Christmas 2013

Christmas Eve:

       

On Christmas Eve we went to my parents house to celebrate with my side of the family.

We got lots of play time with our sweet little niece Lydia.  She was so smiley for Bryce!

My mom made sure even her puppy Zoey was dressed up all festive for the party.  We ate a yummy ham dinner, sang Christmas carols while I accompanied on the guitar, read the Christmas story from the bible, and of course opened presents!

As you can see from the nice little pile, Claire was spoiled!  She was given lots of books, a dress, and a toy from my parents; headbands from my aunt; books and a quilt from my grandparents       

Bryce and I were given a Kitchen Aid food processor and new Christmas sweaters from my parents as well as books and money from my grandparents.  I am so excited about the food processor, and I am really excited to use it to make homemade baby food.  My mom is so sweet and even got it in the same color as the Kitchen Aid Mixer & Blender I already have.  Bryce and I are so lucky to have such a generous family, they are great examples to us!

Christmas Day:

Bryce and I spent Christmas morning at home together.  We slept in until around 9, made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Skyped with all of Bryce's siblings since most of them are currently out of state, and then exchanged gifts.

We gave Rory a bone and a stuffed fox toy.  She was pretty happy with them.

    

We spoiled each other with gifts this year.  We figured it was probably the last Christmas where we would get the chance to since we will be spoiling our kids from now on :).  We carried on our tradition of four gifts: Want, Wear, Need, Read. 

Bryce's gifts were: Want- Ruger SR 40 C pistol, Wear- bathrobe, Need- Shoes, & Read- The DO's: Osteopathic Medicine in America.

My gifts included Want- Macbook Pro, Wear- Bathrobe, Need- Breast Pump, probably the most exciting one ;), and Read- The 7th Harry Potter which was the only Harry Potter I was still needing!  For stocking stuffers we did candy, jerky, pomegranates, I got Bryce ammo for his gun, and Bryce got me a necklace with Claire's initial.  I'll have to post a picture of the necklace.  It is so pretty!  I plan to add an initial for every child we have.

We also continued our tradition of exchanging ornaments with each other.  Bryce gave me a Belle Ornament and I gave him a Christmas Tree ornament to commemorate our year without a tree.  Between work, school, finals, getting ready for the baby, and millions of Christmas parties we never actually got around to finding the time to get a tree.  I was a little sad but really we were so busy I didn't notice too much.  I don't plan on letting it happen again and I'll just count the whole being pregnant thing as a good excuse for not having one this year.  

Around 4 o clock we went to Bryce's parents for dinner.  (I forgot to take pictures, hopefully having a baby will help me remember to take more!)  We exchanged gifts, watched Despicable Me 2, and of course ate lots of yummy food!  We were given a huge packet of Family Home Evening Lessons that Bryce's mom put together, a TeePee that Bryce's mom made for our kids to play in, and money for food storage!  We are always so spoiled and given much more than we deserve.  Bryce and I are looking forward to the days we are no longer poor students and can return the generosity :)

After we got home that night I think Bryce and I both felt like Rory in the picture above.  We were exhausted but so happy!  We managed to stay awake long enough to read scriptures and watch some videos about Christmas on LDS.org.  We talked about ways we can incorporate Christ more in our Christmas celebrations and thought of some ideas we're excited to do with our kids.  This was mine and Bryce's third and final Christmas with just us two.  We have loved the holidays we've had together as a couple but we cannot wait to start celebrating the holidays with a baby and as parents!  Christmas 2013 was definitely one for the books….but is it bad I'm already looking forward to Christmas 2014 when I will have my first Christmas as a mom?  My life just keeps getting better and better!  The holidays and this time of year are a perfect reminder of my many, many blessings.