It's Christmas Card Time Again!

So it's that time again. We wanted to send everyone a Christmas card in the mail and be on time with the letter and everything......that didn't happen :) But we did convert our letter to this blog and put our pics here for you all to see, and, yes, as Whitney pointed out, we did do this last year too. I think it will become a tradition in the Jones family (and it saves a ton on postage!) So here goes:

(Eryn here-- going first so the "funny one" goes second) This year did not seem particularly eventful (especially compared to last year since we got married, lived in two completely different places, and started two careers!), so as I was thinking about what to write I decided to actually think if anything was new this year. And I realized that David and I did have new experiences together, just not quite so dramatic as last years. We paid off a ton of debt with the guidance and Good Will of the Lord. We moved into a new neighborhood where we have many friends and enjoy babysitting for one neighbor's children every week. We like the dorm-like community atmosphere and you can always borrow something you forgot at the grogery store! In some ways it feels like we have taken a much needed step back in time and are more community minded now-a-days. We have been enjoying getting into a new show, "Heroes" with another family in our neighborhood, and have been blessed by their yummy chili :)

My job has been going great. I am part time now (still being an avg of 28-30 hours per week!) so I have more time to keep the house in order. We have learned how to manage our time better with David working near 60 hours a week. I have also been enjoying doing wedding cakes on the side with my friend and neighbor Jen. We have had about one cake a month for the past 6 months, and we really love doing this.

We do still miss our friends and family terribly and sometimes we can't believe that we will be here for 3 1/2 more years, but we know this is where we need to be and are thankful to be here with amazing weather, friends, and a little bit of family (Anna and Don:). You all are in our prayers.

So here is David.................

Okay, Christmas letter time. Life is good for the Joneses. We love where we live, we love our jobs, we love our friends. God is really blessing us in so many ways, not the least of which is monetarily: we’ve paid off a ton of debt this year. Let’s see, what else is going on, Pumpkin? Well you could tell them about your job. Right you are, right you are. Chemistry is going pretty well. It’s a little difficult to explain since most of you aren’t chemists, but if you’re picturing me taking a beaker of red liquid, mixing it with a beaker of blue liquid, and watching bubbles form while wearing lab goggles, that’s probably close enough. I’m making slow and steady progress on my research project, and my advisor (boss) seams pretty pleased, so that’s good. However, he did recently send out a packet of about twenty-five memos about how we all need to work harder, so needless to say, the stress is there as well. Just in case you are interested, I’ve gotten the hydroxamic acid formation to work, but I’m still stumped on the Claisen-Dieckmann tandem cyclization...What else? Church? Okay, yeah, we like our church, and our small group is going well. We are about to start the Truth Project for those of you who have heard of that. It’s a video series from Focus on the Family…By the way, for those of you who just kind of skim these things and look to see if your name is mentioned, I have a brother named Daniel…What else pumpkin? Well, we miss our friends and families. Yes, in a bad way, we really do miss you all, and hope this finds you doing well. (So, if you are picturing me typing with Eryn behind me chiming in, that is the intended effect. I must admit, however, that I am at school and just making up her comments. It just seemed that a dialogue would make this easier to write.)

First Snow

We just got our first winter snow....... here are some pics, and some pics of our festive living room:)

Btw, if you would like to be praying for our current living situation, please do. Somebody new bought our complex and there is a chance he could raise the rent pretty high, or a chance he could sell all the units piece-meal and then the new owners would have to raise our rent.... we really want to stay here!

David, the Master at Haircutting

I have been wanting to cut my hair for several reasons, and I decided to show my husband how much I trust him, so I asked him to cut my hair. Surprisingly he said, "Sure." He did a great job (it's kindof like a reverse bob for you girls out there that know what that means:), and it was great because I could tell him exactly what to do so I got a haircut excactly how I wanted.........instead of the old go to the hair dresser, feel nervous to say you don't quite like it this way, pay a lot, tip her, and then go home and cry :) I don't know if I ever have done that, but I know people have those experiences, and I have come close! I think we are gonna stick to this plan, and save a lot of money in the process! Go David!

Jones Family Thanksgiving

We just got back from a wonderful time with the Jones' Fam in Columbus, GA. It was a lot of fun, but short-lived. Lord willing, we will one day be closer to our families.

Our Thanksgiving week itinerary included:
Going to see Sarah's lab at Emory where she spends all day with fruit flies (David is pulling for the red eyed team :)
Spending some time with Grams, who was a blast to play Apples to Apples with--btw if you have never played this game, we recommend it .
Playing Worst Case Scenario where we learned that it is better to back slowly away from a mountain lion, but not a tigress with her pray. And we also learned that bad caviar can be made better with lemon juice-- all important things we all need to know. This game was pretty funny too, with everyone's thinking out loud about their answers- i will vote for the Maurine/ Melanie team for the funnest. David and I came in last!

Eating chili out of cute Pumpkin bowls while visiting with David and Paige, friends of the Jones'- they knew David from their time in Switzerland

Going shopping on Friday and getting all of my shopping done! except for my brother-- Dad, any ideas???

Holding baby Isaac and playing with Daisy- she has really grown into a sweet little girl

Going to the Festival of Lights at Calloway Gardens, where Buddy made the call on the blankets and we were definitely the coziest group on the trolley-- thanks Buddy!

