057. Bake my husband a birthday cake. (1/5/2010)

My husband celebrated his 25th birthday two days ago. I made him a cake and it was excellent. Cherry chip cake with cherry frosting.

100. Organize family and friends addresses. (Dec 2009)

Before we got married last year, we had to organize a ton of addresses. This November, I paired down the list to family and friends as well as updating any address changes. It's nice to have the addresses in the computer to make life easier when we want to either look up or send out information to people.

085. Have a real Christmas tree. (Dec 2009)

We were undecided if we wanted to have a real Christmas tree this year because last year when my husband was looking for trees when he lived down here by himself, he found them to be extremely expensive. We found a tree farm who was selling trees early in December for a reasonable price, so we picked one out and had our first real Christmas tree. Usually, with my family we would have an artificial one, so it is one of about 5 in my entire life.

060. Decorate our home for one holiday. (Dec 2009)

We decorated our home for Christmas this year. Since it was our first Christmas in our new home, it was pretty exciting to have our own Christmas tree, stockings, and all the decor.

012. Get another membership to Ancestry.com (12/25/09)

My husband surprised me with a new version of family tree maker as well as a membership to Ancestry.com for Christmas. I will have to dig into some genealogy soon. It's always interesting to go through the site and find out what you can find out about family history.

010. Write a Christmas letter and send it out to family and friends. (Dec 2009)

Since this was our first Christmas as a married couple, I was looking forward to writing the Christmas letter. I always enjoy getting letters from family and friends as a way to wrap up what went on in their lives during the past year. We got to print it on that lovely Christmas stationary and we also sent with a photo Christmas card with a few wedding photos. Hopefully, family and friends enjoyed our letter as well. Here's what we wrote:

December 2009

Season’s Greetings!

It is hard to believe that 2009 is already drawing to a close. We have had a very eventful year.

As 2009 began, Isaac continued his work at Archer Daniel Midland (ADM) as a chemical engineer while Jen was finishing up her Music Education degree. She student taught at both Century High School and Jefferson Elementary in and obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in early May.

In early April, Jen was offered a job at Lakeview Community Schools where she now teaches kindergarten and first grade general music, 5-12 instrumental music, and junior high general music. It has been a rewarding as well as challenging experience thus far.

On May 16^th, we were married at St. Mary’s Catholic Church . Even though it was a cold and blustery day in the middle of May, we were truly blessed with a beautiful ceremony and the support of so many wonderful family and friends.

On July 15^th, we became homeowners of a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom home.

In July, we also learned that we are expecting our first baby with a due date of March 9^th 2010. The pregnancy is going well, and we are preparing our home and our lives for the arrival of the baby.

We are eagerly awaiting 2010 and hope that you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love from,

Jen & Isaac

039. Attend the state convention for Music Educators. (11/17/09-11/19/09)

In mid November, I attended the state's music educators conference. I attended a number of sessions and concerts, got a lot of free samples, and for the first time in my life experience a music educator's conference as an actual educator instead of a college student. It was definitely a different experience actually being a teacher and attending this conference. However, I was still being mistaken for both a high school and college student. Oh well... someday I will wish that people thought I looked younger.