In December Darrik, Brock and I went down to Provo to visit my cute little sister Kacie. We had planned to find an authentic looking Santa Claus that I had heard of down at the Provo Mall to take Brock to, and also visit Aunt Jo while we were down there. We got to the mall and found out it was ridiculously expensive just to see him and we couldn't take our own pictures, so we didn't while we were down there.
We met our friend Rusty at the mall and did a little shopping and then went to Kacie's store to visit her until she got off work. We all met up later for dinner at Red Robin, and then went bowling. Brock had a lot of fun bowling, for a minute. He ended up being completely fascinated with the car video game, go figure, for most of the night.
I, on the other hand, was fascinated with the photo booth.
A Christmas tradition that I remember as a kid was going to Temple Square to see the lights. All bundled up and still freezing, we would go almost every year. I loved it. One of my best friends from High school, Stefani, and her family (Roy, Jack and Kenzi) came into town from Arizona. We, along with my sisters all met up to see the lights at Temple Square mid December. Brock kept saying, "the lights are amazing!" And gasping at everything. He was SO excited, it was so cute. My camera died after I took about 5 pictures of just lights, trying to get the right lighting for a group picture... so I didn't get very many pictures. I tried with my phone, but they didn't turn out that great.
All bundled up
Kenzi in the stroller keeping warm
Family shot with my phone
Luckily Stefani's dad was there taking pictures with his camera. We were able to get a really good group shot. Thanks so much you guys. Paige was crazy this night, maybe because she's pregnant... I don't know. She kept trying to get into people's pictures. It was hilarious. We had a fun night, even though it was FREEZING!
I mentioned previously that we wanted to take Brock to go see Santa Claus but it was too expensive. This was the first year I had because I kept forgetting until it was too late in the season and the malls were packed. I got an invite on facebook to go see Santa in Layton for free. You just had to bring a food or toy donation. Sweet! So we went and checked it out. Brock, as you can see from the first few pictures, was SO not a fan. He was fine at first, when he was looking from a far, but when he got up close he freaked out. So I did what any good mother would do, I put him on Santa's lap. We had to get a picture right? We tried to tell him that Santa was nice, and that he brings presents, and had candy, and asked him to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas... Nothing helped. Poor kid, he was terrified.
Classic.
I love this picture of him and Santa.
The bad part was when he got down. He ran immediately over to the toy donation bin and started pulling toys out. I think he thought if he sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas, he'd get it right then. Needless to say, we had to carry him out of there kicking and screaming. But hey, at least we got the picture, right? Ha ha.
I don't have any pictures, but Darrik and I started an indoor soccer league with my sisters Makell and Kacie, brother-in-law Phil, brother-in-law Garrett (when he can), our friend Brad, friends Tim and Channdra and some friends of friends. We had our first game on December 23 and did pretty well for only having two girls there that night. We lost 7 or 8 to 4, but we had fun. We won our next game, at 11:10 PM, 12 to 2. Darrik pulled his quad during warm ups, and I kind of pulled my quad then too, but then really tore it once the game started, and then pulled my left one as well... WHAT? How old are we? Very out of shape apparently. We had a bye the next week, and have been icing and stretching our legs. The game after our bye was an ok game. We lost 8 to 5. I played, but wasn't back 100%. Still in pain and so was Darrik. We have games every Wednesday night and are loving it.
We had a couple of Christmas parties this year. Not as many as last year, but still fun. I just forgot to take pictures at most of them. First we had the "First Annual Ugly Sweater" party with our good friends Doug and Becky. That was tons of fun. We even had a little fire in our fondue pot. We had cheese fondue food and chocolate treats for fondue. We played lots of fun games and played the white elephant game. Good times.
