Christmas 2011...

This Christmas was wonderful! I am so sad it's already over but so grateful for all the fun memories we made!

The week before Christmas we did a lot of Christmas activities! We went and saw lights, we went to Arthur Christmas, made Gingerbread houses and then played a new family favorite. .scavenger hunt! Adam came up with the idea this year to do a fun Christmas scavenger hunt. We split up in to two teams and had my grandparents, cousins, aunt etc. It was such a hit! I'll have to find the fun pictures from my mom when I can! But Adam was in charge and so he stayed behind at the house while the two teams text him the pictures/videos of the places we were at. We had '12 days of Christmas' basically, where we had to go to these 12 different locations and they were all hints, so we had to figure out where they were! Adam had hints like.. 'Mary & Jospeh couldn't stay at the Inn by the place that cooks in the brick, and by the smiling start' - which was Ramada Inn here in St. George next to the Brick Oven & Carls Jr. He did such an incredible job at coming up with the hints and clues and even the bonus points for us. Gabe (Tay's bf) was on my team and one of the bonus points was to go into a grocery store and yell up and down the isle 'Santa is Coming, Santa is Coming'- and so Gabe did it for our team and it was probably one of the highlights of my month! it was hilarious and so much fun! It will definitley be a family tradition for years to come!

The weekend of Christmas, Adam & I went last miniute Christmas shopping the day before Christmas Eve. . not the best idea we've ever had! It was packed everywhere and we were getting basically ALL our gifts. We braved Deseret Book, mall, and Target.. this picture was my funny husband after 1/2 our shopping trip to the mall..

I did forget to mention that when I came home from work Adam suprised me with this beauty on my bed! I have been wanting this new comforter set for like 6 months and he ordered online, had it delivered in perfect timing and set it up for me :)

The next day was Christmas Eve.. Luckily we had all our shopping done :) And I had stayed up super late the night before wrapping everything! We got presents for parents, 4 niece & nephews & siblings! Christmas Eve day we stayed at home and Adam's mom came over that morning to help me bake her famous sugar cookies. They are delicious and she definitley has a special talent in making them. Pretty sure I won't be as good as her on my own! Then we hung out at our house, got ready and got everything packed for our night at my parent's. Every year my family hosts a Christmas Eve party with family and friends. This year was no different, and we had tons of fun as usual. We played the annual bingo game, a few other games and ate yummy food and treats!

Adam & I then decided to go over to his families in Ivins for a quick visit and to exchange siblings gifts. That was really fun and even Montana got spoiled.

We then went back over to my families so we could open our 'Christmas PJ's' and then get to bed. We also had our roommate Keli'i with us again this year and that was really fun! We opened some jammies and joked around the tree. We then went to bed and it was around 1 a.m. so we were all exhausted. Keli'i, Adam, Tay & I all stayed down stairs on the couches.. they are really comfortable but after sleeping on them for 6 hours I decided they aren't the best for long periods of sleep. As usual I was excited and up around 7 a.m. then Adam woke up and he couldn't go back to sleep so we decided to all wake up and go wake up my parents.. haha yes like we were little kids again.. We then opened up presents at my families house and got very spoiled. We are truly blessed to have my family still spoil us so much. I'm so grateful for all the great Christmases I've been given.. After that we went back over to our other families haha.. and had Christmas breakfast with them and watched our niece and nephews open their presents from us. It was fun and definitley more loud & crazy then at my parents. We weren't there for very long because my brother was calling from Florida!

I was so excited to talk to him! This was his last Christmas away from home and we were all so happy! We got to have a pretty long phone convo, a couple of hours, and then he got to skype with us on the computer for another couple of hours! It was awesome. He looks so great and sounds so happy! I miss him tons and he is coming home in July! :)

We had such an amazing Christmas spent with family and friends. We've been extremely blessed since we've been married to have both our families live so close. Unfortunately Adam's brother got a job offer in Bountiful and they are moving so I'm sure our next holidays will be different, but these past Christmases have been great. We are also so thankful to be blessed with such great gifts and great memories! My husband spoiled me this year.. even though I told him we weren't really getting each other much!

That temple picture says on the top "Families are Forever" it's beautiful.. And I have been wanting new scriptures because the old ones I have are from my first year of insitiute and still have my old name and they are really small. These are perfect size and have my new name :) or not so new name..haha.Anyway he totally surpsed me with these things and I'm so very happy at how well he remember everything :)

Well I hope you all had a great holiday spent with loved ones! Until next year.. :)

Oh and p.s.
in the midst of all the Christmas celebrations I got my hair dyed.. yes very dark but I am loving it so far :)