Christmas!

Christmas Eve was celebrated with the Doyle's. We started the party early so the kids wouldn't get home too late and miss Santa coming! We had so much yummy and delicious food! Appetizers including, shrimp, dipped pretzels, homemade salsa, cookies, cheese ball, fudge (which I was not proud of...it turned into soup and was called fondue for for the rest of the night!), and many more.

After appetizers, and some fun ornament making for the grand kids, we of course needed more food, so we dug into our delicious annual turkey dinner. Ryan's dad always makes a killer turkey and homemade stuffing, we had yams, Waldorf salad, jello, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls and Ryan's cran-Sprite drink! It was soo good, and we all ate so much, but loved every bite!

After dinner, the kids put on a lovely nativity for us, narrated by Ryan (of course with his big deep voice!) There attentions spans are short, and the bible story is a little long...so we got the 'sweetened condensed' version with the wise men appearing right along with the Shepard's, and little Maddie was the angel and Mary all in one! It was so cute!

After Nativity, we decided it was time for presents, all the kids opened all theirs all at once, loved the puzzle, and play dough they got. We adults did our gift exchange, and somewhere in the mix Norm and Kim received this gift from us!

It was so much fun to see their reaction, Norm handed it to Kim to open across the room, and the minute she opened the box, and peeked inside, she shut it quick, and looked up at Ryan and I with big eyes, then at Norm, and said "Norm you need to come here!" It wasn't even seconds after that everyone was screaming and hugging, and me of course crying! It was the best present we could give!

Christmas morning, we watched ELF, and Kim made delicious crepes with fresh strawberries, blackberries and whipped cream on top. Ryan and Norm got into a funny whipped cream fight, we were dying laughing! After breakfast, we opened our gifts. Ryan got me some new jeans, a couple shirts, gloves, and books from the Hunger Games series. I got some other clothes and a cute new purse from Norm and Kim. Ryan got shoes he's been dying for, 4 new movies, lots of clothes....we were spoiled! After gifts we got showered and ready for the day and headed down to Ogden.

We all met up at my parents house at 3:00 and immediately started into the presents...it took us 2 hours to open everything! My parents spoiled us as well: I got new shears for cutting hair, a cross-stitch my mom made with our wedding date and names, new clothes, and comfy neck pillow for long car rides, a ear muff/headband thing. Ryan got some more movies, the PlayStation Move, candy, clothes, and I'm sure other things I'm forgetting.

But anyway...onto the fun stuff! To announce our pregnancy to my family I had made 6 blocks, on the front of each was F A M I L Y, and on the sides was a bunch of snapshots of our family over the last year or two, and on the back of the Y block, was a picture of our ultrasound. Ryan got a video of my mom opening the gift, and it is the greatest video ever! The Y block is the 4th one she pull out...it's pretty obvious when she knows...

It was truly such an awesome Christmas, Ryan and I feel so blessed to have all our family to close to us to celebrate the holiday's with. Next year, will be very different from this...probably moved out of state attending Physical Therapy School, and we'll have one more member in the family. We are so excited to see what fun new adventures 2011 has in store for us!

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all the best in the upcoming year!