holidays continued...to 2011!

we have enjoyed a whole week off for christmas & new year's. for the first time ever, christopher & i had our own christmas eve and christmas day celebration before visiting family. i wanted to make a special dinner and use our china, but i didn't want the traditional menu. i made chicken fettuccine alfredo with salad and garlic bread: our church's christmas eve service wasn't until 11pm, so after dinner we had plenty of time to drive around and look at lights. on christmas morning, we made banana pancakes and opened presents from each other. one of the things we got were study bibles. i am hoping this will help us understand the bible better and give us insights into some of the historical contexts. later in the morning we drove to augusta to visit our parrents. apparently, we missed a white christmas in greenville, but we had a beautiful drive to alabama the next day- there was snow on the ground and in the trees. we had a nice visit with grandmother and daddy buck. we also got to see my cousin ashley and her fiance, patrick. they got engaged last month and will be getting married in june! we came back to augusta and got to visit with some of chris' high school friends, the boxes and jessica...and some of mine- lindsey & gerrit. (check out the dogs- they were playing at our feet and i didn't realize it would show in the picture!) 2010 has been a great year: we celebrated our third anniversary in charleston. we traveled to chicago for tori's wedding. we celebrated milestones with family- my grandmother's 80th birthday and our brother's & cousin's engagements. we continued to be active in our church, christopher with playing softball & coaching upward basketball and me with the women's ministry. we also started serving as AWANA leaders for third grade girls & boys. God is showing us new ways to use our resources to serve Him. one amazing thing that happened in 2010 was paying off my student loans and being 100% debt free! we have grown in the Lord through our bible studies. i prayed for God to reveal His character to me, and through a study of the patriarchs i was reminded that God is absolutely trustworthy, He is faithful even when we are not, His love is unconditional, and He pursues us because he wants us to have closer relationships with Him. i have many hopes for 2011, and i am eager to see what God will do in our lives over the next year!

march update

chris & i have been staying busy this month! he just started softball season with the church league again. i'm looking forward to watching his games and getting to hang out with the other wives. chris is entering his busiest season at work, with a yearly design review coming up. my work has been pretty exhausting lately. my outlet has been getting together with my friend lori every week to work on various craft projects. she's into making jewelry, and i'm working on another decoupage to decorate my office.

chris & i visited augusta weekend before last, for my friend tori's wedding shower. she & ron are getting married near chicago in july. the shower was quite a reunion! here's the trio of high school best friends: tori, jessie, & me. and the three of us with carrie. this group goes all the way back to middle school!old roommates from atlanta: tori, meghan, nidhi, me. we had a nice visit with both sets of parents and then returned to greenville for a celebration of the end of our forty days of community campaign at church. our sunday school class has grown (i.e., doubled) over the last several weeks!

christy's wedding

this weekend we visited augusta for the wedding of one of my good friends from high school, christy. i was a bridesmaid, which gave me perfect reason to take friday off! (by the way, i love the dresses she picked out - will definitely be wearing mine again!) so i enjoyed a bridesmaids' luncheon on friday. then chris came with me to the rehearsal & dinner that night.
christy is in medical school, which is where she met her now-husband, josh. i think it is so neat that they both have a passion for medical missions. they first got to know each other on a foreign medical mission trip, and they are preparing to go together on another in february to cambodia. christy's flowers in the wedding were beautiful, and i have been enjoying my bouquet all week!