The Holidays

The holidays have reached the apex of their swing and are starting to wind down. Amanda and I have had a great first married holiday season together. Halloween was uneventful. Amanda had to work and we only had one group of trick or treaters. We didn't even have a jack o' lantern. Although we did have a bat that hung out across the hall from our front door for a few days.

Thanksgiving was a tasty treat. Amanda and I went to my parents home. We arrived the night before the party and helped mom and dad set everything up. For Thanksgiving itself we were given one assignment and one assignment only. We were supposed to entertain (distract) the small children long enough for the adults to finish final preparations of the meal and clean up from the meal. Mom suggested that we put in Ratatouille, while we did end up doing that Amanda had some additional ideas. When the kids showed up, we went to the basement and did thanksgiving crossword puzzles, drew thanksgiving pictures and made thanksgiving turkeys out of our hand outlines. When our nephew Grayson showed up he played in the bus that dad and I put together that morning just for him. We had a great time, with our family and with the kids. In fact we had such a good time we forgot to take any pictures.

Fast forward a month through the stress of finals week and Christmas shopping to Christmas. We spent Christmas with Amanda's family this year. Since we weren't going to be home in our condo on Christmas day we had our Christmas on the 22nd.

We drove down to Monroe

on the 23rd. When we pulled into Amanda's parents driveway, and were instantly greeted by her younger sister and baby brother. Her brother KC gave us the peace sign and said "only two more sleeps until Christmas." We spent that day doing things around the house and catching up with everyone. On Christmas eve, we went to the local Ace Hardware store. A Monroe tradition for newly weds is for people from the town to place money on an account for the lucky couple as a wedding gift. We took Amanda's baby brother and sister with us to the store and shopped around for a while.

After the store we went back to the house and made sugar cookies.

After we made sugar cookies and made some final preparations for the next day and ate dinner, we all piled into the suburban and drove around Monroe and Richfield to look at the Christmas lights. I thought it was a very clever ploy to get KC to fall asleep early. Although we did see a house that looked a lot like the Griswalds home on Christmas Vacation. The hill side behind the house, the front yard, and the house were either solid lights or very ornate patterns of Christmas lights. I have seen some pretty impressive homes as far as decorations go, but that one took the cake. That night before we went to bed we sat down as a family and read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2. I thought it was a perfect ending to a long day.

On Christmas morning Amanda's family has a couple of traditions. Among them is a before picture...

and and after picture...

We had a lot of fun opening the presents. Amanda and I made out like bandits, and so did everyone else.

Everyone got some new pajamas, myself included but I think that KC was the most excited for his new digs.

But his favorite gift was easily the skate board he got because "he has only wanted it for his whole life."

Serena was very excited about the day as well. She got a lot of fun gifts and I think that she was very happy. (Although she doesn't look very excited in this picture.)

After we opened a few presents we ate breakfast and then opened the rest of the presents. After we finished with the presents, the boys (except KC) went shooting. We shot shotguns, an SKS assult rifle, a .357 magnum and a .44 magnum. I loved it. Amanda's brother Adam rode his dirt bike out to the shooting site, and thanks to the snow and ice on the road, he crashed twice. Other than a few scrapes and bruises he was fine. That night we had a huge turkey dinner. Between Christmas breakfast and Christmas dinner I think that I gained at least 10 lbs. It was awesome.

The next morning we packed up the car and drove to Salt Lake to see my parents. They had a bunch of presents for us as well.

Both families were overly generous and we received far more than we deserved, and we never feel like we give enough in return.

For the rest of the afternoon we saw the grandparents, went to dinner with my parents, and stopped and spent a few moments with the Marshells. I played guitar hero and was crushed by Rob. We went home for the evening and got to spend a few hours hanging out with Taylor and Meg. We hadn't seen then since we helped them move down to Phoenix in August. It was a lot of fun to catch up with them and joke around until 1:00 in the morning.

The next day we drove back to Logan. It has been a crazy season this year with a lot on our minds. Amanda has received a job offer for after she graduates in May, this semester was very challenging, and work has been tough. But we have really experienced an outpouring of blessings, and everything has come together for us very nicely.

Now we are preparing for the new year and our new years party.

As a side note we have received multiple requests to see pictures of our apartment. (Since only two members of my family have seen it.) So here they are, Christmas decorations and all.