The Two Musical Tanners

Music has always been a part of a Tanner Christmas, all three years of our little family celebrations.  

We love to sing Christmas songs.  We even have a song of the year each Christmas.  2008: Mistletoe by Colbie Caillat, 2009: Last Christmas by Wham, covered by Jimmy Eat World, and 2010:  ??  Well considering the events depicted in the video below, it just may have to be Silver Bells.

Wow, we are just so durn multitalented!

In the tops o' the mountains

One of our favorite activities from our little Christmas break was snowmobiling!  I had never been before and we had a lot of fun.  Grant and I were excited to be up in the mountains breathing fresh air and clomping through the snow.

Here is the whole crew minus Grant who took the picture

We suited up with helmets and gear (I was excited because my helmet was a medium... I was sure I would need an XXL hah)

Oh and of course, goggles.  

There are benefits for everyone when I'm the one behind the camera.  The lack of pictures like these is one of those benefits...

It was a perfect day!  The sun was out, clear skies, and it was only about 32 degrees.  It was so warm that I didn't even wear gloves most of the time!  Lauren, the true trooper, kept hers off the whole 2.5 hours.

They gave us a brief run down of our machines.  Rob, our guide, said that the two seaters were like Cadillacs while our machines were more like Ferraris.... While I'm sure Grant was excited about that it basically just made me nervous.  Anyway, this is us practicing our lean.  A proper lean assists in good clean turns.  It also results in extremely sore legs the next day.

Our fearless leader.  Some of the trails were wide and open.  I liked these the best because I could go fast without feeling like I would fly off a mountain.

However, we also went up trails like the one below, which I wasn't so comfortable with.  Rachel & I stayed at the back of the pack because we were the slow and steady turtles on trails like these.

The view at the top was gorgeous.  The mountains in Colorado are so different than the mountains I'm used to seeing & skiing in Utah or Idaho.  They feel more like rolling hills that never end.  It's beautiful.

Of course when our guide says, "Now a funny one!" I always end up being the one looking stupid.  I'm glad to have found a husband who isn't afraid to look stupid with me.  We make a good pair.

The girlies

And of course, Ron & Grant had to get in a few good snow angels.  

It was a great little adventure, and while I didn't manage to get through it without looking ridiculous... multiple times... at least I didn't fall off any mountains...

Tis' the season to provide updates

With the holidays behind us, (and thanks heavens, the semester too), I finally feel like I'm ready to leave my blogless cave.  Unfortunately, that cave has also been fairly camera-free, so here's one of those full of junk, no picture posts:

• We spent the Thanksgiving holiday relaxing and refraining from cooking (because that cave of mine doesn't have a pot, spatula, and certainly not an oven).  We ate our turkey dinner at Mimi's Cafe, which wasn't bad, but certainly wasn't home cooking.
• We saw Harry Potter!  We decided to ignore the fact that we're no longer sleep deprived college students and went to the midnight showing.  We paid dearly the whole next day and didn't catch up on sleep for at least 3 days afterwards. 
• I sang in the choir as part of our church's nativity program.  It was an amazing program with a big orchestra that included percussion and a harp, our choir, a video that went with the music, as well as actors that played out the Nativity scene in front of a beautiful stable and manger.  It was pretty incredible.
• I somehow made it through the semester.  I graduate in May and I have only one semester to put together my entire culminating project.  Blech is what I say to that.
• We spent a wonderful Christmas in Denver with the Tanners!  I'm going to do a separate post about all those fun happenings.
• We're back in Texas and back to real life, at least, for Grant.  I start work again next week and then school a few weeks after that.  Yay for free time once more.  It's almost time for New Years Resolutions (as if we make those...).  The first on my list is to fatten up Grantie :)