Christmas

Ok, so I am a little overwhelmed at the fact that I haven't blogged in over a month and during that time we had Christmas, new years, a family reunion, Izzie's first birthday (I know I can't believe she is one!) Matt started school full time, and switched to a full time night shift schedule so he is crazy busy, Matt Lily and I got the stomach flu following which all of us (and Isabel) got colds.  So yeah.  Lots to blog about.  And I haven't posted pics in over 2 months, and when I went to download pics off my camera, ther were hundreds.  Over 300 pics to sift through with all the family stuff that has been going on.  So right now I am going to post on Nov-Christmas, then I'll do a new post for the family reunion, then a new one for Izzie's birthday, etc.

Anyway, we had a great Christmas.  I still wasn't feeling great with what they now believe was probably severe Labrythitis (the vertigo/dizziness), which I am FINALLY better from!  I even started driving again 2 weeks ago, which I hadn't been able to do for almost 2 months, so it is great to be feeling mostly normal again!

Anyway, back to topic!  CHRISTMAS!  Matt had to work on Christmas day so we had Christmas on Christmas Eve (you can do that when your kids are still so little), and since it was Christmas Eve and not Christmas (Santa's sleigh only works on Christmas), Santa was Awesome and gave my mom (who has been one of Santa's official helpers as long as I can remember) all the girl's stocking stuff.  So she came down on the 23rd and brought her gifts for the girls and also all the stocking stuff from Sants, which was SUPER wonderful of her since I was still feeling bad and couldn't drive and had done NO shopping, except for buying a couple DVD's online. I got the girls a movie each and Matt and I got movies for each other.  The rest of our christmas money went to buying a new laptop for Matt for school.  Wonderfully my fabulous sister-in-law Heather gave us a TON of toys that her family had outgrown (she has 4 kids and her youngest is 1 year older than Lily) that were perfect for our kids.  She gave them to us a couple weeks before Christmas, she was purging in order to make room for new Christmas stuff.  So we wrapped all of that stuff up and gave it to the girls for Christmas and they LOVED it.  It was a great morning we had so much fun!

this is lily plaing with some bath soap/paint from santa. it was a big hit!

That night we had a family dinner at Matt's parents.  It was SO much fun!  It was everyone else's Christmas eve and we had a delicious dinner followed by cookie decorating for the kids to decorate for santa.  The kids also acted out the nativity while Boopah read the Christmas story.

One hilarious part of the night was the gift that we got from Matt's brother Barry and his wife Janeal.  Every year we exchange gift witht them (Matt's sisters exchange and he and his brother exchange), anyway we usually do movies or something for each other, but this year we hadn't really told them what we were interested in (we usually give them a list of movies we would like and they pick one), so when they brought out our gift we had NO idea what it could be.  It was huge.  And they said they were so excited to watch us open it.  They made us sit on the couch in front of everyone and they stood right in front of us with the camera while we opend it.  When we were handed the gift it was clear that it was some kind of art in a big frame.  It felt very sturdy and we had no idea what it could be. Matt's brother warned us that it was mostly for matt in a seriosu voice.

Then we ripped it open.

And laughed.

It was pretty funny.

It was this.

(our real gift-a video game-was taped to the back)

Barry said he took it out from under a teenage girl who was standing oogling it and probably actually really wanted it.  It was so random and the fact that something like this actually exsists is pretty great.  I think I'll bring it to the next white elephant party we go to!  Here I am being obsessed with Edward.

One of the funniest parts was that after we opened it and first turned it around to show everyone what it was Lily was right by it and stroked his face very gently and said, "Its a little boy. He's beautiful" in an awed voice.  It was pretty funny.  She is saying the funniest things all the time and I am LOVING the almost 3 year old faze!

Now the only question is, what do we get for them in return next year?

On Christmas Day I rode over with my in laws (at 7am) to Heather and Tom's house.  We had breakfast with them (waffles and bacon and eggs and OJ and eggnog..pretty amazing.  thanks guys) and then watched them open their gifts, which Lily was really great about.  I was a little worried how she would do watching and not having anything to open, but I reminded her that she already opened her presents yesterday and we brought the puppy "goldie" that Santa gave her as a reminder of her new toys.  She did pretty well.   Though I did feel a little awkward.  (side note: lily LOVES that puppy.  almost as much as her woobie. seriously alot.) Then Nana & Boopah (matt's parents) left and I satayed and spent the day with Heather and Tom's family.  It was alot of fun and nice to just kick back and relax.  And it ws great of H & T to invite me out and let me invade their family Christmas.  That night after Matt got off work he came over and we sent the boys out to get some Jack in the Box (a yummy christmas dinner for us grown ups :) and then we stayed up too late and watched 2 movies "just friends" which H&T hadn't seen and "startrek" which matt and I hadn't seen.  It was Awesome!  We love those guys and miss living close to them in the East valley where we got to see them alot more often.

Tommy also randomly decided to give Matt a gift (even though we don't usually exchange with them...SUPRISE!) and it was...

GOLF CLUBS!  Can you believe that!  What a nice gift!  And some galf balls and a cleaner brush.  It was so crazy!  Tommy got new ones and decided to give Matt his old ones (which he probably could have sold, so thanks for thinking of us!)  He even tied a bow on the clubs for Matt (tom's a man's man, so i was impressed).  Anyway, now Matt is hooked on golfing and I am just sad that he won't have more free time in the next year to go.  And I am happy that it is much cheaper/less time consuming to go to the driving range and practice and that he won't be paying for full out golfing very often this year! 

During our family reunion 5 of the guys went golfing and I was glad that matt got to go and do boy stuff and that he has a new hobby.  Also, my dad and my papa both golfed alot.  I remember my papa watching golf on TV all the time and going out golfing.  He loved it and I always wanted to learn how.  I have been to the driving range but never been actually golfing (unless you count mini), so I am excited that Matt is getting into it so that he can then teach me and it can be a fun outdoor activity for us in the future!  :)

My brother Charlie came and visited us several times during Christmas Break, it was great to hang out with him and he is always so sweet to drive over here (it's like 40 minutes people) a few times every months and be the girls' play slave.  Seriously he indulges them way too much, but they sure love him!  And after all what are uncles for?!

Anyway, that was Christmas.  We definetly felt the spirit of Christ this year, even if we didn't do alot of our traditional Christmas things, due to me being sick.  We feel SO blessed to have such wonderful & generous friends and family. We love you guys!