Christmas Day Bliss

He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Not even the Grinch could stop Christmas from coming this year!!


We had a wonderful Christmas this year!! It was really fun to spend it together, just the two of us!! We loved it!!


Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day of the year!! It feels so much more Christmas-y than Christmas day and the excitement is at it's very peak!! 


On Christmas Eve we pulled the mattress into the front room and watched a Christmas movie! We watched Home Alone (my fave!) and Jon even took the time to make sure the VCR worked because I only have it on VHS!! Haha.  It seemed so OLD to watch it on VHS! Not good quality! Pretty funny!  When it was over we played a card game on the mattress and drank sparkling cider.  Then we read 'Twas the night before Christmas' before we went to bed.  We slept in the front room in front of the tree.  It was wonderful!  

On Christmas morning we got up and decided it would be a fun tradition to open up stockings before breakfast.  So we opened our stockings.  Jon got a health bar and I got a bag of M&Ms and Jon had snuck in a pair of jewelry into my stocking too! So sweet! Then he wanted to open a specific present because he said we could use it to make breakfast!  So we opened it up and we each got a pair of Michigan slippers!! Yay!! So we got up to make breakfast. 

We were going to make pancakes and put them on the plate to look like snowmen but come to find out that of all the different kinds of flour we have (at least 5 or 6) we were out of all purpose flour!! We tried to make it with a different kind but it didn't work out at all so we ended up making French toast.  Oh well, maybe snowmen next year! :)


After breakfast we read the Christmas story out of the scriptures and then went to take a shower and get dressed and all that stuff.  After that we were finally ready to open presents.  But first we gave our kitties their stockings.  They got new collars (their old ones were really worn out!) Asrielle got a yellow one and Zephyr got a blue one! Michigan colors!! (And yes, I have to admit that I purposely put a blue collar on an orange cat and a yellow collar on a gray cat just because I like those color combinations. :) )  They also got some new mice toys, which they love!! And some treats! They are a little spoiled, yes.  

Then we set to open our presents!! My parents gave us filled stockings!! Such a great idea!!! They filled them up much better than we did our own!! It was awesome!! We got chocolate, coal (the chocolate kind of course), hot peanuts (for Jon), hot sunflower seeds (for me), chocolate oranges (every year! :) ), and 2 gift cards so we can eat out!! They pretty much rock!! It was awesome!!  And the gold stockings got glitter EVERYWHERE!! Amber also send us a present that got to us late that was the movie 'The Uninvited', which is so special, it means a lot to the two of us because we saw it together and both really loved it! :)
p.s.  When I called my parents later they said that we need to send our stockings back and they are going to refill them every year!! How cool are they?! Very!


From Jon's family, I got pretty pearl jewelry and Jon got hot sauce from Angela, we got chocolates from Dad, and Mom painted us a picture, which she will send to us soon.  She was nice to send us a picture of what it looks like! She did great, it's beautiful!! From Sarah and Adam, I got a jacket (that Sarah made!! She did great!) and Jon got a kitchen thermometer and timer! So AWESOME!! We also got a letter from Ben! Yay!


Things we got each other- I got Jon a tool set, which he loves and is really anxious to use! And he got me Andes (YUM!), a new jewelry box, which I really needed and is so awesome!!, and some perfume, the kind that I used to wear when were dating! It was so sweet!!

I am also currently doing the 12 days of Christmas for Jon! I found out that it's actually traditionally supposed to be the 12 days after Christmas instead of the 12 days before and I liked that better so I'm doing it that way.  So far he has got a book, cookies, Reeses, and Ferrero Roche (or however you spell it).  


We got lots of cards from people too, which was totally awesome!! 


We spent the rest of the day doing puzzles, working (me), eating tortellini soup, and enjoying the time we got to spend together.  Christmas is the best!

Skyler and Shantell's Engagement Photo Session

So when my brother got engaged he asked me to take his engagement photos.  I am NOT a professional in any way, shape, or form.  But I have a nice camera and I like to take pictures.  So I got some tips from my friend Chelsey and spent tons of time online coming up with ideas and here are my favorites of my brother and his fiancee that day! (P.S.  It was them that decided not to smile, they just aren't smilers.. silly kids)

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A FANTASTIC CHRISTMAS TOMORROW!!

I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS

So, it's coming up on a month since I've posted but I've been pretty busy this Holiday season, as I'm sure all of you have been as well!

After our anniversary we headed to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with our families!! The first week there was super busy!! We ate 2 Thanksgiving dinners on Thanksgiving day, my brother proposed to his girlfriend (on Thanksgiving) and I took their engagement pictures (to be posted soon), we visited lots of friends, we went to my brother-in-law's farewell and he left for the MTC (he is doing awesome there!!), we went out on date, spent tons of time with our families, and we went Black Friday shopping!!

