Christmas 2016

Christmas 2016 was filled with good food and great company. I was thrilled for William to experience the magic of the season this year (even though he won't remember it). The week of Christmas we had a family night on the Christmas story. We put our little nativity together and taught William about the different people. When we told him about the baby Jesus he put his finger to his lips and said "shhhh". It was so sweet to see him start to understand.  I decided to write down 10 things i want to remember about this Christmas:

1. William's fascination with the Christmas tree and his obsession with destroying it whenever my back is turned.

2. Mike spoiling me Christmas morning with nude pumps and tiffany blue hunter boots. and the fact that I didn't get him anything. UGH. we promised to go light on Christmas this year and not spend money on each other. Well, Mike cheated and did it any way...and I should have. It was a dumb idea and ruined my chance of getting Mike something he might really like. I am learning my lesson. From now on i will ALWAYS. I repeat always get him something even if we are as poor as church mice.

3. skyping Elder MacKay. We woke up at the crack of dawn to drive to my parents house Christmas morning to talk to my brother Logan. We drove through an unplowed snowy day and were so glad we were able to see/talk to him. he was definitely missed this year.

4. Seeing William's face anytime he opened a gift-so excited! Especially his new slide and Grammy and Papa's house.

5. My mom's wrapping this year. Holy moly. She totally went above and beyond and it was gorgeous! She wrapped each present in the beautiful brown paper with string, fresh pine, and a chocolate scripture from Luke 2. It was such a sweet detail and something we will always remember.

6. Putting on our wards Christmas program for the 3rd year in a row. Whew...it was a task. but we made it! Christmas day was on Sunday this year so we all gathered for a one hour meeting where we performed the Christmas concert. It is a neat thing to be able to put together....even if it is time consuming and totally stressful. (hoping this is my last year for a while haha).

7. Our holiday hangover. Holy moly we were nonstop through all of December and we were all exhausted by the end. It is so fun to celebrate and be together, but always nice to get back to real life when it's over.

8. Wearing red lipstick for the first time. This may sound like a dumb thing...but it is WAY outside my comfort zone. I wore red lipstick on Christmas day to go with my red dress and felt oh so fancy.

9. All the snow we got. It was a pretty mild fall as far as weather is concerned...but oh boy did we get a white Christmas! So much snow.

10. Waking up as a family of 3 to go see our presents under the tree. It was just so fun to be in our pjs, huddled around our little Christmas tree in our little apartment, opening gifts. It is something I always want to remember.

this kid loves his auntie💙

usually i like to touch up my photos a little. make them a little cleaner. a little brighter. BUT NOT TODAY. this is just raw life today. and i think it's perfect