A Very Merry Christmas

We had a beautiful, wonderful, fun-filled Christmas!


This year we got not only one, but two Christmas dinners.


Feast #1:

Feast #2:You know, when I took these pictures, I thought it would be fun to document all the great food we had...but now looking at them I just feel like a little piggy to see how much I ate. Ah well, it was delicious.

On the 23rd, we ate at my mom and dad's house with the Sister Missionaries. Mom wanted to make an early traditional Christmas Eve dinner so that we would have leftovers for the holiday.
And on Christmas Eve, we all migrated to Stephanie's house for a wonderful and bounteous buffet...

After eating tons of delicious food, we played a fun game in which we all got tags hung around our necks with the name of a character from a Christmas movie. After we figured out who we were by asking each other questions, we split into teams and played movie quote trivia.
Then we had the traditional grab bag gift exchange. And I got.....SOCKS!!!!
The kids all got lots of fun things...But Brianna got the best prize - a delicious-looking box of candy.
Here's Aunt Jennifer with 3 of the coolest nieces ever.And Uncle Scott with 5 cool nephews.
Christmas morning dawned with plenty of gifts under the tree.Despite planning on having a simpler Christmas and less gifts this year, we were very blessed with lots of wonderful new things. (If you look closely, you can see that I got LOTS of new socks - yay!)
I have SO many Favorite Things about Christmas, but here are just a few...

1. The fact that our families love food. It's an important part of our traditions, and one of the ways we show love.

2. My husband's thoughtfulness. As one of my gifts, Scott took me on a little date to the quaint downtown where my parents live. We went to a local bead store and he patiently shopped and looked with me and waited while I selected some awesome beads to make myself some jewelry with. It was a perfect gift because not only did I get the beading supplies, but I got to spend time with him, too.

3. Traditions. I love all those little things that we do every year that make the season special.

4. Pie crust cookies. A bonus of making your own pie crust.5. Watching cheesy Christmas movies on TV.

6. Being in Maryland. Really, it is THE most beautiful place. I love the rolling hills, the rocky outcroppings, the green (even in winter), the trees, the purple mountains...it's gorgeous and it's home and I miss it.

7. Becoming part of history. One day we got to hang out with Michael and Stephanie and their family in their basement they're finishing and watch them put up drywall. Michael is putting a time caspule in the wall and we get to have our picture put in there. We even got to write out initals on the wall - SK+JK!

8. Watching my mom and my husband cook together.

9. Talking about the gospel with my Dad while we did the dishes together.
10. Spending time with family. My most favorite part of Christmas.