The Engbers Blog

Jon and I had a great Christmas back at home. We opened presents, ate, ate and ate some more, and spent lots of time with our families! . . . . . . . . . Since Jon has become a coffee addict, he enjoyed getting a new coffee maker, coffee mugs, Starbucks gift cards and more! I was excited to get some new decorations for our condo, gift cards to eat out! and of course clothes:) We tried to get Susie in the Christmas spirit. . . but she wasn't too sure about wearing her Christmas Sweater. Lengkeek cousins

MERRY CHRISTMAS Love, Jon and Erin

Our Sunday lunch with the Peters clan . . . Nick and Nadia Brian, Dima, and Josh Jenny We took this picture for Linda to all say "hi" - uncle Mike decided to express himself in the above way (he is the one in the black coat). Thanks grandpa and grandma Peters for letting us stay with you! We had a great time!

Jon and Nick in front of the city skyline. Chicago is lit up with thousands of lights at Christmastime! We love to visit at this time of the year!

Jon, Nick and I made it to downtown Chicago yesterday at about 3:00. We quickly got rid of our car (the taxi drivers are not so friendly with their horns) and checked into our hotel room. Our hotel was right on the Michigan Ave in the middle of the magnificent mile. We had a room on the 27th floor and our view was great!!! Nick looking down on the city Looking down from our room. We went to a pizza place call Gino's East Pizzeria that had Deep Dish Chicago style pizza. The restaurant was really fun and all over the walls and booths people have signed their names. So we too left our mark. And I was more than thrilled to find TWO very large Christmas trees!!!!!!!!!! This was the biggest of two trees! It was MAGNIFICENT. We had a great time just walking up and down Michigan Avenue and around downtown. . .taking in all the amazing sights. We headed back to our motel at about 8:30 and were very ready to just rest our feet and warm up, not before quick stopping for coffee and hot c...

AN IPOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jon and I decided to open presents a little early this Christmas due to the fact that we have few other nights when we will both be at our home together at night before we go back home for Christmas. So we made one of our favorite meals: lasagna, salad, and garlic bread, listened to Christmas music, and opened presents tonight!!! I was VERY excited to get an IPOD from Jon, something I have been wanting for awhile. Jon got a book (non medical) to read and the first season of Grey's Anatomy on DVD (one of his new favorite shows). Jon has one more test on Friday morning that he is continuing to study for and I work on Wednesday and Thursday night. Then we have an exciting weekend planned of celebration for an end of a semester for Jon. Nick is coming on Thursday to stay with us and on Friday the 3 of us are heading to Chicago where we will spend the night downtown and explore the Magnificent Mile. Jon is looking forward to some deep dish pizza. Erin wa...

Hightlight #1: I set out today to do some Christmas shopping and I decided to try the outlet mall that is about 20 minutes from our house, and let me tell you it was well worth the trip!!! The outlet mall had some of my favorite stores - with cheaper prices-yay! However, I had to remind myself I was shopping for OTHERS today. Jon is not sold on the idea that this was a good find for me - haha. Highlight #2: We recieved a package in the mail!!! I don't know what it is about getting packages in the mail that makes a person's day, but we sure enjoy it :) Our package had a Christmas cd, hot chocolate, and an ornament for our tree! THANK YOU MOM (LINDA)!

One of the fun things about working on the Peds Unit is I get to wear all different kinds of fun scrubs. Since I like Chrsitmas so much, I am taking advantage of the one month I can wear Christmas apparrel! Leah, my mom, aunt Rose, and aunt Bon found these scrubs for me on a shopping trip in Sioux Falls. Thank you to all of them - here is a picture so you could see how they fit.

On Saturday Jon took some time during the day to catch up on his studying while I caught up on some shopping in Sioux Falls with my mom! Jon has two hard weeks of studying coming up as he prepares for his exams. Keep him in your prayers that he may have the motivation to study hard and recall the information when test time comes. **PS To our other exam cramming brother and sister: Nick and Leah we are thinking of you too as you study and take your exams! Don't worry Jon also had some fun Saturday night as well as we got to see my dad's basketball team play! One of the things Erin is definitely going to miss about living 6 hours away is not being able to attend the Western Basketball games she has grown up going to. Dad, maybe you will have to send tapes. On Sunday we were also able to see Kevin, Linda, Bryant and Connor! They came to have lunch with us in Hull before we left to come back to Iowa City. It was very good to see our families again and we are already looking forward...

When we come back home, Aunt Rose always treats us with one of our favorite snacks: Karmelkorn from the mall. It is DELICIOUS!!! Thanks Aunt Rose :)

Over the weekend we had a chance to go back home to Northwest Iowa. On Friday night we met aunt Rose, Erin's mom, and Scott in Sioux City at the Micheal W. Smith Christmas concert. One of our favorite Christmas cds to listen to this time of year is Micheal W. Smith's cd Christmastime, so we were excited to hear some of our favorite Christmas songs live. The concert was very good and we had a fun time!

Like I mentioned before, when Jon goes to get a Christmas tree he settles for nothing less than at least a 7-foot tall one. At this Christmas tree farm they did not have the measurements of the trees so we had to guess at the height. Well, it turns out the tree was a tiny bit TOO tall. haha But after a little snip off the top branch, we now have THE PERFECT fitting Christmas tree. I decided too use some of the branches we had to cut off the bottom of the tree to make a wreath for our front door. Quite the Martha Stewart huh?!?!

We were lucky enough to find a Christmas tree farm only 4 miles from our house! Although the selection was nothing like we were used to, we found a tree that with a little tender love and care would be the perfect tree for us this year. We had a beautiful day to cut down our tree! And our little car was able to handle our tree just fine (...as long as we didn't exceed 30 mph :) )

We just finished eating our Thanksgiving lunch. Jon made me ham, potatoes, corn , and rolls :) Now for another nap for Erin and then back to work for her tonight. Jon is still enjoying his much needed time away from school, although he is trying to motivate himself to write a paper this afternoon. Tomorrow we hope to try and venture out to find a Christmas tree farm, so we can get our Christmas tree up! So when and IF we get our tree home and decorated I will try to post some pictures. (Remember we only have a small car and Jon tends to think BIG for Christmas trees, so it may be a challenge. But, We Can Do It!!!)

On Tuesday nights we usually have supper and Bible study with our faith family from church. Tonight we decided to have a Thanksgiving meal together. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, corn, and rolls! Here is Steve cutting the turkey. I made the dessert. Here is my peanut butter cup cheesecake. I was actually quite proud of how this one turned out. I have to say it was very yummy! Eli had fun playing with Jon tonight. And this is Gretta - the youngest one in our faith family. After our meal, we played a favorite game of Brent and Erin's (pictured above). The game was called Settlers of Cataun.