Oh how I love Christmas morning!

Tasha looking so cute with one of the bows we put in her hair from our presents!

My parents always set up our stockings and gifts and have a photo shoot before we come up the stairs. My luggage was hidden in another room or else it would've been in the picture!

These are our stockings! A friend of my mom's made them and then when Neal was born, the designs for his were taken from some of our stockings!

My awesome new luggage and I! It's so cute...and I know that's not what I should care about, but it helps! The inside liner is a cute blue color with polka dots on it! I love it!

Mom and Dad admiring the family calendar full of pictures Emily made for each of us!

Emily with the gift I gave to each of my siblings. My awesome roommate Meghan Lake designed this with the Proclamation To The Family and our family photo. I gave it to my parents for their 30th wedding anniversary and then decided each of my siblings needed it as well!

Pretty awesome huh! Can't wait to play it with me I bet!

Neal is drooling over his new backpacking hammock!

My parents with their New York City travel book and popout map I gave them! Now they just need to buy their plane tickets and get flying!

Us kids with our awesome new hats dad bought for us! I was impressed, he picked them out all by himself!

Too much Christmas?

And finally, the traditional set up your gifts so mom can take a picture, picture! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Western Caribbean cruise...here I come!

Yes...make this my first trip for the year 2010! On January 31, 2010 - February 7, 2010, I will embark on a journey to Miami, FL and from there board the Carnival Valor for an amazing trip! It's a LDS singles/Book of Mormon cruise, because it stops off at Honduras and Belize to visit some Mayan ruins with an LDS perspective. I'm so excited!!! I'm going with a good friend, Jaclyn Mangum, who was in one of my wards here in SLC and she is also a RN in the OR at Primary's. There are also 2 other girls coming! The itinerary is...we leave from Miami, FL on January 31st, then a day at sea, Grand Cayman on Feb 2, Isla Roatan & Honduras on Feb 3, Belize on Feb 4, Cozumel, Mexico on Feb 5, another day at sea, and then fly back to SLC on Feb 7!

Beautiful, serenity!

The Cruise Ship, Carnival Valor!

The awesome waterslide, which I'm going to go down about a millioin times! I guess its open 24 hrs!

And the Mayan ruins in Belize. I've always wanted to see them!

Ballet West's 'The Nutcracker'

It was awesome! I was able to go to the performance tonight with my sister Emily! We both were in a Nutcracker performance when we were little. We took ballet from Clytie Adams, and I was a red soldier! I wish I had access to those pictures right now to include one! I had the coolest costume and painted face, oh the memories! Yet, the performance was fun for us both to see; neither of us had ever seen Ballet West's Nutcracker! My favorite dance was the Russian dancers! Their dance is amazing and of course the music is awesome!

I got this picture from google, but it was the same one in the program! This part is always fun to watch the mice fight the soldiers, especially the Mouse King and the Nutcracker! This part always seemed like a huge part of the show to me, only because when I was in it, we practiced with the mice and the nutcracker (since I was a soldier) and I never saw much of the other parts. So when it was over and they had killed the King, I turned to Emily and said "that's it"!

Emily and I with a Nutcracker at the Capitol Theatre in SLC! I always look forward to our sister time together to update each other on our latest stories and events! I love you Em!

A concert at home!

Rock on...Dad! So my dad started guitar lessons this past summer! It's been something he's been excited to always do, so he went out and bought a guitar, signed up for lessons, and plays pretty good for someone who never has time to practice! It's awesome though, he plays at concerts his teacher has for her students to play in; however, these students are all about 12 years old and then there's my dad! I love you Dad! You're awesome! I guess that's where I get my personality and attitude for who cares as long as I'm enjoying myself! :) Yet, I was driving down to PG to attend his concert this past Monday, but it was pushed up sooner than expected, so he came home and gave us a personal concert! He played us Christmas songs! It was great!

Christmas Fun!

So I've never read A Christmas Carol before by Charles Dickens, so I figured it was about time I did. This is the version I have that I'm reading. I bought it at Deseret Book. It has beautiful illustrations!

Mr. Santa Spud! Yup, my newest Christmas decoration, apart from Hal the Moose (shown below) from Build-a-Bear, whom I've renamed Berry! I figured I needed some fun Christmas decorations, and since I am who I am, these are what I got!

Berry, the Christmas Moose, formerly known as, Hal the Moose!

