This post is going to be pretty long, but we did so many fun activities during the holiday season that I wanted to try and document them all. When we first started, I didn’t think it would be this long of a post, but here I am!
Black Friday Shopping
Every year after all our Thanksgiving festivities we go Black Friday shopping. I know some people think it is crazy that we go out on Thanksgiving, but it has become a big family tradition. We had dinner with the Stewart family and then we all headed out to Target. Thomas and Kyle wanted to get an Xbox One and Fifa 16 so we had to make sure to get it before they were gone. We headed to Walmart and then Thomas and Kyle went back home to play Fifa and my mom and Stephani went to South Towne Mall.
Hatch’s Family Chocolate
Every year we go to Hatch’s Family Chocolate to get a chocolate turkey for my mom for Thanksgiving. The first year we started dating Kyle laughed that my mom decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving so he bought a chocolate turkey for her to put on the table as a decoration. Every year since we’ve bought her a chocolate turkey and of course some hot chocolate for us! YUMMY!
Festival of Trees
Another tradition for us is to go to the Festival of Trees. We play “I Spy” while we are there, it’s pretty funny. We also like to keep track of which team Utah or BYU has the most trees. Utah won this year, but only because of the mini trees!
Lou’s First Snow
We were so excited to show Lou the snow! We weren’t sure what he would think of it, but he loved it. He would sink in the snow because he was so small and it was hilarious to watch him try and jump across the yard. His feet would get so cold so we tried to get him some booties, but he was not going to let us put them on him, so we settled for a vest to at least keep some of the snow off his fur. He loves when we let him run around in it. Isn’t that snow beard the cutest? Santa Paws! haha
My Birthday
I turned 24 this year….that is crazy to me. My class was so sweet and threw me a mini birthday party. They brought chocolate chip cookies (since those are my favorite), balloons, and then my room mom planned to have everyone bring me a present along with a class present of a signed soccer ball and a Disney gift card! I got so many great items and felt so lucky. The room mom had sent out a letter to everyone with all my favorite things so that is what everyone got me. It was by far the best thing I’ve ever had happen for my birthday. It was sweet to see 24 5 year olds get excited about your birthday and giving you gifts. It was one of the best teacher moments to see how much your kids and parents love you.
Also speaking of my awesome parents, for our Christmas party a mom set up a photo booth and printed out pictures for all the students. It was adorable!
Lights on Temple Square & Gingerbread Houses
Lights on Temple Square are a must every year! I was so excited that this year we were able to go with some of our best friends! I love that we get together at least once a month with this group to do something all together. We always joke when we leave about how we will “see you next month.”
After visiting the lights we went back to Sydney’s house and made gingerbread houses. As you can see we all did a really great job! hahaha This is what happens when you use graham crackers! It was a blast though.
Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve Kyle and I went on our present-hunting adventure! Each year we take one day and give each other a time limit of one hour. We leave the house at the same time and we have to be back within one hour with all of our stocking stuffers for each other complete! It is like our own little scavenger hunt. It makes getting the stocking presents even more exciting. I love that we have these silly traditions each year.
Later that evening we went to the Lund family Christmas party. It is Kyle’s moms side of the family. We have dinner, talent show, gift exchange, and a Christmas message. I think one of my favorite parts was at the end of the Christmas message when the video was just ending one of the kids blurted out, “Time for presents!!!” I died laughing it was too funny and the timing was awesome. Gotta love all the little kids!
Christmas Day
We woke up Christmas morning and opened our presents together. We got Lou a U of U football dog jersey and it was probably the best thing I’ve seen on a dog ever! Kyle got me a new MacBook Air! It was sooo awesome and I love it! I loved seeing all the fun things in our stockings, too.
We then went to my parents’ house and hung out with them. My family got Lou a puppet monkey and he loved it. It was hilarious to watch him open it.
After opening presents there we went to my grandma and grandpa Stewart’s home. We had lunch, opened presents and hung out with that side of the family. We headed over to my aunt Sandra’s house for the Rodriguez side and hung out with everyone there. We had a second lunch and by the end I was so full. There was so much good food.
After that we went to Kyle’s family in Bountiful. It was fun to hang out with everyone. Kyle’s mom loves to cook so she made a huge meal for us all. They also gave me a keyboard, which has been fun to have in my apartment. I’ve missed having a piano at my house and even though I teach piano at my mom’s house everyday, it still is something I miss being able to play whenever I want. I knew we wouldn’t have a piano until we got a house, so it is fun to now have a keyboard. I will admit my new favorite thing to play though is the ‘choir’ sound and goof off making funny noises.
We didn’t get home until late that night, but we had a blast. It was a busy day, but I am so grateful that we live so close to all our family and could see them all!
Utah Basketball Game
I love going to the Utah Basketball games. Kyle and I have gone to almost all of them. We went to the games over Christmas break. It has been sweet because we’ve gotten there at the perfect times and so we get to sit super close at all the games. Don’t you love the sweet sign?
Nicklecade
Nicklecade is one of my favorite places to go….it is weird, but I love arcade games. Kyle and I love to go beat the high scores on the basketball game and this new clown game. We can successfully say we’ve beat the high score every time we’ve gone. What up!! We basically just play around and then use all of our tickets to load up on warheads and frooties.
Over Christmas break we went with some friends and had a competition to see who would get the most tickets. Kyle and I played the same games and then ended up just splitting the tickets and we still won. We decided to take a picture in the photo booth. It was hard to try and fit all of us, but we successfully did it. When we paid, out printed a set of pictures of the Asian family who took pictures right before us! If you look closely you can see the pictures of them being held up in the background of ours. It was a great end to Nicklecade.
New Years Eve
Unfortunately I realized I have no pictures from New Years Eve, but I still want to write about it. We had our couple friends over to our house for a party. We had Nate and Bree, Bronson and Aubrey, and Matt and Dela. I feel so lucky that we moved into this ward and were able to meet these couples. We finished watching the semi finals of the college playoffs, had snacks, played games, and drank sparkling cider at midnight in fake champagne glasses. It was really fun.
2016 here we come!!
