Christmas Post

This is coming pretty late, I've been in a very un-bloggy mood, but here you go.  We did our Christmas on the 23rd since we knew we would be out of town with our family on Christmas Eve and Christmas.  It was fun this year, Avery didn't know what was going on, but she was excited about her new stuff!  I was able to get Louis just about everything on his list and that made me happy (and him too).  I got a lot of good stuff too, some of my most exciting ones were my stand mixer (not a kitchen aid, but still exciting) and chocolate oranges of course, I got sooooo much candy!  Here are a few pictures from our Christmas.

Before the Present opening

The top two are from our Christmas Eve (22nd) her Christmas Eve
jammies were so fun, but sadly they don't unbutton!  I'll have to fix that
later.  She peed through them of course so she wore some different
 Christmas jammies the next morning.  The bottom two pictures is Louis
reading her a Christmas book before we started opening presents and of
Avery looking through her stocking.

Just opening up some more presents.  She loves her water bottle, I love her eyes!

Christmas Eve we headed down to Ogden, I dropped Louis and Avery off with his family and then I went to my friend Nicole's house and she cut my hair!  Don't worry, she's in cosmetology school.  It turned out so good and I'm loving it and it's so easy to do in the morning.  Here's a before and after picture:

My other friend Kristy came over as well to get her hair cut then we went to pick up Avery and went to The Greenery for lunch.  It was so good to see them, it's funny how you don't realize how much you miss something until it comes back to you :)

After being with my friends I went and got Louis and headed over to my parents.  We did our usual Christmas Eve festivities; a big dinner and then a program with singing and scriptures.  Here are pictures from the night:  

Top left:  Louis and Avery, Top right:  John and Avery
Bottom left:  Tafton and Mikaela being silly with Avery, Bottom right:  Mom and me

Every Christmas Eve night John and I get together and watch "The Santa Clause" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" after a two year break we were able to do that once again.  I knew John was really looking forward to it.  Since he got home from his mission he's mentioned it about 15 times with 3 of those being on the day he got home.  I didn't know it meant that much to him.  For Christmas I got him both of them on DVD since we only have the VHS versions.  I actually stayed awake for both of them which usually doesn't happen and we even finished before midnight, 11:47 to be exact.  

This isn't on Christmas Eve, but it's the only picture I have of us since he's gotten home.

Christmas day started with us opening presents with my family, Avery got some homemade blocks from her Gram and an outfit and pajamas. (she's used all three already) Louis got two shirts and I got socks a cookbook and a knitting kit.  Louis and I also got a new comforter for our bed.  Then we headed over to the Brandley's.  We put Avery down for her nap then opened stockings.  We left after that (leaving Avery napping) to go to our nieces blessing.  Then headed back to the Brandley's.  To summarized we opened presents until about 1:30 when Elder Phillip Brandley would be calling from California.  Actually he skyped.  So we took a long present opening break and started back up again around 5-5:30 and didn't finish until about 8:30.  Then we headed home!  It was a fun day and I didn't even get a headache :) I got one the first year we spent Christmas with the Brandley's in 2009.  Pictures:

top left picture:  Megan, Pug, and Alisha (my first picture with my new
camera, THANKS JOSH! top right:  Grandpa Grandpa and Avery playing
Bottom left Louis with T and Avery.  Bottom right:  Celestial with her new umbrella

I liked having Christmas on Sunday it helped to put a special emphasis on Christ which is how is should be.  I'm grateful for Christ and the sacrifices he made for me and you!
Below are some videos from Christmas weekend.  The first one is Jon "signing"  12 Days of Christmas, super funny.  The bottom one is Megan and her kids singing Away in A Manger.  I tried to get the other two I have to upload, but they wouldn't.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!