We had my work Chritmas party, big friend Christmas party, and an all girls high school friend party. We ate lots of good food at my work party and shot some fun guns. At our friend party we all brought a food item. I made homemade rolls and cherry bars. There was tons of yummy food, including moist turkey with a turkey sauce, ham and a Polynesian ham sauce, homemade stufffing, peppermint brownies, mashed potatoes pretty much everything you could think of. We played a $10 gift card exchange game. We tried to get jamba juice, itunes, and ended up with a movie gift card. Which we used the next day to go see Harry Potter 7 part I. A very good flick. We then played a game of 'Do you love your neighbor?' It was hilarious. Lots of collisions and laughs, and according to my response to the statement, "I love everyone NOT wearing a bra..." I was not wearing one that night. But I really was, I'm just retarded. I love our group of friends. We don't get together as often as we used to before we all, or most of us, had kids, but when we do it's always a lot of fun. I also got invited to an all girl Christmas party at my firend Hillary's. It was really good to see everyone.
So one of Brock's new favorite things is 'flying'. He asks us a lot, "mommy fly?" or "daddy fly, up?" He wants us to throw him up in the air as high as we can. He loves it. He gets about 2 inches away from the ceiling when Darrik throws him.
Well, just like every year since we've been married, we start Christmas Eve day with Darrik's side of the family. We always meet for breakfast and then go shopping as a family. This year we did the nativity story and then had a pinata with lots of candy. Then we exchanged our presents with the names we drew. Then on to the stores. Darrik and I got cute clothes from Aaron and Chelsea this year and Brock got a sweet Toy Story Toy car. We also were able to send back a game to our family in Prague. We weren't sure how to get them a present and I hadn't figured it out by the time Christmas came. I figured I would get them something when the were out here next. Our neice, and their nanny, came home for Christmas and so during the shopping we picked up a present for them and she took it back for us. Thanks Liz! We owe you one.
Our gigantic stockings chuck full of goodies.
Our tired little boy after all the Christmas Eve shopping excitement. He fell asleep in his chair.
Next it was on to my parents house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. We make homemade pizza. Darrik makes all the dough and then we all decorate. My mom makes yummy Olive Garden salad and there's always lots of fun things to drink..
We also ALWAYS open one present Christmas Eve. It's always pajamas. Brock was so excited for PRESENTS!!
Phil told Paige he didn't want pajamas this year so she found some old Christmas thermals of my moms and wrapped them up for him. It was so funny.
Christmas morning looked like this...
Brock's tree. He decorated it mostly all by him self.
Eating candy for breakfast, and lounging in his new sled.
We were very blessed this year. We didn't have a lot of money since Darrik was out of work for three months. We got a very generous gift card to Walmart from an anonymous person, our Christmas Elf, and lots of other wonderful acts of service, generosity and service in our behalf. We are so thankful for all those he helped out this Christmas.
After opening presents out our house, we went to Nanny and Poppy's house for breakfast. Nanny and Poppy got Brock Thomas the train and his little play town set. Brock loves it.
Santa brought Brock a sled for Christmas. He likes to sit in it and watch movies. Darrik took him out in the front yard to play on it and they had a blast!
Until it tipped over... poor kid. ha ha ha See that snow in his ear?
But that didn't stop him. He wanted to play outside all night.
Brock tripped and almost did a face plant into the snow.
Why not take advantage of this while I'm down... yum!!!
This year for New Years we did the same thing we did last year. Party like crazy animals at our good friends. Everyone brought food, and there was tons of amazing things, and Darrik and I got a babysitter for Brock, and we played games from 7 until 2 am. It was a riot. One of our friends brought their new Christmas present, a Kinect for XBOX and a bunch of people played that, it was hilarious. We mostly split up and played other games throughout the night, banana grams, ticket to ride, skip bo, that game where you get 3 cards then 4 cards then 5 cards and it's not over until the Kings go wild... ? You know the game. Oh ya, 5 Crowns. I could have played all night and would have. Thanks for hosting you guys. We sure had a blast!!
Well that was December. We had a very fun filled month. Now on to January and New Years Resolutions!
