Christmas 2012

Doug and I flew out to Utah to stay with his family this Christmas. We have a rotation where we switch the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families each year. We have actually stuck to this schedule for the last 5 years that we have lived in Virginia. Unfortunately with a little one on the way, it won't be as simple to just jump on a plane out to Utah. (Doug has a major pet peeve that involves screaming children on airplanes.)

We borrowed the Jeep and spent our first weekend down at my grandparents' house in Provo. I got to see several cousins on my mom's side of the family. My cousin Richard and his amazing wife, Mindy had a party at their new beautiful home. We had a white elephant gift exchange where Doug and I made out with some yummy chocolates and Martinelli's. We had a blast! It was a good thing that we drove the Jeep because we started getting a pretty significant accumulation of snow Sunday night and I-15 can be pretty treacherous.

On Christmas Eve, we made and decorated sugar cookies, exchanged gifts with Morgan and her husband Brad, ate our traditional meat, cheese, and crackers dinner by candlelight, and then drove to see some Christmas lights displays. Morgan crocheted a cute little lamb for Leah's nursery and included a gift card and a mustache pacifier. :)

That night, I had a really hard time sleeping. I was so excited to give Doug his presents!!!! See, my husband is notorious for being able to guess Christmas presents before he even opens them, and I was extra sneaky this year. He had NO CLUE what he was getting!! :)

We did go a little more overboard this year than we usually do, but this is the last Christmas that will just be about us with Leah on the way and my last Christmas for a long while with a full time job since I will be staying home. So, here's the official run down on the Christmas presents this year.

What Doug got Jenny:
-Thai Ruby and Diamond Necklace
-Hand-carved Teak Hope Chest from Thailand

What Jenny got Doug:
-Cherry Display Rack for his Challenge Coins
-Monopod/Walking Stick for his Camera when he travels
-Microsoft Surface Tablet 64GB with Black Keyboard

Doug is much more of a thoughtful person than I, but I think I was able to make him feel special for Christmas! It was a great Christmas, but I can't wait for next year when we will get to celebrate with a little one!

Happy Holidays!

Doug and I rotate the major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas between his family and my family.  This year Doug and I flew out to Utah to spend Thanksgiving at his parents' place and then stayed local to have Christmas at my family's new house.   It was weird not being at the old house, but as you can see it's unavailable while under a bit of construction.

My dad (who is 60) has been doing ALL of the work on his OWN.  I think he should just pay someone already!

While we were out in Utah, I got to see my grandparents and do a cousin's dinner.  I was looking through some cupboards at my grandma's house when I stumbled upon a cabinet full of photo albums.  Unfortunately, my time there was limited so I didn't get to stay and listen to as many stories as I would have liked, but I did snap a few pictures of pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites...

This is a picture of my grandpa (third from the left) playing football in junior high.

This picture is of my grandparents (couple on left) at some swank restaurant called the Moulin Rouge in Hollywood, California.

I LOVED all the stories that my grandma told me and I hope to be able to take an extended trip out this summer to be able to scan in these images and write down the many family stories that go with them.  While I was out in Utah, I got to see my adorable niece, Eva... and my sister Kierstan too.  Eva is such a good baby!

Eva, Me, and Kier (LOVE Eva's shirt by the way!)

 After visiting with my grandparents, we were able to spend the rest of the time up north with Doug's family.  We had a blast playing laser tag, making gingerbread houses, eating a yummy Thanksgiving dinner, getting some family pictures taken, and basically just doing fun family time things.

Our gingerbread house was AWESOME this year!

We took some pictures in front of the tree at Doug's parents' house while we were in Utah for Thanksgiving.

So onto Christmas...

It was weird being in the new house, but it was still a fun Christmas.  My dad changed things up and it was basically chaos.  Instead of having an order with one person opening at a time, he just started tossing gifts in every direction.  Heather and her family were able to come up and join us as well.  It was pretty crazy having Christmas in the morning and then needing to get everyone ready for church, but we had to make it on time considering that church was only an hour block instead of the usual three hour block.

