Happy Holidays!

Well, the holidays are over. *loud exhale* As if Christmas wasn't enough to plan and stress for, we have Christmas, our anniversary and Sammi's birthday all within the same week! (...and two weeks later is Keith's birthday, 5 days later is Eli's, 2 weeks later is Maddi's and then a nice month reprieve before Matt's!) One word....BUSY! But also splendid!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Matt's family, hosted and held at none other than...OUR HOUSE! It was fun to be the hostess with the mostest and we planned for all the fixin's. Last summer, a lady in our ward was having a yard sale and this said lady is very into holiday decor. She just so happened to be selling a BUNCH of her Thanksgiving trimmings. For $16 Matt and I got tons of stuff, including cute serving dishes, pie plates, leaves, mini dried summer corn, and, my favorite, turkey salt and pepper shakers. We were stoked. Matt's mom came over the night before and brought her decor to add to ours, and the end result was quite festive. We planned around the kiddos naps and had a real pleasant time with everyone. And look! I managed to get a picture with EVERYONE looking at the camera, and it only took me like, 5 seconds. (NONE of the grandkids ended up crying!) It was truly a Thanksgiving miracle.

That night we watched Disney's new "A Christmas Carol" and then had to read some light-hearted stories to alleviate the kids being so freaked out. (It WAS pretty scary). I was super SUPER tired at the end of the night, but it all went so smoothly and I was glad we were able to have everyone over.

Thus began our Christmas prep. Matt is so busy this time of year with the Madrigal Dinner at Boise High, that I'm pretty much on my own making things feel "Christmasy". Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We celebrated with all of my family coming over for dinner and we exchanged gifts and had our annual program. We ended the night by watching our Nativity and munched on delicious treats throughout all of it. It was nice to have it at home.


Christmas morning, I was pretty excited as I had saved and planned and was able to get Matt some neato stuff. A leather recliner (I scored big time on Black Friday - something I have vowed to NOT do, but saw this recliner on sale, so I made an exception.) and a 32" TV. (Another HUGE score!)

So I was pretty excited. Christmas morning was grand. Matt, ahem, I mean SANTA went WAY overboard as usual, but he even admitted it, so I didn't need to point it out. I have to say, I am very grateful for a husband who loves to give and do special things for his family. However, he married a simple gal who gets very uncomfortable with lavish presents. We're a interesting combo. But, I love his generosity. And because he can do so many things, he'll take side jobs here and there without me knowing so he can surprise us all for Christmas. He got me an AMAZING camera....I'm so tickled about it, but have yet to really get my hands on it because he too, is so tickled. He learned so much about it while researching it, that I think it's his new BFF. Anywho, the quality of my pics shall be oh so much improved from here on out. Anywho, Christmas was great, busy and taught us much. Later that day, we spent time with Matt's family which is always a hoot. (see pic)


Three days later, we celebrated our 11 year anniversary. So weird that it's been that long already. We left the night before to stay at the Grove Hotel (top floor!) while my sisters watched our kiddos. We had a gift certificate to eat at a real upscale restaurant. The atmosphere was pretty cool, but we think we have pretty simple tastes as the food didn't impress us much and the prices appalled our senses. It was fun to be out though. (and the music was great!) Matt surprised me with a picture frame (I need frames)and inside were tickets to see "WICKED".

Now, those who know me, know how excited I was. SO EXCITED. They haven't gone on sale yet, but as a choir teacher, Matt was able to get tickets already. See! There ARE perks to being a school teacher! We had a great time and the next day, on our anniversary, we went to the temple to do sealings. It was pretty cool as we were married on a Tuesday at about 2pm, and here it was, Tuesday at about 2pm and we were doing sealings for others. It was perfect.


The next day was Sammi's birthday. Nine! We woke her up early with her favorite breakfast in bed - waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. YUM! Then, the girls got ready, including my sisters, to go see "Tangled" at the early show. It was EXCELLENT. My new favorite. :)




Then Matt took her to lunch while I decorated the dining room and we watched home movies of when she was born and when she was a baby. We then had her favorite dinner of steak and then opened presents and had cheesecake. It was a good day. I love that kiddo so much. She's becoming quite the little lady.


Whew! So that is our festivities up to date! We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and look forward to what the new year will bring!