Christmas 2013

We started out our Christmas celebrations with a casual but fun Christmas party with some friends. We had the Coopers, the Shields, the Griffins, the Flints, and the Newbolds all come and eat some delicious dinner and chat. David and I are not the most proactive when it comes to hanging out with people, but we've decided to that we want to make that effort and we feel like we've done really well over the last couple of months. We kept it super casual so that there wasn't any stress. We just did dinner, no games, no movie, no extra preparation - and it was perfect. We loved catching up with friends that we haven't seen in a while, as well as spending time with friends that we see more often. It was kind of an eclectic group of people - but everyone had at least one connection besides us, and that made it really fun. Apparently we kept it so casual that we didn't take any pictures until the last two families were heading out the door - (sorry Shields, Coopers, and Griffins), but we did manage to snap this photo of the Flints and Newbolds. We are very blessed to have such good friends in our lives. 

Next in the lineup of Christmas Festivities was the Peaden Family Christmas Party! Michael and Melissa organized the party this year and they did a great job. We had our traditional White Elephant gift exchange - but with a twist. Instead of drawing a number, you had to answer a Christmas trivia question. It was super fun and David and I scored some sweet gifts. The rest of the night was filled with Christmas cookies (which I had come up earlier in the week to help Sue bake) and lots of games.

We were planning to head to Morgan on the 23rd, but I had been sick the day before and David woke up sick that morning. I was SO sad. Like, so so so sad. All I wanted was to be with my family - but this bug that we keep getting is awful. (Like, you are convinced you have food poisoning because you are so violently ill, awful.) We didn't want to share, so we let it pass and came up on Christmas Eve. We tried to jam-pack all of our Christmas Fun into one day, and we did a pretty good job of it - if I do say so myself. (Although, we did forgo our trilogy movie watching in the basement because we were all so tired and someone forgot to bring the Toy Story Movies.) We worked on a crazy hard puzzle, made some delicious homemade pizza, and played games. 

Our favorite game that we played was actually a Christmas present from Jenna and Kevin. We all had to leave around noon the following day so Jenna casually suggested that we might be able to open their present to us early - not one to pass up that kind of opportunity, David and I jumped on the suggestion and we opened the game BANG. They taught us and we really enjoyed it. Little did we know that it would quickly take its place as our favorite and most played game of the break. We love it!

 

I searched for pictures of BANG, because of the 20 times that we played it over the Christmas break - we didn't get a single picture. When I found this picture, I laughed because it describes really well the point of the game. Once, Sam walked by while we were playing and he made the comment that it seemed like a really violent game - which, I guess it is. The Sheriff tries to kill the outlaws, the outlaws try to kill the Sheriff, the renegade tries to kill everyone. Super fun. 

Speaking of opening presents early, my mom gave Lydia a little early Christmas present of two little dolls. She loved them! She calls them both "baby" and wants to carry them both around everywhere she goes. My mom got them because they look just like Lydia and Elsie, one has short hair and one has longer hair. They are darling and we love them. They also came with a little bottle/juice cup and bananas and spoon - all of which Lydia loves. If she could carry every item all at the same time, she would.  It was so fun to watch her play with them, and play with David, while we were cooking and eating our pizza and playing all of our games. 

We all slept out under the tree and had a great time opening presents Christmas morning. Lydia got a puppy that she loves. It barks and moves it's legs and it cracks her up every time. We all felt very loved and were so grateful to be able to have everyone home. (Including Matthew - sort of - because we were able to Skype with him later in the morning!) Funny story about the shirt that Jacob got. He and I have this special love of all things "font" related and he especially loves the font HelveticaI. He joked about wanting a shirt that said "Helvetica" that was printed in Arial Bold - so that he could see if anyone would correct him. So we gave him one for Christmas. So funny. 

 

After we talked to Matthew we headed to the Peaden home for the second half of the day. Again, we felt very loved and very blessed to be surrounded by the people that we love as we celebrated Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas and as I look back through these pictures I can't help but feel overwhelmed with how blessed we are. So many family members who mean so much to us. A wonderful daughter and an incredible husband. 

Merry Christmas!