Christmas, Baby Aaron, and New Years

It is probably pathetically sad that I didn't take any pictures of Christmas. To be honest, most of the time I just don't think of it. I'd like to think that's because I'm having such a good time and I don't want to stop everything to take a picture. Although looking back I wish I had anyway. And there's really no excuse anymore because I always have my phone with me and it has an 8 megapixel camera on it - with a flash. Yeah, no excuse. But, like I said, I didn't take any pictures, but I can still blog about what Bryan and I did.

With terrible weather around here, we didn't leave until the late morning of Thursday, the 23rd. We meant to leave after work on the 22nd, but it was icy in Northern Utah and flooding in Southern, so we waited it out a bit. Around 10 or something we started our journey to Henderson. It was filled with an audio book (Seventh Son from the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card), sandwiches (of rolls, ham and cheese provided by my work - thank you Dining), candy and clementines (from our stockings). Yum! Other than that it was pretty uneventful.

We made it to Henderson in good time and warmer weather, thank goodness! Funny thing was we got down there and only Dad and Jonathan were there - and with Jonathan being 16, he wasn't really there either. We had a great time though just talking to Dad and going to dinner. It's nice to get some one-on-one time....and watch some ridiculous Youtube videos.

Christmas Eve was pretty relaxed. Mom was coming home that day with Chris and Mattie and we would all be going over to Grandma and Grandpa Twitchell's house later that evening. It's tradition. Anyway, so we watched Hoosiers with Dad - it was his new Blu-Ray movie and then Bryan and I went to the Strip. I always love looking at the Bellagio fountain, but I think that Bryan and I both agree that the Strip gives us more of a headache than anything. It's fun to see once, but it loses it's luster pretty quick. We made it to Grandma and Grandpa's, have dinner with the whole family (as in aunts, uncles and cousins) and sing Christmas carols. They then all proceeded to tell me how beautiful my voice is and joked that I probably had to try-out to get into the family. Luckily, they all agree I pass with flying colors.

Christmas morning! I think I may have been the only one to wear my pajamas to Christmas morning, but I've been doing it for as long as I can remember, and I don't plan on stopping now! It was so fun to go around the circle and open gifts. Mom and Dad were so nice. We didn't expect anything, but that doesn't mean they weren't going to get us stuff anyway. We got our comforter set (yay!) with matching pillows, a bookshelf, picture frames, and other things. I think one of my favorites was a cookbook Mom got me. It's for picky eaters. And although Bryan is by no means a picky eater and we don't have kids yet, we still like a lot of the recipes. They taste good and are simple - which is just the way I like it. We then went back to Grandma and Grandpa's for the omelet breakfast - another tradition - where I proceeded to refuse to flip my own. Bryan did it for me and Grandpa called me a chicken. Oh well. I'm pretty good at holding to my guns - just ask Mom and Dad about my oatmeal breakfasts. We opened more gifts, sang more songs, and heard the very talented Stiles' children improv their own music which is AMAZING! Even with my voice I feel very talentless after hearing them. We played, ate and talked our way through the rest of the night and watched Elf and The Sound of Music. Later we went to bed, woke up, went to Church and made our trek back home to Utah. Overall, a wonderful Christmas.

Later that week we got to see our new nephew, Aaron, for the first time. He is so cute! And much to his mother's chagrin, slept the entire night away. We also played with Aubrey and Austin who are so full of life. It was so fun to have them over. And luckily Bryan remembered to take some pictures this time.

New Years wasn't that exciting, but then again, it never really has been for me. I'm pretty sure I fall asleep most years anyway. I pretty sure Troy just happened to be on TV so we watched that then went over to Nathan and Korina's for dinner. We then all went back to our place and watched the end of 300, had 15 minutes until the countdown, watched that, drank Martinelli's in champagne flutes and promptly fell asleep. I needed my sleep, we finally were able to go snowboarding the next day (3rd time is a charm) and I needed all the strength I could muster. It was pretty fun. I don't know if I have enough fun to warrant paying $25 every time, but it's only with practice that you get better. And I need to get better - at least my toe side does. Anyway, I know this is long, but it's been a wonderful year. And Happy New Year to everyone!!