~Tis the Season~

On December 12 another one of my very best friends Mandy got married to Dan Gordon who is also one of my very good friends. I love weddings and theirs turned out beautifully. The weather was so dreadful that day but the bride was beautiful and the reception was beautiful and it was all just a ton of fun.



This year we spent Christmas Eve with Jared's parents in Richmond where everyone got a chance to speak to his brother Brett who's in Fiji on his mission. He'll actually be coming home on January 7th and everyone is very excited to have him home. I'm excited to have the chance to get to know him, since I only got to meet him twice before he left on his mission. We each got to open one present from Jared's parents, we watched most of 'Up' (which is such a good movie), then went home where we stayed up until 6:30 Christmas morning while I finished everyone's homemade Christmas presents I made this year.

Jared being the donkey for Mary and . . . the other Mary.

I had been working on these mod podge blocks for weeks, but somehow got behind while in school and going to work still. Rachelle's husband Shane helped me out by cutting and sanding around 30 of the blocks that I used. What I did was get enough blocks that I could have one for each letter of each family's last name. In the end I had 52 blocks total that I made. I don't think I really realized how big a project I was undertaking but it was totally worth it. I will post instructions that I used for them later.

Christmas time really is my most favorite time of the year. I just love having a break to be able to spend time with my family and most importantly with Jared. The presents are pretty fun too. I love that both of our families live here in the valley and it's so easy to get together with everybody. Santa was very good to us this year.

Christmas Morning!! (On a lengthy 3 hours of sleep.)

For New Year's we spent most of the day at my parent's house. My dad was out of town which sucked, but we did get to play with everyone else. We spent many hours watching sports and America's Funniest Videos. In fact, over the whole break I think I watched more athletic events then I have ever watched in my life. They're pretty fun though so I enjoy them. We went home about 1 am from my parent's house and stayed up until about 6 am watching Grey's Anatomy. How many husbands would spend hours upon hours watching such a silly yet entertaining show with their silly little wives? I guess it's only fair though. I watch hours upon hours watching sports too. Ha ha!

One of the days Jared and I got to go to Salt Lake to see all of the lights on Temple Square with two of our best friends Shane and Rachelle. This is one of my most favorite traditions even though I know it's something that pretty much everyone else in Utah does. I was really worried that we weren't going to make it this year, but luckily we got it to work and we had a blast. It was prety cold and pretty snowy, but so beautiful. We ate dinner at Applebee's and spent the whole way home talking their ears off. Jared and I can't seem to control ourselves sometimes. I am so grateful for such good friends though.

Jared and I posing like models by the temple.

Anyway. It's been such a great break. Thankfully I'll be graduating this Spring and I can have a tiny break of just working before I get into grad school (which hopefully really does happen). We actually have tons of plans for the year 2010 . . . but that's another blog for another day!

Happy New Year!