Christmas 2010

Truthfully, I have way too many adorable pictures to put on here. I want to. Really. But due to the fact that I would be on here for hours waiting for my images to load since every 5 pictures seems to take about 5 minutes to load (Does everyone's take that long?!). So I'm doing something I am primarily against-- making a post without pictures. Here is the fastest Christmas recap ever recorded.

Mike and I left on Dec. 17th to go hang out with my parents a few days before Christmas. Here we celebrated Jonny's b-day and played lots of games (mostly Settlers of Catan).

On the 21st we head to Vernal for an incredibly relaxing and fun week. Every day was a nice sleep in till 9:00 (okay, some days it was 9:30!), followed by movies, lunches, chatting, games and hanging out. Some things to note: I learned how to make Mike's mom's famous poppyseed bread with almond glaze and also got our scrapbook page done for the calendar (with help, of course). Woohoo!

Christmas Eve we had a big dinner with all of Mike's family. We opened up our P.J.'s and watched a christmas movie. Christmas morning we woke up and Mike and I did our stockings for one another. Santa brought us some great stuff. Including our own raclette grill! Afterwards, we got ready and went and visited all of Mike's family members to see what they got for Christmas. It really made me want to have kids seeing all the excitement of the nieces and nephews. Mel was sweet enough to invite us over for breakfast where we had yummy cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole. Later that day, Mike and I opened our gifts for one another. We mostly gave each other some much-needed clothes. That evening the whole family came over and opened gifts together. That was my favorite! I loved watching everyone, adults and children, open the huge variety of gifts. Mike's parents gave us clothes, another amazing Santa Claus village piece and a movie. From the Rusts and Mansfields we both got games-- practically our favorite gift ever!! :)

On the 27th we left Vernal and drove to Oakley! My parents had rented a cabin that was pretty much a lodge. They got a great deal as the owners was just trying to figure out how to rent. Oh my goodness-- it was beautiful. (I really should post pictures). The night we got up there we sat in front of an amazing fireplace and did our own mini-Christmas. Mike and I both got some great clothes from Marisa and Joe. My wonderful parents also gave us a new game and a good start towards our food storage (which we were totally stoked about)! While we were at the cabin we played games, cooked for one another, snow-shoed, watched movies and went sledding (absolutely hilarious with ages 1-50+ all on sleds). Again, this is picture-worthy. If I get ambitious later, I will post some. It was so much fun and our attempt at a Dan In Real Life experience. I love the memories we make every year doing these adventures my parents plan!

After some wonderful family-time, we finally arrived home in Logan on the 30th. We celebrated a quiet New Years together and I got ready for the big week of competency exams I'd been dreading for the last 2 and half years!

December Happenings

So I know I'm a little late but here's some pics of our annual celebration of Same Klaus Tag. It happens to be one of my favorite and most exciting traditions and I love that Mike has indulged me to celebrate it every year. It was also nice since for Christmas we mostly asked for clothes, for Same Klaus Tag we got some toys (AKA toys, books, etc). We also started a new sub-tradition for Same Klaus Tag this year. I asked Mike to start giving me a children's Christmas book every year so we can start building our own collection. One of my favorite things to do at Christmas was to sit in front of the fire and read the same Christmas books (with amazing illustrations) every year. I want that tradition for our children as well so Mike started this year with copies of "Berenstein Bears Christmas Tree" and a new version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Loved them!

Funny note about Same Klaus Tag. This year it fell on a Sunday. That day in Relief Society the lesson was on how we need to focus less on Santa Claus. Ya, I thought that was kind of funny. Mike and I waiting to go home and celebrate "Santa Claus Day" or Same Klaus Tag!

Another fun happening in December was making gingerbread houses. I love making them every year (although it's a serious waste of candy). I didn't think I was going to be able to convince Mike to make one this year and then I was saved by Sammy! Sammy is a girl in our ward who invited us and another family over to their house to make gingerbread houses (Thank you so much guys!!). It was so much fun! I left absolutely ill from snacking during the long process of making our house but it was a riot watching everyone figure out how to make those again. Ours had some issues staying up (twice) but after one night left outside... it was holding strong all the way till the second week in January before it died a strong but definite death in the dumpster.