We had a Merry 1st Christmas Together!!

I wanted to get one more post in before the new year. Brandon and I are excited to be starting a new year together, and are looking forward to all the things that 2008 wil bring to our family. We are spending the New Year at home surrounded by some friends, Phil, Sonja and Ethan as well as Matt and Nancy are heading our way and were excited to just hangout and eat some food!! Anyone else want to come just give us a call we'll be at home.

Here is a little recap of our holidays, it was busy and we never stopped going...we are in need of a little break for sure!

Christmas Eve I worked until 12:30, and was ready to get out of there! Brandon picked me up and we headed over to his parents place. The whole family got together and we had Swiss Chalet Festive Specials for lunch and we did Jack Corner Pie...for anyone who doesn't know what that is, basically there is a big tangle of ribbon attached to presents in the middle, each person has a string and they pull and untangle their gift. After we ate we all headed over to Bayers Lake for a traditional Christmas Eve movie. The boys went to one and the girls went and was Enchanted and it was toooooooo cute!!!! We all came out of it talking about how good it was! I'd for sure see it again, I want to watch it with Jessica and Sarah when it comes out on DVD. It was a lot of fun to go to a movie with my amazing sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law....such a fun group of gals. We headed back to the house for a brief moment because then we were off to the Live Nativity at the Stake Center...Chelsey was an angel this year and looked so beautiful. It was so adorable to see Kristine and Davis as Mary and Joseph. Her little baby belly has grown so much, she's such a cute pregnant mommy to be, I cannot wait to see what baby podeszwa will be. It was great to see the nativity and to visit with friends afterwards. Back at the Bing's, we had a Christmas Eve Feast, and all the siblings exchanged gifts. Chesley had my name this year and she got me this awesome cup cake stand,moo shoo mits, and stickers. I loved the gift and cannot wait to knit my mits. While we ate we did our last Christmas Eve Tradition, and that was watch the Bing's tape of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's tradition to watch this tape because Peter, long ago decided certain parts were not appropriate, so he recorded black over it...it is always a fun laugh. We got our Christmas Pj's and then headed home. It was the perfect Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day was BUSY...but wonderful. We were up by 7am, to have Christmas at our apartment, Brandon bought me a beautiful jewelry box and some cute shirts, plus some other things. By 9am we were at my parents house, where mom did a delicious Christmas Breakfast. They waited and we opened gifts together, I got some good books which I cannot wait to read, as well as some sweats. Brandon got a new church shirt and a big garbage can...which he really wanted. Laura finally gave us our wedding/Christmas gift...which was a bunch of fun kitchen things. Our greatest surprise was our wedding gift from Nathan and Caverly...she painted us an amazing picture of the temple. I'm so excited to find a home for it at the apartment. By 10:30 we were at my grandparents to wish them a Merry Christmas and around 11am we were at Kathy and Jeff's to take the kids their gifts. They loved them and were really cute opening them. Poor Georgia's gift was bigger then her practically, so her sisters gladly helped her. By noon we were at the Bings again, where we celebrated Christmas for the third time and opened gifts there. They did a cute stocking for both newly married couples...lots of great things for the first year of marriage. They gave us a beautiful hall table, that we already have set up! We were so excited about that. They gave us a bunch of other amazing things but my in-laws surprised me with a beautiful earring and necklace set, it was super thoughtful of them...I love them. We had some down time in the afternoon, where we rested and got to talk to my Brother-in-law Jaccob. He is serving his mission in Nevada. It was great to hear from him and to hear how he's doing. Next Christmas he'll be back home with us and we are super excited for that! Laureen out did herself again with a delicious Christmas Dinner...Meaghan made the sweet potatoes this year and they were soooooo yummy! Great Job Meg!! We headed out shortly after dinner, and Brandon went to work and I went back to Kathy and Jeff's to play some Wii with the family. The kids were super cute playing the games...Check out my facebook to see the videos of the kids. I was so ready to get to bed though by the end of the day. We feel so blessed to have such an amazing family, and we are so lucky to have gotten to celebrate Christmas with them. We look forward to so many more Happy holidays with them.

Boxing Day...although not as busy as Christmas Day...we were still on the go. Brandon got home from work and grabbed a few hours of sleep, and at noonish we headed over to my parents home for my moms yearly Boxing Day Brunch. She out did herself again this year with an amazing and delicious spread of food. It was so great to visit with all of my relatives and eat such yummy food. Brandon and I were ready to get home though, we were both so tired, and needed to put our apartment back together. It was so nice to finally have a quiet moment together to just relax and be together. We ordered some pizza and watched TV and it was the perfect end to our First Christmas as a married couple!!

We hope that everyone has had just as Merry a Christmas as we did, and that everyone has a Happy New Year!!

We wanted to send our love out to all of our family and friends, and to let you all know how thankful we are for all of you and the impact you have on our lives. It's been a great year for Brandon and I...graduating and then marriage. We feel so lucky to have each other for eternity!!