Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This year, like every other year, Shawn and I went to St. George for Christmas and New Year’s. We got to see all of our family members (except Shawn’s brother Kyle and his family and my sister Kaylyn and her family, but we saw them at Thanksgiving in Dallas). It was so great to get out of the crazy city life and head home to the small town feel of St. George. It always goes by way to fast and we hate to leave, but we did some really fun things while we were there!

We got into town late on Thursday December 15^th and Shawn’s parents picked us up in Vegas. We headed back to St. George and the next morning went over to say hi to my family. That weekend Shawn started gathering supplies to make my father in law’s shed once everyone got into town. I helped Mary Ann make a bunch of Christmas goodies to pass out to neighbors and friends. We made a DELICIOUS Churro Chex Mix that blew my socks off! I definitely found a new Christmas favorite! Here’s the recipe.

On Monday night Shawn and I went to see “The Forgotten Carols” with my family. I had seen it once before, but no one else had and it was so fun to watch them see it for the first time. It’s such a neat play! And the music is amazing! After the play we went to dinner at Players Bar & Grill and just spent time catching up.

On Wednesday I got to do one of my FAVORITE Christmas traditions! My mom, Aleah and I spent the whole afternoon baking Christmas cookies and treats. This has always been special to me because we use a lot of recipes that have been handed down in the family. Every year we add new memories to all of the wonderful ones that have already been created!

On Friday all of Shawn’s siblings started getting into town. First to arrive was his little sister Tiffany with her husband Nate and little boy Hudson. OH. MY. GOSH. That little kid is so cute! And he’s so easy going that anyone can hold and play with him. He’s such a hoot!

Saturday was Christmas Eve and we had so much fun! We played a bunch of Minute-to-Win-It games and everyone got way into it which made it a lot more entertaining! After a delicious candle-lit dinner, we had a penny auction and won some cool prizes. We finished off the night by watching The Nativity together.

Christmas morning we all woke up around 8:00 and started opening presents. We were so excited to watch each other open the gifts we had gotten them. Shawn and I had his sister Sherissa and her husband Nate this year. We decided to make them some awesome shirts! Nate got a cool skeleton cycling one along with some Legos and Riss got a cute Love sweater and some gold necklaces. We made Shawn’s parents a neat book on Shutterfly of their trip out to Boston this summer with everyone. They loved it! Shawn got a new Garmin smart watch, some Adidas sweats and sweatshirt, and some books. I got a personal micro derm, new games, nail polish, a cute hat, and some gift cards. I made everyone Brunch Pizza for breakfast…man it had been too long! Love that stuff.

Before church, Shawn and I headed over to my parents to say Merry Christmas and open some gifts. We also made my parents a scrapbook of their trip out here this summer. Anders and Cam got Shawn and I some AMAZING chocolate caramels from Costco to go along with the plane tickets to Dallas they had bought us for Thanksgiving ( I couldn't not show this hilarious picture of Andes, Cam, and Colbie!

Church was just sacrament meeting and it was sweet and short. The messages shared were perfect for Christmas Day! I love when Christmas is on Sunday…everything seemed so perfect! That night we played some games and built THE MOST EPIC gingerbread house ever! This thing was legit. We did a cardboard structure underneath to make sure it was solid. Then we covered the whole thing in graham crackers (this took the longest haha!) Once those were dried on we broke out the royal icing and started the best part…decorating! By this time the boys had pretty much all gone to bed because they were getting up bright and early to start on the shed.

Sure enough, bright and early Monday morning the shed building began! It was so freaking cold! I was definitely not expecting that since it is St. George after all. We had to stay busy and moving so we didn’t freeze to death. We cruised! At the end of day one we had all four walls up, the tresses up, and the roof on!

Tuesday was a bit warmer and things kept moving right along. We got the walls insulated, the siding up, and the windows in. Shawn and Andy were troopers and cranked out the shingles! Wednesday Shawn (in his older sisters little pink sweatshirt…all of his were dirty) and Andy finished the shingles, we got the trim up, and built the doors. Thursday we calked and painted. Friday we did another coat of paint. So that was the super simplified version of what went down. In between all that there were about a dozen trips to Home Depot, a couple hot chocolate breaks, a few minor injuries, some great laughs, and the almost-conversion of the shed to a craft room haha!

Friday night Shawn and I headed over to my parents’ house to spend New Year’s and the remainder of our trip there. We had so much fun teaching them how to play some of our new games and watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies! I got to help my mom pick out paint colors, countertops, flooring, and backsplash for their house remodel. I always forget how much I love that kind of stuff until I get the chance to do it and become completely immersed in it!

Our flight was Tuesday night January 3^rd, so my parents took us down to Vegas around noon and we spent the day there. The girls went shopping while the guys test drove cars. Shawn got to drive a brand new Corvette Stingray and *cough*maybe*cough* got going 110 mph! Needless to say, he loved it! I wish he would have taken a picture. After all the fun we went to PF Chang’s for dinner. I have never been disappointed with that place! We sat and talked for almost an hour after dinner just killing time. It was so much fun and saying good bye is never easy. Since we were taking the red eye flight back to Boston, I figured we’d get some sleep on the plane….boy was I wrong. We ended up being in the back row so our seats didn’t recline, there was a screaming baby, and the flight attendants sat right behind us yelling at each other the whole time. I got about 45 minutes of sleep. So when we got home at 7:00am the next morning I crawled into bed and tried to get some sleep before I had to go into work. One hour later it was time to get up and go to work and my body was screaming “No! Go back to bed!” And I really wish I could have! I got to work and told my boss about the adventures of my night and that I was functioning on about 2 hours of sleep so if she saw me dozing off at my desk to just give me a good nudge haha!

Overall it was an amazing trip! Neither of us wanted to come home, but like always all good things must come to an end. Here’s to a new year and a fresh start! Hello 2017! Can’t wait to see what you bring!!