I made a Christmas countdown chain! Currently there is 15 loops, so 15 days and counting! You can also see the beautiful Poinsetta plant I bought to get festive for this Christmas season! I just love Christmas!

And this is my families Christmas countdown calendar! We've had this thing as long as I can remember. I remember waking up early each morning in December during junior high and high school in order to be able to be the first one to change the date! I'm so mean! But I usually did, and if someone else had already moved the mouse, I moved it back and then moved it a day ahead! :) Ha ha, I laugh at the thought now! I decorated my parents house a few days ago, one of my favorite things as shown in a previous post and loved every second of it. I've come to the conclusion that I have hung the garland on the stairway banister almost every year since we've been in that house and it's almost a tradition for me to do it! I also had to take a picture of this countdown calendar for memories sake!

Carnation Breakfast anyone?

Ok, so you ready for a great laugh! Alright, so my work Christmas party was tonight and it involved a gift exchange! You're probably wondering what's up with the carnation breakfast box, well for a single woman, I don't own any wrapping paper. Sad, I know! I don't know why I don't. So as I was leaving for the party, I frantically searched for a gift bag. My gift was nice...a bath and body works body cream and a body scrub cloth. I wrapped my gift in some plastic bags and then saw a box that was a perfect fit, Carnation Breakfast! I laughed at the thought of putting my gift up with the others and it being the only one that wasn't wrapped, and yet I still did it!

Everyone passed my gift right on by. I told a few of my friends I was sitting by what it was and we were laughing about it as co-worker after co-worker picked other gifts. Here's a picture halfway through the game with it just chilling there.

And yes, it's the second to last gift! Yet, sadly my camera battery died before I could take a picture of it being the last gift. It was so funny! I went up to the front and picked it up, displayed it like Vanna White would. I let everyone know it was a great gift, but everyone kept stealing the other gifts. Everyone was laughing and having a great time at my expense. Finally a nurse who had gotten hers stolen, came up to get mine and was excited to see what it was! She even gave me a hug! Overall, it was a great addition to the party and even my managers loved it! They told me it was a great idea to put the gift in a box like I did. It wasn't intentional, but it gave us all a great laugh and a fun Christmas party! So for your next Christmas party gift exchange, don't judge a gift by its wrapping or non-wrapping! :)

Festival of Trees 2009

It's not a tree, but it was the main attraction and was also auctioned off this year at the Festival of Trees held at the Southtowne Expo Center!

Christmas tree of pop and lights! Genius!

My favorite because of the sea turtles, I LOVE SEA TURTLES!

Oh, how cute is he!

A Book of Mormon tree, only in Utah huh! But awesome, nonetheless!

Yeah for Harry Potter! I love the sorting hat on top of the tree!

A Griswold Christmas, decked out with all the lights, decorations, and a wooden painting of Clark Griswold getting eletrocuted with a spot for your face!

An asian Christmas tree!

These were some volunteers who were making us all laugh at them posing as stills, acting interested in opening the christmas presents.

Oh Shrek and family! Gotta love it!

The Grinch! I took this picture especially for my brother Bryce because he loves the Grinch!

I Love Lucy!

This was so sweet, it's a gingerbread house designed after the movie "UP", complete with balloons coming out of the chimney!

My top 10 favorite things about Christmas!

#10. Reading Christmas books!
#9. Decorating the house and the Christmas tree!
#8. Purchasing gifts for an Angel tree!
#7. Going to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights!
#6. Picking out my christmas ornament from Hallmark! Nothing too special this year, but it's the first of the series, so I thought I'd like to start collecting them! First in the series is, Mickey as Bob Cratchit! #5. Watching classic Christmas movies! My favorites are Christmas Vacation, Elf, the Grinch, and A Muppets Christmas Carol!

"Little knot here, you can work on that." My family likes to spot houses around the valley that remind us of the Griswold house, and seriously, there have been some runner ups!

"Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"

"It came without ribbons, it came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. Christmas can't be bought from a store, maybe Christmas means a little bit more."

"Oh wait, I forgot my jellybeans!"

#4. Listening to Christmas music...I love to start listening early, it's true!
#3. Opening pajamas on Christmas Eve!
#2. Playing Mario Party with my siblings and sleeping in Bryce's room on Christmas eve! And then walking up the stairs in birth order to open presents. But now I'm the shortest kid, so I can't see over their heads like I used to! Fun traditions! And yes, my parents still record us coming up the stairs or down the hallway! Someday I'll appreciate them!

and...

#1. Spending time with my family!