St. George Christmas...

We headed down to St. George Christmas afternoon to meet up with my family. My parents and brother had flown in a few days before and we all met up at my grandparents house. I hadn't seen my grandparents for a few years and it was the first time Patrick got to meet them.
We spent our time eating, playing cards, telling stories, eating at buffets, napping, going to the clubhouse, and eating some more. It was so nice to spend some time with my family and with Patrick for that matter. We had such a great time that after we came back to Provo so I could work on Saturday we headed back down as soon as I got off.

 Opening presents.

 We played bingo and all won prizes.

Playing hand and foot. I happened to be the big winner one night and won a pair of Christmas toe socks!

 Hanging out at the clubhouse. Most of the boys played pool.

Danielle and Taylor took turns playing the piano while we put together puzzles.

Grandma and I chatted after enjoying a swim in the pool and soaking in the hot tub.

Napping at the grandparents.

On Monday my parents and Taylor had left to go back home. Danielle took a half day off work and we went shooting that afternoon!

We had a great Christmas!

Our Christmas...

We celebrated Christmas just the two of us on Christmas Eve after I got out of work since I had to work a half day on Christmas. I came home to find our apartment with lights all over and the tree in our bedroom! It's been our tradition to always sleep out by the tree on Christmas Eve and with our little apartment I didn't think it would happen, but Patrick found a way. I was so excited to celebrate. I quickly showered off the work germs and then we enjoyed dinner and opening presents!

Patrick getting dinner all set.

We enjoyed his sausage spaghetti over Christmas pasta!

We opened our stockings while sitting in bed. It couldn't have been any better. 

He was so sweet for surprising me with such a nice Christmas Eve!

It's almost Christmas...

I was being social and got together with a girl from church to make a Christmas craft. Maybe she's my visiting teacher. Anyhow I still count it. I liked how the wreath I made turned out.

Then it got so warm here that the candies started melting. Next time I'll have to shellac it.

We went to my work Christmas party. I thought it would be a good opportunity for Patrick to see the coworkers I sometimes reference. And let's face it, my work is too cheap to give out a bonus for Christmas so this was it.

I was wondering what was in store for us once I picked up my ticket.(Yes I blurred out the name of my work. You know just in case.) All we knew was that it was at BYU, we would eat dinner, and we were supposed to dress up. It ended up being a lot of fun. Although there were not a lot of people I knew it was better than I expected. There were door prizes and an improv comedy group came and did a show for us. It was very much like "Who's Line is it Anyway" and it was kinda fun to see my boss be put on the spot.

We went up to Salt Lake City to look at the lights on Temple Square. It was as lovely as I remembered and a little bit colder than I remembered. Luckily I snagged some hand warmers for us and that helped a bunch.

We made gingerbread houses a couple of days before Christmas after I got out of work. We were smart and made them with chocolate graham crackers instead of regular ones because they would taste better that way. Turns out it was an awesome decision and I ended up eating almost my entire house later on.

Christmas goodies...

While in Michigan I would go to a Christmas cookie exchange.  Last year I made peanut butter buckeye candy and the year before chocolate caramel thumbprint cookies. I would go to the party, play fun games, eat yummy treats, and then return with 6 dozen Christmas cookies of 12 different types. So that is what we would give away to our neighbors and people we home and visit teach for church. This year we needed to pick something else so I chose to make candy. I made the peanut butter buckeyes again and caramels. Patrick picked the type of caramel and he chose a chocolate coconut caramel recipe from Martha Stewart. They turned out fantastic. I dropped them off soon after we made them so I would stop eating them as soon as I woke up each day.

 

F.Y.I. Don't try to substitute wax paper for parchment paper when making caramels. It does not turn out well.

More Thanksgiving...

Since we recently were able to see Danielle and Chad we have more pictures from Thanksgiving!

Our Tree...

We always pick out and cut down a tree but this year was different. Our apartments don't allow real trees so we have a fake one. We spent an evening putting it together, decorating it, and stringing popcorn as we watched Elf. The popcorn was extra small and hard to string so our tree just has popcorn garland on the top half :)

Patrick getting the star ready.

 

Attaching the star. It kept wanting to fall over.

Each year we pick a new ornament. This is what we chose. We bought it at Bronner's when Patrick's mom was visiting us over the summer. We've had our eyes on it for while.

 Sometimes we pick more than one. We try to pick something to help us remember the year and thought this was fitting.

Our tree!

"Elfed"...

Earlier in the month we thought it would be fun to spread some Christmas cheer in our quad. So we put together a few goodie bags and "elfed" our neighbors. It's just like "ghosting" or "booing" at Halloween. You drop off a snack, poem, and sign for someone. In turn they pass it on by making two goodie bags and dropping them off to two neighbors and put the sign on their door so everyone knows the elf has already visited them.Then it just keeps going around until Christmas Eve.

We put in macaroons, Christmas candy, candy canes, and hot chocolate mix in the goodie bags we dropped off.

 

 The bags ready to go.

Patrick getting ready to drop off the goodie bags.

We randomly picked people to elf. We had fun running around in the dark and hope that our neighbors pass it on.