25 Days of Christmas, Part 3

I thought I should finish up the last days of Christmas. It's been a few days so I don't remember them all, but still, I think we did pretty good considering.

Day 11 - I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

One year for Christmas my boss gave everyone a book/DVD combo of Longfellow's Christmas. It was a clip from the Christmas show that the MoTab and Orchestra at Temple Square do every year. I actually really love this song, it was cool to find out some of the history behind it. Plus it's not too long so it works as a short little video for FHE.

Day 12 - Christmas Lights

On Tuesday we drove around looking at all the Christmas lights around the town. We went to the rich areas thinking that they would have the best lights. Sadly it was not true. I was surprised at how many people didn't put up lights. The best neighborhoods were the more modest ones. The maybe weren't the most pretty, but they certainly were the most festive.

Day 13 - Cable

This wasn't really a planned Christmas activity, but we got our cable installed. Bryan was going to try and do it himself, but luckily he randomly found this guy online who was selling a rail mount (which we needed). We bought the mount from him and found out that he actually was a DirecTV installation guy and asked if he would come and install it instead. It was cheaper and caused us a lot less of a headache. He had it working in an hour and I'm sure Bryan would have been out there for a lot longer if he had tried it himself. A small blessing that we randomly found this guy.

Day 14 - Aaron's Birthday

On Friday we made the trek up to Bountiful to Melanie's house for Aaron's second birthday. Too bad there was a crazy amount of traffic due to 2 wrecks and we got there super late and probably missed all the fun. Still, it's always nice to see family, no matter how short the time.

Day 15 - Mexican Tacos

 (We look drunk or something. I don't know why.)

Nothing says Christmas like Mexican Tacos. And not just any tacos, the Longoria tacos. They taste so fresh it's crazy. I like them WAY better than anything else I've ever tasted. They are made with small tortillas, beef, some kind of Mexican cheese that I can't remember the name of, lime juice, avocados, sour cream and I'm sure I'm forgetting some else. Still, delicious! We were so glad they invited us down to have some. Plus we had cupcakes and horchata--Mexican hot cocoa. And don't ask me why I gave Bryan that look, I don't know. I'm sure it was something he said.

Day 16 - Talks

Nothing says Christmas like Sunday talks either. We went to tithing settlement and came out with talk assignments. Actually, I could feel it coming. That Sunday in sacrament I was thinking how I was so glad I wasn't the one giving a talk and then I suddenly get this feeling that I'll be next. A few hours later, Bishop is telling me that he has this feeling to ask us to speak. Well, at least I know he follows the spirit. I gave mine on Elder Holland's The First Great Commandment and Bryan on Elder Anderson's Trial of Faith. Bryan likes switching it up though and spoke first. I've never really been a last speaker, but I think it all went really well. I was surprisingly not that nervous (a FIRST for me) and afterwards we got a whole lot of compliments on how we both are such "natural" speakers. I wouldn't say that for me, but I'm glad that everything went well. It also got us our new callings in the Primary teaching the 5 year olds. The primary president heard us speak and knew we were the ones she wanted. Yay for us.

Day 18 - Game Night

Like I said, it has been awhile and I can't remember what we did on the 17th or 19th. But on the 18th we had another game night with our new friends. We played Settlers again while eating a whole bunch of snacks and somewhat watching The Muppets: A Christmas Carol. I'm not too bad at that game. I tied for 2nd on the first round and won the second. It was such a blast hanging out with Josh and Macy too.

Day 20 - Ah. Thursday. Today we had our ultrasound and found our that we are having a baby girl!! What is more exciting than that. Enough said.

Day 21 - The Drive

Friday was our drive down to Vegas for Christmas. I was able to get off of work early and so we left in the afternoon and were able to make good time. I don't know if we did anything specifically Christmas-y, but since the drive was for the holidays I'm going to count it anyway.

Day 22 - Mini Golf and Dinner

On Saturday we had time together as the "kids." We went to King Putt and played miniature golf. It was actually kinda cool with lots of fun holes....even one where you shot the golf ball out of a gun. Plus it was glow in the dark and had an Egyptian theme. That night we took Mom and Dad Stiles out to dinner at Claim Jumper. Weird name, but actually a pretty nice place. It was our treat to them. So of course they treated everyone else and spent more than if they would have gone out by themselves. Isn't that just the way of the world?

Day 23 - Cantata and Dinner

On Sunday, Matt, Bryan and I sang in Dad's Cantata during sacrament. They always have a really great choir and I always enjoy myself. And that night was had dinner with the family. The Stiles family is definitely growing. They used to be able to fit around a round table and now look at us. And half of us weren't even there.

Day 24 - Golfing, Friend Lunch and Engagement

The day before Christmas, Bryan and I went to lunch with some of his Henderson friends. They are some of the funniest people! We always have fun with them. After lunch Bryan and I went with Dad to the driving range. I haven't golfed since Nathan tried to teach me forever ago and I whacked him in the head with the club and gave him a goose egg. But Dad and Bryan were great teachers and I wasn't doing too bad by the end. I even kept up when we had a putting "horse" game. The only downside? My arms were killing me for the next 3 days.

Lastly for that day, Chris got engaged! Bryan and I made dinner for the family that night which hopefully eased some stress for Mom and Dad who helped with the engagement. Still, it was fun since we all knew it was coming except Erica (obviously). I think she was truly shocked and was actually speechless when they came to tell us all that night. We are so happy to have her join the family!!

Welp, that is one long post. I will save Christmas for another day.