Ice Cream!

For Christmas we received an ice cream maker from Emily and Miran. Here is our first try with the new appliance. I think it turned out delicious, although we will have to test it MANY more times before I am sure :-)

All of the ingredients in the maker

A short video of the action, in case you have ever wondered how an ice cream maker works



The finished product. Matthew gave it the best compliment by saying "this is even better than Publix ice cream!" I would call that success.

Christmas in Charlotte

This year we spent Christmas in Charlotte, NC at Matthew's sister's house. We were also joined by Matthew's Mom and Dad. We had a great time playing games, eating lots of food, and, of course, opening gifts!


The tree with all of the gifts

























A warm fire on Christmas Eve




















Matthew and Lindsay by the fire





















Lindsay decorating cookies




















Emily & Jane decorating cookies




















Jane and Richard opening gifts




















Playing Rummikub




















Playing Settlers of Catan




















Emily & Miran outside on Christmas, in the snow!




















Lindsay & Matthew in the snow




















Matthew trying to catch snowflakes



Matthew making french toast the day after Christmas

























What we woke up to the day after Christmas, 4" of snow!




















Our beautiful new shoe rack/bench all set up at home. We love this gift, Thank you!

Games and Cookies

Matthew and I love to play games and we love to eat cookies, so we decided to combine the two with a touch of holiday spirit! We had a few friends over to decorate some cut-out cookies I made using my secret family recipe and then we played games while we digested (and ate some more!).

Matthew working hard on his master piece

The crew


















A few of the creations




















Matthew's skewered snowman

New Roof

We finally have our much-needed new roof! Now I don't have to worry about falling through when I rake the leaves off. It took the crew 3 days of work in freezing temperatures (highs in the 40s!) but they did a great job and cleaned up very well.

Our 2-year Anniversary

Even though we will soon have a new anniversary, Matthew and I celebrated our 2 years of dating with a delicious chocolate cake! (made by Matthew)

My New Job

In the beginning of December I started my new job as Curator at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center (tybeemarinescience.org). I basically take care of all of the animals--doing things such as feeding, collecting, tank maintenance, any necessary veterinary care, exhibit design and construction, etc. I am really enjoying it, but there is so much to do! Here are a few "before" videos to show what the place looks like right now. I will take another series in a few months after I have had a chance to redo all of the tanks.

The first room with burrfish, stingray, coral, large puffer, and lionfish

The second room with invert tank and touch tank

The third room with box turtle, corn snake, American alligator, and loggerhead sea turtle

The last room with the hatchling turtles, adult terrapins, and marsh tank

Putting up the Tree

Even though we will not be here for Christmas, Matthew and I still got a tree to decorate. It just doesn't feel like the holidays without one!



Decorating

The final product