Merry Christmas!

First off, I love Christmas. I long for it all year long. I will say that working at Nordstrom kind of sucks the fun out of the holidays due to excessive gift wrapping for other people. But the store decorations still keep you in the holiday spirit. We spent Christmas with my family this year. We went to the Chart House in Evergreen on Christmas Eve and had a HUGE meal of fish, filet mignon, and chocolate lava cake. Then went and saw Narnia- perfect choice for the night. We went to bed that night so excited to open presents. My mom started this new thing a couple of years ago where she gives us our christmas money and then she and my dad pick out one present each for us that are complete surprises. It lots of fun and you get to put more thought into your gifts. So, since we had NO idea what we were getting for Christmas we were all excited to open our presents the next morning. It was 6:3o and I realized Trevor wasn't sleeping so I went upstairs to find my mom already baking and Trevor putting together all of Liza's toys. Chris, Kristy, and Liza came over at 7 and the festivities began! We all got things we LOVED: bose headphones, sewing machines, watches, outdoor gear, clothes, etc. It was so much fun. Little Liza was way more fascinated with the boxes to her toy than the toys themselves. Needless to say she is getting boxes next year ha!

After that we went to Trevor's house to have Christmas with his family. We ate some more and opened more presents. It took a long time because every electronic someone got Trevor was fully explaining how to use it. It was pretty funny. Everyone got just what they wanted and was so thrilled!

After that we went to Grandma Nolen's house for Brunch with the extended Nolen family. More good food! It was fun to see everyone and play games together. It's a great tradition that we look forward to ever year.

After that...haha... we went back to my house for Christmas dinner. We shipped pizzas in from Lou Malnattis in Chicago to have. And let me just tell you they were AMAZING!! My mom made homemade foccacia bread and we had cranberry ice cubes and martinelli's. Moral of this story: I probably gained 5 pounds and ate til it hurt. We then watched a movie and all went home.

It was such a great Christmas and we are so blessed. We have amazing families that live so close and are so generous. We just love them and feel so lucky to have them!

Thanksgiving- a little late!

So...this is quite late but better late than never, right? Thanksgiving was a blast this year. Since we live so close to both families we see both of them on holidays. This year it was at Trevors house so we spent most of the day there. His mom was in charge of a turkey trot so we all participated in that. My participation consisted of cheering them on since I had the worst cold I think I have ever had. Having to work retail didnt help either. I spent an entire week in bed while everyone else was enjoying the festivities, but it was actually quite nice to have a week to relax! This year my job was the rolls and pies. So, I used the Lion House recipe that my sister in law uses. I have never made anything involving yeast without my mom so this was quite the challenge. I think I called my sister in law every 5 minutes with questions. Surprisingly they turned out AMAZING! I was so thrilled! I made pies with my mom and sister in law the day before so we had a blast doing that. I usually just play with Liza and help them when needed :). All in all, we had tons of fun and love our families so much! Oh, and we saw Unstoppable which was a great movie!