Merry and Bright

Were your holidays merry and bright? Cause my holidays were absolutely fantastic this year!

 We were able to kick off our festivities the Friday before Christmas to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday! It was made even more fantastic because Calli and her wonderful clan flew in from Kansas that same day. 

For many years, my sisters and I have had fantastic ideas of how to celebrate daddy's 50th bday. Inspired by a wonderful episode of the Cosby Show (in which Heathcliff Huxtable turned 50) we compiled a list of "Things That Are Older Than Dad"...

1. Dirt

2. Fire

3. the lightbulb

4. the wheel

5. Stonehenge

6. Redwood trees

7. Michael Jackson (he turned 50 in August...crazy, huh!?)

Daddy loved our little presentation, I'm sure! The whole family then headed to the Temple to check out the pretty lights.

Our whole family (minus TJ who left just prior to this to leave for Utah...and we all know how that turned out!)

Yeah for Calli being home! Did you know her eggo is preggo? So is Lindsey's...but Lindsey went to Utah for Christmas, so whatever!

Have you ever seen a boy cuter than this!? I just cannot get enough of him! Kansas is just too stinking far away!

Christmas Eve we had our annual Fiesta! We always have way to much good food and we all just keep eating until we regret it! 

After we stuffed ourselves to the brim, we played Taboo. Gma and Gpa were hilarious to play with...Gpa only guessed spaghetti, no matter what the clues were...and Gma looked like this every time it was her turn to give the clues!

No fiesta is complete without a pinata! We all took turns whacking the pinata...and either it was very well built, or we are all total wussies. It was really hard to bust that thing open!

Of course we had to have our annual "Who can make the best gingerbread house before someone inevitably smashes it in out of jealousy and rage" contest...I won, hence Calli's menacing knife trying to attack!

Christmas morning finally came, and I was so excited! Last Christmas, TJ and I were beyond poor and had zero present under our tree. This year, I have a real job so we were able to buy each other a couple of gifts!

TJ was not a fan of the whole "lets wake up early and open our Christmas presents" idea...but I really don't think 7:00 am is that early (and, confession, I may have woken up many times in the night hoping it was time for us to wake up and open presents!)

Oh, how I waited for this box to come! I found THE CUTEST red wool coat that I wanted oh so bad and my loving husband purchased it for me. Unfortunately, he ordered a small (which I love him for!) but it just will not work for me...so we went online to order another one in the right size and they don't have them in stock anymore! Woe is me!

TJ got a new MP3 player...this one has a little clip on it so it will be easier to take to the gym than this iPod classic (so now we officially have zero excuses to not go to the gym!)