December was officially the fastest month ever! Things were busy at the beginning of the month leading up to finals and I was looking forward to things slowing down and possibly having time to blog. Things only continued to stay busy and now I'm catching the blog up.
Philip and I had a great Thanksgiving with my family. The food was yummy and it was fun to have a break from school and relax. This is a picture of my mom's beautiful Thanksgiving table.
After Thanksgiving we had fun putting up our tree and getting ready
for the Christmas season.
We had a tradition growing up that my mom would wrap 24
Christmas books and put them
under the tree on December 1. We would then unwrap and read
one book a night leading up to
Christmas. I loved this tradition so I decided to start it in my
family.
Here is our Christmas tree with all of our Christmas books
After finals were over Phil and I decided to spend about a week sleeping over at his parent's house. Phil's sister Megan, her husband Dave, and their little boys, Tyler and Dallin, are in town from Washington for a few weeks so we really wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. Ryan and Aubrey (Phil's siblings) are also down from Utah State so it was a blast to have the whole family together for a while. We stayed up late pretty much every night playing games and then I'd wake up at 6:40 am with Megan to do the Insanity workout. It was fun but I feel like I have a lot of sleep to catch up with.
Christmas Eve with the Lamoreaux's is a big event. They have this tradition where they have an amazing Christmas Eve dinner and everyone is responsible for a part of the meal. Rather than eating the dinner family style, each part of the meal is served by the person who prepared it.
This is the beautiful Christmas Eve table we had to enjoy. However, this picture was taken before the mood was set with all of the candles lit and the lights turned off. The dinner was delicious and we were all so full by the time this dinner was over. The next event in the Christmas Eve program was the Nativity story. However, this was not like any nativity I've ever done. When it comes to costumes, usually we just wrap a bed sheet around someone and call them a shepherd...not at the Lamoreaux's. Margo has bins full of extravagant nativity costumes that she has made. I would definitely call this the most authentic nativity I've ever done.
Meg, Dave and Dallin as Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus
Aubrey, Corrie, Jamie and Tyler as shepherds
Ryan, Philip, and Jim as Wise Men
I played the angel and I got to wear a beautiful white and flowing dress. I actually wanted to be
the shepherd but Jamie insisted that I be the angel even though
she has always been the angel.
I'm not sure I played the part as well as she could've but it was
fun to be in the pretty dress.
The Christmas Eve Elf brought pajamas for everyone. We all got excited about our fun PJ's and
changed into them. The boys got a little too excited, but they
were sure fun to watch.
Yes, these are pajama pants that look like chaps
The hi-light of Christmas Eve was when Phil and I snuck away to exchange our special Christmas gifts for each other. We stole a Christmas tradition from Phil's parents of hand making a special gift for each other. I have loved this tradition so far. I feel like it makes Christmas more special. Last year Phil was so excited to give me the gift he made, he convinced me to let us exchange on Christmas Eve and we decided to keep the tradition going this year too. So Phil and I have either been dating or married for three Christmas's now and his hand made gifts for me have always been amazing.
Christmas 2008--He made me the biggest and most cozy blanket in the world. We still use it everyday!
Christmas 2009--Phil made me the beautiful case to hold my perfumes. He built every aspect of this from a piece of wood (except the glass door). He is amazing!
Christmas 2010--This year he chiseled/carved this out of wood for me. I love it and I can't wait to get it hung.
Ok...so I'm not a wood carver like Phil and I often don't think I'm even creative at all, but I'm good with pictures so that's often the type of gifts Phil get from me but I know he loves them. Last year I made Phil a hard cover book call "100 Reasons Why I Love You." It turned out really well and it basically is a book with 100 reasons why I love him (obviously) combined with pictures to match the reasons. This year I did a type of photo collage to hang on our wall.
This was definitely one of the best Christmas's I have ever had. I am sad to see it come and go so quickly. Oh...another fun Christmas present was that Ryan proposed to his girlfriend, Holly, on Christmas night so I'm going to get a new sister-in-law in May!
I stole this picture from Facebook ;) Congrats you two!
Alright, so that was the best blog post ever!! We all (mom, me, Dave, Aubrey, Jamie, Corrie) all sat around the computer reading it. So fun. I really think that this was one of my most favorite Christmases I've ever had too. I definitely agree that it has gone by much too quickly. I love every minute I get to spend with my family, especially now that we live so far away. I will miss you so much! I've had such a great time with you. It just makes me super excited for May . . . !!! Love you!
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