christmas time

Wow I seriously cant believe Christmas is this week! Where has this month gone? When the month started out I was SO excited for Christmas, and then last week happened. Not that being busy isn't fun, but sometimes working all day and then being out until at least 10pm every night isn't the most fun, especially since I'm a grandma and love to be in bed early. Not to mention the fact that work was horrible last week. Trying to get out 6500 Christmas cards last minute while having to do my normal work and being the designated driver for co-workers = emotionally draining. But its over, done with, and now I cant wait for Christmas!

This month has been BUSY, in a good way most of the time.

First, ALL of our high school girls FINALLY got together! It was so much fun and long overdue! We talk about doing it all the time but finally a few girls got together and planned it.

All of us {almost}
Love all you girls, thanks for planning it Megs, Al, Trina, Abs, etc. We missed all of you who weren't there!

Then we were able to go to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional which was awesome.

The conference center looked amazing

After it ended we were able to go to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for hot chocolate, wassail and dessert with the General YW and YM Boards and their families. Its a tradition that they do every year and its so fun being with everyone.

Sister Dalton and my mom

Next we went to the Bagley Family party at Marty and Dee's. We all used to do the Nativity when we were little and then we stopped it for a while because we were all old and too cool, but now its so fun to have so many little kids in the family that are willing {and some older kids too!}

Bud and Lize introduced us to Hatch's hot chocolate {aka the Little Chocolateires if you saw TLC tonight} after the Bagley party, yum! We went there to celebrate my little sis's college graduation! Yay Meg, way to go!

Finally we had another party with my girlfriends. It took awhile to nail down a date that would work for all of us but we made it happen and it was so fun!

We made gingerbread houses which we hadn't done this year and I must say we did pretty good, well Al did good I should say, I just held together the pieces. Brando and Annie totally beat everyone thanks to Brando's mad construction skills.

Thanks Meg for finding the perfect date and thanks Dan for putting it all together, love ya girls!

On another note, Happy Birthday {yesterday} to my gorgeous mother! Love ya momma!

Merry Christmas everyone, have a good week!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I feel like Thanksgiving was so long ago! Im way behind but here it goes...

Our Thanksgiving works out perfect for us being able to go with both families. We started off with my family eating at Tuscany around noon. The food is so good and we are able to go with my grandma and cousins. Wish we got a pic together Lala!







We stuffed ourselves full and hung out all day at my parents and then went over to Aunt Polly's for pie with the Mullin's and Despain's.

We went to Al's parents at 6 that night for round two! Its nice eating so early with my fam because then we are hungry again for our second dinner with the Hogan's. So we ate with them and played games all night! I love Thanksgiving, its so fun getting together with family and eating all day!

It was SO nice having a few days off work! I love long weekends. We went to Blindside which we loved, Al woke up early to see what Black Fridays deals were at Target and Wal-Mart, and we put up our tree and the few other random decorations we have. I decided that this year I am going to actually buy some decorations when they are on sale after Christmas, all of the ones I use are old hand-me-downs.

Now I cant wait for Christmas! I have been listening to Christmas music all day at work and I cant get enough of it! We have started watching all of our favorite Christmas movies...Elf, The Grinch and The Santa Clause down...Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Its A Wonderful Life and The Nativity to go!

The countdown is on for Christmas and if you remember from this post a few years ago my mom had put together some amazing advent calendars for her kids. Well she decided to do them again this year and I am so excited! It is so much fun opening each day to see what gift card, treat or prize my parents left us! Thanks for all of the hours you spent running around town getting stuff for these, love you!

18 days to go!