Christmas 2013

*Pictures to come*

Christmas this year was such a wonderful one!  It was our first Christmas as a married couple!  We had so much fun decorating our house, I was itching to get that Christmas tree up as soon as possible, but Cody didn't want it up too soon, so I talked him into allowing it to be put up the week of Thanksgiving. 

Christmas Eve Cody and I went to the gym together in the morning.  It's always a good way to start the day with a little run!  Then that evening we went to my Grandpa Stam's house.  It's been a tradition for so long, but this is only the second year without my Grandma.  She passed away right before Christmas last year.  My poor Grandpa still struggles with it daily and talks about her every time he talks to us.  It makes you wonder if she knew how much her REALLY loved her, his love is so deep for her, it's touching.  We spent the night there eating some good food, watching the great-grandchildren open gifts and my Aunt Renae read some Christmas stories.  Then the adults all play the white elephant gift game where you can steal others gifts.  We pick a letter each year and the gift has to start with that letter.  Last year we decided to spell out my grandma's name over the years which is Muriel.  So this year the letter was U.  The gifts Cody and I took to the game were a University of Utah drawstring bag and and Uncle Si blanket (from Duck Dynasty, our favorite show!).  The gifts we ended up leaving with were a small umbrella and the game Uno.  Let's just say, the game didn't work out in our favor this year.

Next, I unfortunately had to work Christmas from 1am to 7am, so when I got home Christmas morning I had to sleep a little bit.  I woke up around 11am to a happy and excited husband!  We went down and spent the morning opening some gifts and playing with our new items.  Somehow "Santa" even brought a few unexpected gifts for each of us, even though we both told Santa not to let that happen haha!  Our dogs also had a TON of fun ripping wrapping paper off of some yummy smelling dog treats we got them.

My big present this year was I got a new camera (Nikon D3500) and I love it!  Then Cody and I spent $10 at the dollar store on each other and we had so much fun!  He got me a few little games, a lint brush for the dog hair, a cute vinyl quote for the wall, and many more fun little items!  Then after we opened all our gifts, Cody found some more gifts "Santa" left, which was a book light I've been needing for a while, and an amazing electric blanket, which has already been used countless times since Christmas! 

Cody's big present this year was a Bushnell range finder for golf.  His dollar store gifts included some cologne, men's shampoo, leather cleaner for his car, air freshners, hot chocolate and a mug, an eye mask to sleep in, new pens, a tie, and a few other great things.  In Cody's stocking was hiding a little Gamestop giftcard for a new video game.  We also were lucky enough to received some shelving for our garage, a dutch cheese slicer, cute calendars, and tons more candy from our families...

That evening we went to Cody's Grandma and Grandpa Jowers house where we ate some dinner and opened some gifts from them.  We had fun playing with cousins and chasing our neices around the house.  Afterwards we went to Cody's sister Holly's new house to check it out for the first time, and it is beautiful!

We had such a great holiday season, I'm so grateful I have such an amazing family and in-law family.  I couldn't ask for more.  It was a perfect first Christmas being married to Cody and I look forward to many more years to come!