Christmas

For Christmas this year we stayed in town (we try to alternate where we are depending on Thanksgiving). Emily and Sam also came in for a couple days and it was fun getting to spend time together. They even came over to help roll Buckeye’s before they got dipped in Chocolate. Dan and I went to two Christmas Eve services, one at our church and then had dinner at Kevin and Konnie’s before attending a later service at their church. Dan surprised me and took me past the house that is always perfectly trimmed in lights.

 We spent the night at Kevin and Konnie's and it was so much fun waking up the next morning, having breakfast together, and opening gifts. We then spent much of the day relaxing and eating sweets followed by Skyping with the rest of the family in Texas. In the evening Dan and I headed home to finish opening our gifts to each other. We had taken a couple with us but were trying to think of ways to help Christmas not feel like a let down in the evening. We had a lot of fun and feel it helped extend Christmas well.

The next day we spent most of the morning and lunch with everyone before Sam and Emily headed to his parents and we drove up to see my family. We exchanged gifts with my family that night since Stephen and Michelle were also at my parent's. The following day we had our Christmas Breakfast with my Dad's family and then Dan and I spent the rest of the weekend with Stephen and Michelle.

The following week we surprised my parents by showing up on New Years Day for my Mom's family get together for New Years, lunch and bowling. We had a lot of fun with my cousins and then later that weekend we got to see almost everyone again at the official Christmas for my mom's family, which is always eating, playing games, and chatting.

It was a lot of family time, a lot of fun, and I was glad we were able to see almost everyone from both sides of our families. I ended the year feeling very blessed and loved by two great families :) I am feeling very excited about 2015 and what God has planned this year for us. And no huge Exam!!!

Decorating for Christmas

Once we got home from Thanksgiving we went straight to the tree lot to pick out our tree. We had a much harder time picking one this year. We kept walking around and finally settled on a Scotch Pine, which they warned us can drop it’s needles if not properly watered.

 Here are pictures of our living room before bringing the tree in, moving things around, and notice the old TV compared to our new one :) (it was time)

 I love our house decorated at Christmas. We always watch The Nativity Story while we get things set up. This year went really well and we are still enjoying some of the decorations :) It is always hard to take things down. Plus some of the decorations can work for Winter any ways...why would I put all the snowman up? I know just more excused to keep things up longer. I usually try to have them all down my February.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we had a change in plans due to a new nephew being born and the Texas crew not able to come up. So Dan and I headed up to Michigan to have Thanksgiving with my parents. We all pitched in to make the Thanksgiving meal and it turned out really good.

Thanksgiving in Michigan :)

                                                                       All the food!

Dan and I also realized we could get a really good deal on a new TV so we headed out in the afternoon to stand in line at Target. It wasn’t too bad, there were other people there to chat with and we were 4^th in line so we were close enough to the building to not feel the cold wind. On Saturday we decided to spend the day with my sister and her family who live about an hour north of my parents. It was fun seeing them get their Christmas decorations up.

The last thing we did before leaving my parents was to get some pictures by the Christmas tree:

German Roasted Nuts

Dan and I decided in November to try our hand at making those delicious smelling German Roasted nuts you always smell in the Mall around the holidays. We were able to find a good recipe that was also pretty simple, thank you Pintrest! We had a lot of fun and then had very good nuts to eat.

Here are some pictures:

                                    Our mixture of nuts and mixing up the cinnamon sauce.

                                                Mixing it all up and getting is all laid out.

All done and cooling :)

Catching up

I am very behind in posting :) Things got busy at the beginning of December and then Dan and I both got sick, followed by the Holiday's. I will be starting to do posts with pictures from the end of November. I have taken a few pictures but I really wanted to just be present during Christmas so I didn't take any pictures this year. It was nice getting to simply enjoy the time with family and we had a great time. Dan and I also have been getting more involved in our church and helped with a Christmas party for a specific group of people which wouldn’t have been appropriate to post those pictures even if I had taken any.

I should start to have more opportunities for pictures as we have plans in the next several months with friends and family.