Christmas in the Frozen Tundra

Merry Christmas! And greetings from the frozen tundra of Idaho! After a long day of travel on Sunday, we finally made it to Bloomington, Idaho (population 251) for our Christmas holiday. It's been great fun so far. We've been shooting, made a snow-family, fed the horses, and have spent a lot of time reading, relaxing and eating (and eating, and eating). We're going to do some snowmobiling later today (my favorite is being pulled behind it on the sled) and some skiing tomorrow.

It was a beautiful (cold...15 degrees!) snowy Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It was all very magical. Our little niece and nephews were so cute. Santa made a special stop at the house to tell the kids how good they've been, which got them all really excited. There were many Christmas surprises and it was great to spend Christmas morning with my dad...it's been about 20 years!

My brother-in-law, Bryan, has been trying to coax the deer down from the hills into our backyard. He's put a couple dozen apples around the yard and has left his face-prints on all of the windows peering outside. Last night, we finally spotted a few in the yard but, they didn't touch his apples! We bought some special deer food today so, hopefully they'll be more deer sightings tonight.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! It's such a wonderful time of the year. It's so easy to remember how blessed you really are!

Until next time, enjoy some fun pics from our first few days of vacation!



On our way to Bloomington, Idaho



The boys on Christmas Eve morning. Notice Jeff's face. For some reason, he's been making that face in all of our pictures this week!?! He's usually very photogenic but, clearly, something is off! You'll see this face in several of these pictures!



Braden, downing the whole milk. Bryan bet him he couldn't put on 10 pounds before we leave. There's $50 waiting for him if he does. He's been eating, and drinking, constantly!



Me and Ashley, getting acclimated to the cold. Clearly, I'm dressed for warmth and Ashley is making a fashion statement.



Jeff and I at our shooting range.



Ashley, heavily armed with a 223.



Jeff, trying to stay warm.



Jeff, pretending he's on The Sopranos with this 9mm



Jeff, showing his stuff with the 223. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like some heavy artillery...



Our snow-family, complete with man, woman and dog.



Amy & Jeff, Christmas Eve



Ashley & Bryan, Christmas Eve



Amy & Jeff...there's that face again.



Amy, Braden & Ashley



The family, oldest to youngest, Christmas morning.



Braden, Jeff & Amy, Christmas morning



Ashley, opening her surprise, David Yurman earings from Bryan.



Ashley, showing off her new bling.




Jeff, trying to stay warm.



On our way to feed the horses...packed into the car like sardines.



Amy & Jeff, feeding Clyde. It appears Jeff is trying to imitate Clyde with that face again!

More Celebrations

The past few days have been really fun as we've been celebrating Christmas with our friends! We had a fun evening at the Lowry's, singing Christmas carols and eating some delicious fondue. It was the coldest night in Gainesville so far this year...26 degrees!! It definitely set the right mood for the holiday and was a heat wave compared to what we're going to on Sunday!

Last night, we had a few friends over for the time-honored Tobler tradition of gingerbread house making. No cheating here...everyone started with a box of graham crackers and some "glue." I made Ashley's yummy dip recipes, which I posted in my "what's cooking section" on the right. Beware, you'll gain weight just thinking about them. Thus, I posted two...one for each thigh! (One wouldn't want to be lopsided!)

We'll be getting ready for our trip to Idaho over the next couple of days and our next post will likely be from there!

Until then, enjoy some pics of our recent festivities!

The girls at the Lowry's house


The silly girls at the Lowry house


The boys, who look too cool to be fun or silly!


Gingerbread house making


Jeff, hard at work on our masterpiece


Cassie and Craig


Brent and Erin, working on their trailer gingerbread house


Rachel and Del


Our completed project


Brent and Erin and their trailer house, complete with a truck on stilts,
fire barrel, trash pile, and armed resident

Our finished products...

The Celebrations Begin...

We've had a lot to celebrate this weekend! Jeff and I went to one of our favorite seafood restaurants on Thursday night to celebrate all of our good news. I splurged and had the lobster, which was delicious!

Friday night we met my family in Tampa to have a lovely Christmas dinner at Timpano's, which I highly recommend. The food was great, as was the company. Jeff's bone-in fillet was the best he's ever had. Some of the pictures are posted below. We exchanged some gifts at dinner and then had to move to the parking lot to open some of the bigger boxes from my mom. Definitely a memorable Christmas celebration...opening gifts in the parking lot!

We've spent the rest of the weekend having a movie marathon and I've started some Christmas baking. We're looking forward to a leisurely week at work and our preparations for our trip to Idaho. It's going to be *cold* but great!

Jeff's finishing our latest home-improvement project this week (putting in marble tile counter tops in our bathrooms) and the last of our floor should be delivered this week. We were hoping to get it all done before we left but, it looks like the floor will have to wait until after we return from Idaho. Jeff has assured me that we should have this all done before school starts again January 7th. Then we should be done with the big stuff! Yeah!

Merry Christmas to you all!


Christmas Dinner at Timpano's


Braden & Greer

Amy & Jeff

Mom & Greer

Ashley & Amy

Opening gifts in the parking lot...tail-gate style.

Bryan & Ashley

The girls will their "bling" paper-weights

Little-man, Charlie

Our little nephew, Charlie, and his Lightning McQueen scooter.
Our gift to him as his favorite aunt and uncle!
Looks like he might want to join Jeff's dental practice one day!

Good News!

I received two bits of good news yesterday and thought I'd better share. First, I was admitted to doctoral candidacy...finally! I sat for a 1-hour oral exam yesterday afternoon in which I had to defend/explain my answers to the two-day written exam I took back in October. At the end of that hour, I had to leave the room while my committee "deliberated." After 20 anxiety-filled minutes, they came back and told me I had been admitted to candidacy, and that really they spent most of the 20 minutes talking about my dissertation. What a relief! On to the "fun" part!

Second, while I was on the phone with my mom relating these events, I opened up a letter to find that I had been awarded another scholarship! I was totally surprised! I had received word a couple of weeks ago that I had been given a scholarship and I was excited about that but, this was really a surprise! What a blessing!

Needless to say, a weight has been lifted and I'm happy to finally be able to fully enjoy the holiday season. Jeff took his last final this afternoon (I'm sure he's home sleeping now) and we'll be going out tonight to celebrate. It's been a difficult, busy semester for both of us and it'll be nice to just enjoy our favorite time of year!

Tim Tebow Mania!

Jeff and I, along with the entire Gator Nation, were extremely excited to see Tim Tebow win the Heisman on Saturday night. I don't think you could find a better role model for the youth of the Gator Nation. In the spirit of this exciting event, I've posted some of my favorite Tebow items below that have found their way to my email (mostly thanks to Ashley). I hope you enjoy them as much as I have! It is certainly a great time to be a Gator!

This week marks the end of the fall semester for Jeff and I. Jeff is busily preparing for his final on Thursday, and I'm finally going to sit for the oral portion of my qualifying exam on Wednesday. If all goes well, we're going to treat ourselves to dinner at Bone Fish and a movie on Thursday night to celebrate Jeff's successful completion of a rather difficult course and my admittance to doctoral candidacy (hopefully...).

Jeff plans to finish off the last of our large home-improvement projects before we leave for the frozen tundra of Idaho to spend Christmas at my dad's. Both of which I'm really looking forward to! We'll post more before and after pics then.

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful holiday season!
Merry Christmas!

Tebow 4 Heisman!

Hopefully, this is the guy they'll be handing to Tim Tebow on Saturday night!