Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas Eve and the first part of Christmas Day with the Petty's. We went to see Avatar in 3D on Christmas Eve, which was really cool! Then we ate Cafe Rio for dinner. Yum yum. Russ and I and his brothers, Stu and Robert stayed over at Mama and Papa Petty's house.

Spencer

Russ and I bright and early

Stuart and Robert

Oliver, Chris, Evelyn, Heidi, Doug, Spencer, and Katrina

Russ and I got the kids a play dough set

Heidi liked her new scarf

Showing off his new slippers (from me)

Russ and I were able to talk to Max in Brazil! I didn't know if we would be able to, but Adam called us on his cell and they had him on speaker phone, so we were all talking. It was great to hear from him.

Christmas afternoon we drove up to Logan. We opened presents with my family and had a wonderful Christmas dinner.

Hill and Ad

Mom and Sophie

Adam in his very large new sweater

We got Soph a little play phone and she knew just what to do with it!

Sophie and Pa

Molly and Ev

Grandma Kari made Evelyn a Cinderella dress and headband (Ev knew exactly what it was right when she opened the present, without even seeing the whole thing)

My mom got all the couples BBQs! A great gift!

Russell sporting his new cardigan and scarf from Ad and Hill

Tom got a dart gun, which the boys and Hill played with in the living room

We stayed through the weekend and Adam and Hill let us stay over in their home. It was so cozy and we had a good time. MERRY CHRISTMAS

Temple Square

Before Christmas Russ and I did Initiatories at the Salt Lake Temple then we met up with our friends, Tyson and Lauren to look at the lights. It was chilly, but so pretty!

Tyson and Lauren

After the lights we went to the Salt Lake Roasting Company and got some fantastic hot chocolate and sat and talked. It is great living so close to Temple Square.

Christmas with Tyler

We had an early Christmas with our neighbor/friend Tyler. He worked on Christmas and his family was back home in Alabama. We got him a stocking filled with treats, a football night light, a Zen Garden and a Houndstooth tie (Roll Tide!) There is a lot of Houndstooth in Alabama.

We lent Tyler our miniature tree for his apt. and he found some old decorations from the previous owners to make his home nice and festive.

Enjoying his new Zen Garden

Tyler surprised us with the Owl City cd and "A Christmas Story" Snuggie! Hilarious! We thought about getting him an Alabama Snuggie!

Gingerbread Houses

I love making gingerbread houses. It is something I have done since I was little at my Grandma Hale's house with the cousins. This year Russ and I had Molly and her family over to make them. We definitely had more candy than we needed and we had a good time!

My cute sis Molly was in charge of the melted sugar, which we stuck the graham crackers together with

Evelyn

Tom and Sophia

Russ' final product..notice the nice reindeer droppings behind the reindeer My house

Ugly Sweater Party!

In December 2009 Russ and I threw an Ugly Sweater Party. We rented out the party room at the Murray Ice Rink. We had ice skating, refreshments, couple pictures with the Christmas backdrop (AKA: $5 fleece blanket from WalMart) and then we had a white elephant exchange, which was great!

Me and my sisters-in-law Diane and Katrina

Nice sweaters eh??

The White Elephant exchange

Russ and I ended up with a lovely framed picture of this couple and Christmas erasers

We had so many friends come, which made it such fun! Thank you everyone that helped and hope you all had as much fun as we did.

Getting Ready for Christmas. Yeepee!

We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving with my family in Cache Valley. We enjoyed delicious Thanksgiving leftovers (my mom is a great cook), stayed up LATE playing Monopoly, I ate one of my fav's-Costa Vida with my momma, while we watched a fantastic TV movie called "Love Comes Softly." I absolutely love watching a good movie with my mom, in the upstairs living room with dinner in front of us.
On Saturday me, Russ, Molly, Tom, Evelyn, Adam, and my dad went up to Idaho to cut down Christmas trees! The guys did the actual cutting, but we were all there for the adventure. There was actually quite a bit of snow for us to walk in, which was fun. While my dad and Adam were busy finding and cutting their trees, the rest of us got in a miniature snowball fight. We had a fun time!

Russ and my dad with our tree!
Striking a posePlaying in the snowThe proud owners

A while ago I bought some great items from Michaels to make a wreath. (Michaels was one of my favorite stores this season) I thought it would be fun for me and my mom to make them together. When she was off work, we went to Michaels for things for her wreath. We found some great things! We made them on Sunday at Adam and Hillary's, while others were watching a movie. We had a good time! Here they are...

My new wreath is hanging on my door:)

Happy Thanksgiving

Russ and I spent Thanksgiving Day at his grandparent's house in Provo (Patsie and Papa). There was a lot of family there and we had a good time...and of course a lot of good food. I enjoy my Mother-in-law's family. Here are a few pics.

Patsie and Papa

My in-laws (Doug and Heidi) and Heidi's sister, Dixie

That evening Russ and I and his family went over to Bob and Dixie's to play the Wi. We ate treats (Bob raided the food storage and brought out a jar of mini candybars) and had a good time.