Here's the list of what Doug and I got for each other.

 

What Doug gave Jenny:

Hoover Windtunnel vacuum cleaner

External flash for my Nikon

Remote for my Nikon

What Jenny gave Doug:

<--- Leather recliner for reading

Folding table to work on computers

Rudolph Ornament Set --->

Here are a few pictures that I've taken so far with my external flash.  We set up a sort of "studio" at the bottom of the stairs.  You can see the remote in the the hands of some of the kids.  They thought it was pretty cool to be able to take their own pictures.  At this point, I'm just messing with the settings so I can try to get the hang of it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Christmas that was Merry

Both Doug and I had an excellent Christmas. I feel very blessed that we have my family so close and that we were able to share Christmas with them this year. We received many wonderful presents, but the one thing that I am most excited about is the possibility of having internet access to our house! You're probably thinking, "What? Two computer nerds like Doug and Jenny don't have internet!" Yes, it is true. Our only internet access is at our jobs and at my parents' house. We are the two most frugal computer nerds you've ever known! Living in a small town, there is not much competition for internet access resulting in ridiculous rates for the area. Not having internet access has saved us about $500 in the almost year that we've lived in our house. Looking at how much we didn't spend is making me want to try to hold off a little longer...

What Doug gave Jenny:
Kitchen Aid Knife Set
Digital Photo Frame
Black & Decker Hand Vac
Custom-made Wedding Album

What Jenny gave Doug:
Antec Computer Case
1.5TB Seagate Hard Drive
Tool Carrier
Soldering Iron

Melding of Christmas Traditions

Doug and I are in the process of melding together our families' different Christmas traditions. Doug's family being the big contributor in this effort. My family always enjoys the holidays and we have a blast, but we don't necessarily have too many consistent traditions. We do fun things, but we basically "wing it" every year. Some of my family's traditions are: Mexican food for dinner on Christmas day and setting up the tree the last possible day (usually the Monday before Christmas). Some of Doug's family traditions are: decorating sugar cookies, creating and decorating gingerbread houses/mangers with graham crackers, Meat, cheese, and crackers by candlelight on Christmas Eve for dinner. We try to combine the two as much as humanly possible. Just recently, my family tried one of Doug's family's traditions by decorating graham cracker mangers/houses. I made a fun collage in Picasa 3 to show the results! :)

Christmastime Loot

Being a teacher definitely has its ups and its downs. Yesterday reminded me of one of those "ups." The last day before Christmas break, or as we call it in the public education system "Winter Break," I was inundated with gift bags from students coming in the door. Many of the students in the community that I teach come from affluent families. I was gifted all of the regulars: candles, body washes, chocolates, another one of those Willow Tree Angel of Learning statuettes (I'm building a village of them!), and GIFT CARDS! Doug and I never have to pay to go out to eat, gift cards from students usually last the whole year with how often we actually eat out. This year, I actually got some pretty thoughtful gifts. One of my students got me a cute stocking for my cats. Another one got me a nice plaque thing to help decorate my house. Working in the DC Area, I actually have quite a few students that their dads' work for the Secret Service. We now have a nice metal ornament in our tree that says, "Seasons Greetings from the Secret Service." It probably has a mini camera and a microphone inside...


If you're trying to figure out what to get for a special teacher in your life or your child's life, here is a little advice... They already have plenty of socks, soaps, candles, and mugs. It's not that I'm ungrateful for the things that I received because I loved and appreciated every little thing including the drawing that was titled, "Marry Chrismas." What teachers really need YEAR ROUND is support and the occasional thank you. (A gift card is always nice though!)

Christmas break has officially started. I think I will spend my time reading, planning for school, playing with my camera, and maybe the occasional blogging. Yay! Christmastime is here!