Christmas Eve & Christmas 2012

I worked the night into Christmas Eve, so I slept most of the day while Jason worked.  When I got up, I attempted to make some white chocolate caramel apples.  It was a disaster!  I didn't think it would be that hard, but boy was I wrong!  I finally got them to work a little bit, but they turned out ugly.  So much for cute apples given to all the families in little bags with ribbon!  They kept sticking to the wax paper and to each other! I even put them in the fridge to cool them faster, but nope. That didn't work too well either.  We ended up just splitting the apples onto 2 cookie sheets and taking them to our families that way.  It was horrible. I will never make them again, not to mention my fingers were sore from unwrapping all the caramels! I found out afterwards that they make unwrapped caramels just for melting. Bah!  Jason came home and found me struggling, so he helped me laugh about it.

Also, while I was working the night shift, I finished up a blanket a made for Ava. That was also another reason my fingers were sore opening the caramels...one too many ties on that blanket.

We went to hang out with my family first.  We hung out and loved on new baby Ava and following tradition, we ate Abplanalp Tacos for dinner.  It isn't Christmas Eve without those. 

Dad trying to wake up Ava to eat.

Tired Jason

Cute little Ava

Connor wanted to take some pictures.

I think he likes her :)

Hope and Ava

When we got done with my family, we went to the Gough's and hung out. We played some games and sang Christmas songs. Everyone left pretty early to get Christmas ready, so we hung out a bit longer and then headed home to get things ready too. We both didn't want to go to bed early so we stayed up and played Uno Attack and 5 Crowns.

Christmas morning was great!  We slept in until about 830 and Jason rolled over and said, "It's Christmas!!!!"  I love how excited he gets still.  It helps me stay excited.  We didn't do anything big this year.  We did buy a mattress that we haven't gotten yet, so that was mainly our Christmas.  We got socks, garments and new toothbrushes. Then I got a couple a skinny jeans, a sweater, some scrubs, a flash drive and a dutch oven cover.  Jason got some dress clothes for student teaching, a basketball, a knife and home design software. As a family we got a cheap carpet cleaner and a couple of movies.  As it got closer to Christmas and we didn't have any gifts under the tree, we were a little sad so we did end up buying a few things.  I think it turned out perfectly.

Santa gift in stocking!

My face cracks me up....peeling duck tape??

Dutch Oven cover and a letter from Santa

 A knife!

Yay for a basketball!

Home Design Software=Happy Face :)

 

After we opened gifts and Jason had a bowl of his favorite cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, we went to Dustin and Charity's house for breakfast with them, mom and dad, and Chad.  We had a good time and the food was delicious. We watched some extra clips from Despicable Me and I helped paint Mya and Emma's toe nails.  

After hanging out a while, we headed home, cooked a little bit and got ready to go see my family.  We just relaxed and had an extremely yummy dinner of ham, turkey, cheesy potatoes, grandma's orange salad and tons of desserts.  We opened gifts and the kids played some songs on the piano and Connor played a little on his guitar.  Mom and dad gave us a dutch oven and a case.  We got Hope a gift card, Caleb an I-tunes card, Connor and Lexie Painting stuff, Gavin a couple tractors, Ava an outfit and the blanket, and we found "Young Frankenstein" for Mom and Dad. I think I was most excited about seeing the reactions from the gifts we gave, not getting gifts. I guess that is the true meaning of Christmas anyway.

She is tiny.

Happy Grandma

Boys and the Zelda DS.....Connor's favorite!

Lex and Ava

Connor and Jason

Now they can practice at home.

Janny has knives!!!

Yay!

Once we were done with gifts, we went to the Gough's and finished out the night.  We played cards and enjoyed the holiday.  We didn't want to leave, but we both had to work the next day.