It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It snowed 2 feet in DC!!

It hasn't snowed this much here in almost a hundred years!

So you can imagine the chaos.

Pilates was cancelled, church was cancelled, school was cancelled, and work was cancelled.

Nothing was open. Not even Harris Teeter.

It took two days to plow the streets just in our little neighborhood.

I didn't go anywhere further than I could walk for two full days.

And you know what, it was really nice.

I enjoyed myself, and got to know my neighbors better.

And this is the DC Essig's car.

Right after this picture was taken I spent almost 3 hours shoveling the snow. Because Lincoln was already in Utah, I had to me the "man" of the house. And let me tell ya, my back is killing me today--the good kind of sore though. I honestly don't think I have ever used those muscles. The last time I remember shoveling snow was when I was 12.

The streets that took forever to get plowed, even now they are not so much plowed but rather packed ice.

At least now it is Christmas-y inside and outside!

I love this time of year. And I love even more that now it really FEELS like Christmas.

VHS Christmas Reunion

There are a lot Viewmont High School graduates who live here in the DC area. Lincoln and I decided to throw a little Christmas party to have an excuse to gather all the VHS alumni together. Since we had so much fun at our VHS reunion last year, that we decided to do it again. We were so glad we did.

This time we made Cafe Rio, and it made all the difference :)

Go Vikings!!

Ryan & Kaylyn (Peterson) Bessey ('99 & '02)

Dave & Melina (Tew) Rasmussen ('99 & '01)

Emily Ashton Hamilton ('00)

Russell Thacker ('03)

Daniel Ricks ('00)

Darbee Miller Beynon ('00)

Jessica Tilley Cooley ('02)

Michael Helgesen ('99)

Kimi Moriyama Bradley ('00)

Lincoln & Ali (Abegg) Essig ('00 & '02)

Ugly Sweater Party

The other night I had some fabulous ladies come over to our house for an Ugly Sweater Party. It really was just an excuse to have a girls night, but I was very impressed with some of the outfits these lovely ladies put together.

Aubrey and the Sweater Vest

Megan and the Bird Sweater

You have to see her whole outfit to really appreciate it.

And Kim who wowed us all with her Christmas Light Sweater.

She shined brighter than the rest... :)

Thanks Ladies, lets do it again soon!

Genealogy--standing on the shoulders of giants

Disclaimer: probably not an interesting post to our friends,

but I am posting this for family and posterity sake.

While we were in North Carolina, we took a day trip to visit the graveyard where my Great Grandma, Great Great Grandparents, and my Great Great Great Grandparents are buried. I spent some time before our trip doing the research to find out their names, family names, and where they were buried. It was a neat experience to go and visit them while we were there.

These are a bunch of unmarked graves. I think my Great Grandma is buried in one of them. They were the only ones in the cemetery that didn't have names on them. (the birth Certificate of my G. Grandma said she was buried in this cemetery, and her sister is buried right next to these unmarked graves.) Her name is Lina Porter Holder.

This is the gravestone of my Great, Great, Grandpa--William Henry Porter and wife. My mother's father (my Grandpa) was named after him.

Fun tidbit, is that he was buried with a woman that according to my G.Grandma's death certificate she is not her mother--Lou Etta Sills. He was buried with a woman named Della E. I can't wait to find out what happened there...

These are the graves of my 3rd Great Grandparents. Nancy E. is the mother of William Henry Porter. And Malcolm Mallory is his step father. I have yet to find out the info about his biological father.

Today I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma 5:6 and it talked about sufficiently retaining in remembrance what our fathers went through. Visiting the graves of my ancestors, and driving through the county where they lived helped me understand their lives a little bit more.

I am incredibly grateful for them. As Isaac Newton said,

"If I have seen further, it is only by

standing on the shoulders of giants."