I know I could go into detail about pretty much everything but I don't want to take the time to do that, so I'll just say that is was super awesome!! It was great to see everybody! We had a blast!!  Then on Sunday Jonathan flew home and I didn't.  I spent the next 2 weeks working from my parents house, trying to spend as much time with my family as possible, visiting more friends, seeing Harry Potter again, and went to a wedding, which was the reason why I stayed for so long!! The wedding was amazing!! I love Josh and Taleya and I know they are going to be so happy together!! See there pictures HERE!! It was great to spend the entire day with them, and they day before!! It made the fact that I had to be away from my husband for 2 weeks worth it!

Then I got to fly home, alone (yuck!), and got to Michigan just in time to be apart of the first snow storm of the season!! Which was really bad and it took us forever to get home because the roads were so icey but it was so fun anyway!! Awesome storm!!

I am so happy to be home! Jon and I are closer than ever, being apart does that to a couple! :) And then on Monday we had our traditional yearly Italian dinner!! We invited 4 couples.  2 from church and 2 from school and they are all so awesome!! It felt good to really feel like we were making great friends out here!! And after 3 days straight of cooking, the dinner was AMAZING!! Everyone really enjoyed it!!

So now I am here with my husband, who is done with school for the break, and enjoying every Christmas-y moment we can get!! I can't wait for Christmas (even if I do still have to work that day :P)

The Best Three Years

Jon and I just celebrated our 3rd year anniversary!!!  I cannot even believe that it has been 3 years!!! We have done so many things and our lives have changed in so many ways! We are more in love than ever and we couldn't be happier!

On our anniversary we slept in a little and just enjoyed each other.  Then we got up and made sushi for lunch!!!! It was so yummy! We haven't made sushi in a long time and it was a blast.  We definitely made more than we could eat so we saved what we couldn't devour!  We made some new rolls too!! We made a Michigan roll that had yellow and blue on top! It was delish!!

After we ate we got packed and hit the road.  We drove to Cleveland, listening to a book on CD on the way.  We LOVE road trips and driving so even that part was a blast!  We got some tasty snacks a bit before we got to the hotel and we spent the rest of the night relaxing, being alone, eating the leftover sushi, soaking our feet in bath salts in the tub, going through pictures from this year, and having a blast together!!! It was so much fun!!   I got Jon a big pack of his favorite pasta, which is really hard to find, and a book called Soul Pancake, which was written by Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office!).  He loved it! He got me an awesome necklace, angel wing earrings, and a bracelet with a key on it!  He is SUCH an amazing listener!! He pays attention to things I tell him.  He knows I LOVE keys and wings and he even shopped at Icing, which I took him too before Fall Ball to get my jewelry.  He is AMAZING!!! 

On the way home we stopped at a store called Bronners! It is the LARGEST CHRISTMAS STORE IN THE WORLD!! Or so they claim, and it was ENORMOUS!! It is open all year and always sells Christmas trees.  They had everything you could ever want!! It was so awesome!!!

It was an fantastic anniversary!!!

The Beginning Of The End

Jon and I went and saw Harry Potter 7 at midnight last night!! Our showing started at 12:01 and we were in the IMAX theater!!! It ROCKED!!! And because the IMAX theater is assigned seating, we got there about 20 minutes before the movie started and didn't have to worry about getting crap seats!! YAY!  We were about in the middle of the screen and exactly half way up, it was perfect! My man rocks for getting us those seats!

For dinner before we left we ordered pizza and I asked them to put the olives in the shape of lightening bolt to celebrate the occasion.  I forgot to take a picture, but that's okay, it didn't look that great, haha!

Then Jon had to study so I spent my free time getting ready to go.  I put on dark (ish) makeup and painted my nails black (which is my most favorite color to paint them!) and then I drew the dark mark on my arm.  I did pretty good if I do say so myself.  Especially since I had to do it upside down!

Then we both got dressed all in black and wore long coats.  I wore my boots and tucked a chopstick inside one to be my wand. Haha!

It was so fun when we got to the theater.  It's so exciting to see people get all dressed up and what other time do so many strangers get along so well?! It was so exciting!

While we were waiting for the movie to start some random guy ran into the theater and yelled "TROLL!!! Troll in the dungeon!!!" And pretended to faint.  It was so funny.  He got lots of cheers!

Then someone came out with a microphone an asked everyone to turn off their phones then told us they would only start the movie when we got loud enough.  So cheering and clapping and stomping ensued and the movie started!

AND IT WAS SUCH A GREAT MOVIE!!! It was so funny and it looked so good, it followed the book so well and it was just fantastic!!! I'm so glad the next one is coming out in only 6 months instead of year!!

I am so glad I read the book again before going to see the movie because Jon had to ask me a bunch of questions after the movie!  I definitely want to go and see it again!!