The Festivities

This year, our Christmas was quiet, or as quiet as it can be with a 22 month old and a 10 month old. I guess it was quiet in the sense that we were at home with just our little family. We have only had 2 Christmases alone, our first Christmas as "marrieds" and this one. I loved it!! Except for not seeing our families, I wouldn't have it any other way and I don't think we will ever spend Christmas away from our home again! (We'd love visitors, though) It was fun to finally take the place of the iconic fat one. It's just another reason why kids are so fun and worth all the trouble and hard times they put you through. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures during because we had our hands full either opening gifts or supervising a little one. But we did videotape it! Here are some pictures after the event had taken place and we were enjoying the time together!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Our Christmas Greetings

DANG IT!!!

I have never been a swearer. In fact, the one time I swore since getting married was in front of Brad and my sister, Paige who was living with us at the time. And they just laughed because of how ridiculous it sounded...I'm not a good curser because I don't have much experience. I have never heard my parents or my husband swear so I don't really know what words to use and what words to add to them to make a phrase that gets the anger out or makes me look "cool". It would be hard to make me look much cooler anyway. So you can understand my surprise and dismay when I first heard Brylie say "Dang it!". I do know however, who she got it from but I didn't realize just how often I say it until she made me fully aware! And I must say it A LOT because she does too. So I have tried to correct her and say, "Brylie, don't say that word, it's a naughty word, Mommy is sorry she said that, please don't say that.." to which she responds, "Dang it!" I have watched her look at Brody with her concerned eyes and darling nod and say, "Dang it!" three or four times in a row or be dressing her doll and repeat over and over, "Dang it!" I have tried ignoring her or saying, "why don't you say, "Oh Man!" or "Nuts!". Nope, those aren't cool enough, I guess. It just is another thing to add to my weaknesses list and hope I live long enough to fix it hoping that in my quest to overcome that list I don't screw up my kids' lives. And all I can think of say right now is....Da---, er, Nuts!!!

And now onto Christmas!!!!

I wish I could share how I feel about Christmas with everyone I come in contact with! I have this sweet nostalgia that I get starting back when the crispness of the fall air arrives. And it doesn't get old for me until I remember the nostalgia that comes in the spring in preparation for summer. I love this time of year and now that I have kids, it is even more enjoyable although they probably won't remember much. I will! We put the tree up Thanksgiving evening, I say "we" because Brad brought it in from the garage and put all 3 pieces together and left the rest to me. Three hours later, he was asleep and I was enjoying that sweet nostalgia I talked about earlier. The next day, it was so fun to show the kids the new tree when even at 6 am, Brody noticed a new silhouette in the window. They have been surprisingly good at not touching! Christmas is such a fun time of year and I look forward to the excitement we have ahead of us sharing this new holiday with our kids.

Our late Thanksgiving report...

I don't know why but I feel like I can't get ahead...or caught up for that matter. Daylight Savings really screwed me up this time. I thought it was the kids but I think it's me. So that is what I'm blaming my poor blogging on lately to make myself feel better. It's really due to pure laziness!

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed in Texas and had several friends over from Baylor Law School and a family in our ward who wasn't traveling, like us. We had such a good time!! This was my first Thanksgiving that I prepared (I like to say I prepared it but really, Brad did most and let me think I did...love him for that!!) without my parents there to supervise. It went really well. Thank goodness for Pop Walton's BBQ joint, probably the best BBQ in Waco, for smoking our turkey making for a delicious non-traditional taste!!! We had lots of good food from our guests and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

As we said goodbye to our last guest, we noticed it was uncommonly quiet and went to look for our noise makers and low and behold, this is what we found. Luckily the guests had left and we didn't have to worry about serving this FUDGE.It was so funny and even after seeing us notice her, she went on eating like we weren't even there. Notice she is using the very dangerous bottle opener as her eating utensil. Thank goodness she didn't cut her mouth although I don't think that could have stopped her.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Texas! We are so grateful for our darling little family, for our wonderful families far away and our awesome ward family here in Texas. We are also very grateful for the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't imagine life being half as meaningful without it. We truly are blessed as we contemplate our circumstances at this time of year!