We had such a good time with everyone, and we hope to see you all sooner than next Christmas!

Here are some pics......... *thanks to Mel for some:)...........

this was Isaac's quisitive face

We had just given Daisy her Christmas present-- dress up stuff

Mimimo reading The Night Before Christmas to Daisy

everybody all together

Eryn and Sarah

Daisy loved the Frosty, Gingerbread Man, and Nutcracker at the Festival of Lights

Us on the trolley

Thanksgiving Dinner

Random pic of our Christmas tree and a table we set up to eat by the tree:)

Halloween

Below are pictures of our neighborhood Halloween party. I'm glad we finally have pictures of our friends, so you can see them. Halloween was a pretty busy day. My work had a company wide party (1000 people) with a ton of booths and food (which, of course, was provided by us, the cafe and bakery). Poor David had to eat the food there so we could have a free dinner on his birthday-- I had no time to fix anything! Then we headed to the neighborhood party stayed for an hour or two and it was off to bed. We did celebrate David's birthday on Sat night with Chipotle Burrito and Blockbuster rentals :)

Justin, Cassi, and their son Cody the Monkey

Me and David-- ok so we went as each other, and I don't normally wear a pepper chef's hat but I thought it would enhance his outfit-- notice he is even wearing my cafe name tag :)

Porter Kuster, the CSU football player with a kool-aid mustache-- we babysit him everyweek, and he is a hoot

Steph, the Dragon, she spent so much time making this costume last year that she decided to wear it again

David and Marshall, the Headless Horseman

Chloe the Buffalo, and Ariel the Kitten-- they actually just moved out of the neighborhood, but we hope to keep in touch

Me, showing of David's molecule that I poorly re-drew-- I thought it made a nice logo for the plain chemistry jacket

the close up of the molecule "logo"- i did a pretty good job i think for having absolutely NO IDEA what i was drawing-- well, then again, i have no idea if i did a good job or not :)

Marshall (headless horseman) and David carving pumpkins, I must say that David cannot do anything half-hartedly-- he worked very dilligently on this pumpkin for a long time

here is the finished product, I was proud of him!

Mark and Steph-- he is a lot more lively in person:)

Grayson, two and a half months old, he is Porter's brother and we babysit him too

all the guys, and the world's biggest pumpkin

Endowing Generations

Our church has just finished a campaign to pay off it's building debt in order to "endow generations" more believers with more money for ministries, and new churches. Instead of paying off 2 million in interest over 20 years, they decided to pay have a campaign to pay it off in three years so the money could go elsewhere. David and I feel really fortunate to be a part of a church that has this kind of vision. We normally have about 500 "members" at our church-- I don't think we have placed membership yet, but we are anyways. And the total ammount given was 1.1 million! Which is over half to pay off the church.

Jen and I were asked to make cake for the celebration event that was on Sunday.
Here are some pics of that.



Stay tuned for Halloween pics :)

New Cake

I think this will be our last cake of the year. I wanted to post some pics of it and, also, there is a picture of me (in my work getup) and Jen (who I have been doing all these cakes with), who is an amazingly talented artist and cake decorator.



David is behind this picture holding a yellow umbrella! He came along as our professional umbrella holder because it was raining when we were delivering the cake.



Here is a pic of the whole banquet room in the background. I thought the tinsel on the ceiling was a nice contrast :)

Our Vacation

David went in the Spring to a time share/ discount club sell, and just for going he won a two nights free stay at a Holiday Inn. We really lucked out because they just pick for you and you take whichever Holiday Inn you get near the city you choose. Well, the downtown Denver Holiday Inn (which was what they chose for us!) just turned into a Crowne Plaza Hotel. So we got to stay in a really, really nice room for free. We felt really blessed by this, and we had a relaxing fun time being tourists where we live. We went to the Celestial Seasonings Plant in Boulder and took the tour of the factory and how they package and make their teas. There was one room just for the peppermint and spearmint which smelled heavenly. We also got to go to the ESPN zone to watch the Sunday night game on the big screen (I thought we could do that for David since most of the vacation was things I considered a little more fun:). We also went shopping, toured the state capitol building, and tried to get into a sold out Rockies game-- the tiebreaker game which they won! So instead we got Cheesecake Factory to go and went back to the hotel room to watch tv and catch part of the game there. When they won we could see the smoke from the fireworks, but the tall downtown buildings were mostly blocking our view. It was a great weekend, and we never even had to drive anywhere once we got to our hotel. Everything we did was withing walking distance. It was great. Here are some pics from the vacation. OH, and we also went to see Sydney White the movie...... it was pretty funny (a modern day Snow White with Amanda Bynes). Below is a protest that we thought was pretty funny. There was one guy there for it, and we couldn't really tell what it was for-- he just seemed upset and wanting to practice free speech! Notice the guy who looks really interested walking by. Here are pics of the inside of the Capitol building. We got to see the State Senate, House, and Supreme Courts. We climbed up to the top of the dome and got great views of the city. I think we were 21 stories up. David had to this one of the one of the view to the bottom because I wouldn't look down! Here, we are sitting on the step exactly one mile above sea level. Some pics of our awesome room and the view from it. And here we are after an awards ceremony for David's fellowship