Christmas and New Years!

We had a wonderful, quiet Christmas. Christmas Eve we continued with our dinner tradition of having appetizers and dip. This year we had crab puffs, boneless bbq chicken wings, chicken and pineapple meatballs, deep dish mini pizzas, bacon guacamole with red and green chips, southwest taquitos, and two different kinds of quiche.

We put ELF on this year. We usually try to watch a different Christmas movie every year. After dinner we opened our Christmas jammies and then I read "The Polar Express". Everyone got their jammies on and we bundled up and drove around looking at Christmas lights with Christmas music playing in the car.

Once we got home, we all put our stockings out. Ethan made some "reindeer food" at school and he reminded me 10 times that we needed to sprinkle it on the ground so they would know where to come. The kids went to bed pretty quick and Stew and I stayed up and watched a movie. Santa and one of his elves came around 11pm. While Santa was putting out all of our gifts, his elf was making a trap in the doorway to the living room so the kids would go in and peek in the middle of the night.

Around 6am, Ethan and Ryan came upstairs to tell us that they were pretty sure Santa came. Santa was quite generous this year. The kids got lots of small fun stuff and lots of treats. Stew got lots of treats, a small leather bound copy of "The Hobbit", a few different small bottles of cologne. I got a couple new shirts, a pair of slippers, some of my favorite flavored candy, "The Hunger Games" dvd, and a few other things.

While the kids played with some of their new toys, I made Biscuits and Sausage Gravy with eggs. SO YUMMY!!

We opened presents, Skyped with Stew's mom, took naps, Skyped with one of Stew's sisters, had dinner, and then relaxed the rest of the night. My family was at the movies and we weren't able to get a hold of Stew's other two sisters.


New Year's Eve we made our own pizzas and then went to a party with a couple families in our ward. The bigger kids played down in the basement, while all of us adults chatted. A couple of my Primary girls came upstairs and asked me to play Just Dance 3 with them. After we did a dance, I reminded them that I was the cool primary leader.

We stayed until 9:30ish and then went home. Ry had an accident while we were there...which we were not happy about because she already had one that morning. She got into lots of trouble and ended up not being able to play with her new toys and having to help do chores today.

Anyway... on our way home, we picked up a couple movies. The kids went to bed around 10:30pm, Stew and I watched one of the movies, two minutes before midnight we turned it on regular tv so we couple watch the ball drop. We had our midnight kiss, some Sparkling Cider, and then went to bed.

Today the kids and I did some chores. They tidied up and I deep cleaned. Stew took it easy today... he isn't feeling very well. He has a fever, is a little achy, and feels very blah! Poor guy!! Can't seem to catch a break during the holidays. Hoping he feels better before he has his last Clinic day on Friday.

Anywho...... Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years! I am looking forward to all the new adventures that my family and I are going to be going through this year. Stew leaves for clerkships in March. We calculated that he will be gone at least 23 weeks this year. Here is his schedule for the months he is away from us:

-March: New Orleans, LA
-May: Kansas City, MO
-July: Jacksonville, FL
-September: Albuquerque, NM
-October: Mountain Home, TN
-December: visiting programs and studying for Boards part 2


My plan is to update this as often as I can. Whether it be about what my family and I are doing or how I am feeling about things that are going on in my life.

So...until next time......