Happy New Year!

I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!

Jason and I spent the most romantic and relaxing Christmas in our cabin near the Smoky Mountains. We weren't quite in the Smoky Mountains, but we were close to them, in Morristown, Tennessee. I think we saw maybe one or two cars and not a soul in sight from our cozy little haven. The cabin had to have been maybe a year old - cause everything seemed so new and beautiful. We spent most of our time lounging in our pj's just hanging out.
For the majority of the time, I was obsessed with a puzzle that Mom Keith sent to us. This is how the puzzle looked Christmas morning and I had finished it by the next day! (And yes, Jason did help as much as he could :-) )
Jason kept himself quite busy writing up yet another new Christmas song. As I sat there working on the puzzle, he would often be sitting at the table or in the hot tub singing to his recorder with a Cream Soda in his hand. Ah, this is the life! I believe in total he has completed 4 Christmas songs this holiday season and I can't wait to hear what they sound like when they get demo'd.
I was good for the most part in getting some pictures from our time in the cabin, but I am sad to report, that we didn't get one of us together. We did however get a few of eachother on Christmas Day and throughout our trip that I think many of you will enjoy.

This first picture is of our little "Charlie Brown" tree. I had originally thought we would cut a little one down to use, but the cabin had this little guy and I had brought some bulbs to hang on it. Isn't it cute? We got so spoiled by our families too. ALL these presents are mostly from family back home! We got new clothes, books, cds, games, and cash! Talk about being blessed! Thank you so much to our families! We sure did miss you all and loved having the chance to talk to you all on the phone.
This next picture from our vacation is our Christmas morning breakfast. I had made Banana bread and Jason made us French Press coffee.

Christmas morning we hammed it up for a couple pictures while we opened our gifts. This is not my most flattering moment, but we had to take this for my family to see me in this oh-so-lovely-redneck-apron thing they sent me. Thanks Kati and mom. Very cute.

Jason got a bunch of cute new clothes from me for Christmas, I couldn't help but spoil him. Last year was tight for us in the gift department for each other, since we had the wedding coming up, so this year we made up for it and had some fun shopping for one another. He got me some yummy perfume, Obsession Night and a beautiful Willow Tree statue of a husband and wife holding eachother. He also got me some clothes from Banana Republic and a CD of Chris Daughtry. Like I said, we spoiled each other.
And this is our Christmas dinner. We got a few questions about what we did for dinner, so we thought we'd take a picture to show you. When we first got to town, we had stopped at the store and picked up some steaks. Jason marinated them in terriyaki and pineapple juice for a few days and then we grilled them up. YUM! He made us a delicious Christmas dinner, probably one of the best I've ever had. We also had potatoes and green beans. Oh, and that would be cream soda in our wine glasses, since I know Kris was probably wondering :-) This is the view from the hot tub on Christmas night.

And this is Jason saying goodbye Tuesday morning, as we were getting ready to head back home.

So now this brings us to New Years Eve. As many of you are aware, all the employees at Mortons' restaurant are required to work on New Years Eve - and after hanging out there this New Years Eve, I can definately see why. It was insane! I got to Mortons around 11:40 and the place was slammed! The guests were getting crazy, blowin their horns in rythmn and dancing around their tables. The wine was flowing and people were shouting. It was hysterical and if it hadn't been so dark in there, I would have gotten some better pictures of these folks. I did get a picture of Jason in action that night. He was asked by the management to expedite at "the wood", which is by the grill. He basically had to make sure all the garnishes and extra things needed were ready on the plates before the servers came to pick them up. This is the back of him at the wood, but you get the idea. I can't believe how fast all the servers were working. I tucked myself away next to an empty corner table and watched in amazement.

Then when the countdown began, the servers stopped, everyone was yelling and whooping and then the free-for-all of kissing began. I grabbed my man and my camera and we got in our Happy New Years kiss!! After he got off work, we were both pretty wiped. We tried to find a place to eat at, but everything was closed, so we gave up, took our steak from Mortons home, had a snack and fell asleep on the couch. And so begins 2007!

What are your New Years Resolutions or goals? Mine are to work out on a regular basis. I've lost a bit more weight and was very excited to receive 4 new pairs of pants from Jason for work, in a size 4 - yippee!! But more than wanting to lose any more weight, I really want to tone up. My other goals for this year is to get more involved with our new church and meet some ladies there. I'm getting a bit better with being more outgoing, but it is taking some stretching on my part for sure. I've hung out some more with my new friend Leigh-Ann, who is an absolute sweetheart and we had a great time last Saturday night hitting the honkey tonks and having dinner at Roberts downtown. Then for dessert, I took her up to Mortons and we sat in the bar and laughed and talked for close to 3 hours.

So tonight ends my four day weekend and I'm so sad that I have to go back to work tomorrow. At least its only a 3 day week, which is very cool. I feel so spoiled to have had so much time with Jason this weekend, in addition to our Christmas vacation. Even though he was only off on New Years Day, we have had so much fun spending all this time together in the mornings and when he gets off work. I seriously have enjoyed every single minute. Last night was Mortons Company holiday party and it was held at BBKings Bar on 2nd Avenue downtown. There was a great live band and we had a private corner in the back reserved for us. We had a great time hanging out with our friends and meeting new people. I do have to make note of the food though. There was this buffet table in the back and I kid you not - EVERTHING WAS DEEP FRIED! Just lookin at all that gave me heartburn. Jason is still taking more Pepcid from last night's indigestion. I couldn't bring myself to eat any of it - though I did try my very first fried pickle. That's right, I said fried pickle. Basically what I've learned from the south is...they'll fry anything.

And for those of you who are wondering, we have not heard from Billy Currington yet. Now that the holidays are coming to an end, and we know he'll be recording soon, we are praying like crazy that he will call and put Right Where We Belong on hold. So keep praying!!! It's not unusual at all, that things in the music business take a very long time to come to fruition. So just cause we're not calling yet saying we have a cut, does not mean its not going to happen. Just please, please, please keep on praying for us!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years as well. If you have a favorite memory to share, please share it with us in a comment! We always love to hear from all of you back home. We love you and miss you all - Jason and Kimberly Keith