours at the office and library this week. We can definitely tell it's the end of the semester!

We had a nice Thanksgiving at my Mom's house. It was very relaxing and dinner was delicious! Ashley made a delicious sweet potato casserole. It became an instant hit and is definitely something I'll have to make before next Thanksgiving. It was might tasty but *very* unhealthy! I posted the recipe on the right if any of you would like to give it a go for Christmas!

We came back to Gainesville on Friday in order to prepare the big Florida/Florida State game on Saturday. It was a little bitter-sweet. It was a fun game (it's always fun when we whoop FSU) but the last one of the season is always sad...Not to mention it was Brent's last game before he graduates. He's been nice enough to drive he big truck to the games the last few years. We have no idea what we're going to do next year!?! Scooter maybe?? I also had the realization that it was my 10th football season at UF...Yikes! 10 years of student season tickets...that's got to be some kind of record!

Thanksgiving Part II was also a success. We did a cajun-style deep fried turkey. That was mighty tasty too! I came out looking totally burnt but, it wasn't! We both loved it and found it quite easy to do. It's definitely a new holiday favorite. However, next time I'll have to get a bigger turkey. The leftovers went fast!

Anyway, check out all the pics below from our adventures this past week. Merry Christmas to All!

Thanksgiving at Mom's

Our Last Ride to the Football Game w/ Brent (You can see why he drives! Our little mazda can't do that!)

Our Thanksgiving Part II Table

Jeff, Preparing the Bird

The Deep-Fryer..best to keep it away from the house

It's done! Doesn't it look burnt!?!

All ready for Christmas!

Almost Done!

Well, we've finally moved back into our kitchen! Check out the before and after pictures. Really, we were quite surprised to see how much we could do with a relatively small amount of money! Of course, we saved a ton by doing the labor ourselves. It isn't always easy but, we feel pretty happy with what we've accomplished together!
We have only one major house project left. We're going to pound out the white tile in the kitchen and remove the last of our carpet and put the Pergo all the way through. Hopefully, we'll have that all finished before Christmas. I'll have to put the before and after pictures of our entire house up after that. Really, you won't believe its transformation!
We're headed to Tampa tomorrow for Thanksgiving at my mom's house. We're looking forward to good food and good company! We'll be coming back Friday night for the big football game on Saturday...it's so sad it's the last home game of the season! We'll be having Thanksgiving Part II on Sunday with our good friends, Brent & Erin. We're going to be deep-frying the turkey. Should be pretty tasty!
Stay tuned for a recap of our holiday and more pics!

Hart-Christopherson Family Florida Vacation

We've been in south Florida the past few days for a weekend of family fun. We had a great time! We went to the beach, did some shopping, took an airboat tour of the Everglades, and I even got to hold a baby alligator! Check out the pictures!

My doctoral committee postponed my oral exam until mid-December so, I've got a few more weeks before I am officially a doctoral candidate. I was pretty bummed that they moved it. I was really looking forward to getting it out of the way before the holidays.

Jeff is busy working on our kitchen project today. He's on the home-stretch and I'm hoping to be able to fix dinner in the kitchen tomorrow (rather than the bathroom)!

Getting Started...

This is our first forray into blogging. Hopefully, we'll get more sophisticated as we go!

It seems to start this thing, I should provide a bit of information about us so that our stories will make sense. Jeff and I are still living in Gainesville, and we absolutely love it. Jeff is working on a Master's degree in biomedical sciences and will be applying to dental school next year. I am working at UF as a research coordinator in the College of Medicine. I love my work and have had the opportunity to pursue my Ph.D. while working for the past couple of years. Pending successful completion of my oral exam next week, I will be a newly minted doctoral candidate and will be a dissertation away from being the next "Dr. Tobler." I'm shooting for early fall 2008.

Our free time is generally spent attending/watching Gator football games and fixing up our little condo in Haile Plantation. Our house wasn't really a fixer-upper but, we've definitely made it our own and have had a lot of fun doing it. Jeff is cutting granite tile for our kitchen countertops as I type... We'll be posting before and after pictures after we complete our last two projects!

We're looking forward to keeping better in touch with our family and friends and hope you enjoy this as much as we do!