a very merry first Christmas

Our first Christmas together was wonderful. This whole holiday season was fun for Jason and I to share traditions and make our own.

*This Christmas Eve, we went up to Lewiston to Grandma Hall's for our big family get together. Growing up, the grandchildren would reinact the nativity, but now that we are all older, the younger generation has replaced us. I must say that they do a wonderful job and it is always fun to be together with the whole family. Grandma even said that Santa stopped by and dropped off some extra gifts that he had earlier that day. I received a nice dish towel for the apartment, and Jason got some winter gloves. Thanks Santa! We had a wonderful evening with the family.
A little explanation is needed for this collage below. The top picture is of Jason and me with Casen. Kaitlyn and I are seen making a funny face in the next. Grandma Richards and Mom are next. Grandma Richards came up for Christmas and it was sure nice to have her there. Below is Grandma Hall in that tiny picture, Jason, Me, and then the cutest little shepard, Trevor.

* This is Christmas morning. We look lovely, but I still need to document it. I was the first to wake up at about 5:30 a.m. Yes. I was very excited to see what Santa brought. I feel asleep soon after as we traveled.

My mom and dad gave us some cute new Aggie shirts. This is the only picture we have of us together in them. Go Aggies!

* After traveling up to Lewiston to see the Halls, we made our way up to Burley to see the Pollards. We had nice Christmas night and weekend with them playing games and watching movies. I had good intentions to take more pictures while we were up in Burley, but I have some much fun hanging out with the family that I forget. These few will have to do until we are in Burley again.
Jason and I love to play games and every time we go to Burley, we have so much fun playing all sorts of games with the family. Jason has taken a liking to playing chess lately. He has grown tired of playing it with me though, because I'm not much competition. Apparently, his uncle, Tony, is the master and Jason has been looking forward to playing him for some time. Jason does what every one to know that he, in fact, did win this game.

These are some of the gifts we received from Jason's parents. We got an external hard drive for our computer, and Jason was oh-so happy about that. He has been talking about it for days now. He also got some pajama pants. I got some cute cloths and a huge jug of Paul Mitchell hairspray. I love it! It smells so good and works wonders. Thanks for the gifts!

It was very good Christmas and now we are already talking about what we are going to do for next Christmas. Only a year away.

one crazy cute little boy

Jason's nephew, Kayson, is such a cutie! Jason sure loves that little boy and talks about him all the time. Last time we drove out to Richmond to visit, Kayson was talking in his own little language and apparently telling us about his new curtins in his room, the beautiful Christmas tree, and just about everything under the sun. He was quite the talker, and I'm sure I will one day understand what he is saying. Jason was having a great time playing with Kayson and got some cute pictures of him.

He caught some especially silly expressions of Kayson, and they make me laugh each time I see these pictures. He is one fun little boy.

This is the expression Jason got when he told him to smile.

We sure love that kid and can't wait to see him again.

a Christmas tradition

Each year my family would decorate ginger bread houses at Christmas time. Mom would spend the entire day baking ginger bread, and at night, everyone would gather round the table to make the perfect ginger bread house. This particular tradition is my favorite and something that I look forward to every year. Jason, however, apparently has never decorate a real ginger bread house before, so this was something new for him.

My brother, Garrick, and his family were present for the decorating family home evening. Courtney even came too. Jason and I decorated our own house. It ended up turning out very cute (thanks to all those who helped us). And, I must say, Jason did a wonderful job for a first timer.

We had some wonderful helpers. Rachel, Kyle, Kaitlyn, Hannah, and Trevor all helped Jason and me decorate our house. We even used some of their ideas from their own houses (The heart on the back of our house is a copied idea from Hannah's house).

TA-DA! Here is the finished product. We loved making the ginger bread houses with the family. Thanks mom for baking all day long so that we could decorate these houses!

After we made an entire mess of the house, my mom helped me make a wreath for my apartment. It's a little difficult to decorate for Christmas when there are no Christmas decorations. My mother has been wonderful to help me learn how to make my own decorations. While Jason and Dad cleaned up the mess of the ginger bread houses, my mom and I made a wreath. I think it turned out super cute. Thanks to Jason, it is now afixed to our back door (since that is the only door we use).

Thanks again, Mom.

Christmas Tree

Our first Christmas together has been quite an adventure, and we have had a good time sharing traditions and ideas for our Christmases together. This year, we decided on going to cut down a real tree for our home, even though neither of us have had a real tree before. So, Jason's sister and brother-in-law, Jessica and Bryan, were kind enough to let us come along with them to pick a Christmas tree. After wondering the mountain side for a while, both of us decided on a tree. We appreciate Jess and Bryan for letting us come along with them and for help us find a good tree.
( don't mind my 1980's style clothing. My family is not big into winter sports, so the winter I have are the out of day moon boots and crazy colored cloths. Cute.)

We didn't realize it before, but the fake trees are nothing like the real trees. They are not as full as the bushy fake tree I have always had. Let me tell you, it was difficult for me to decorate. I was quite a bit frustrated and grumpy. After a few hours of unsuccessfully lighting the tree, I threw the wad of Christmas lights hard on the floor and yelled at the tree, and Jason was nominated to finish wrapping the lights around each branch of the tree. He did a wonderful job, and after I decorating, un-decorating, redecorating, un-decorating, redecorating, our tree was finished. It turned out to be cute, and love the way it looks in our tiny apartment. It's perfect for us.(needless to say, this picture was take the next day when we were both a lot happier about the whole decorating ordeal)

So here is the story...

Okay, so I realize that we are a bit behind on our blogging (and some of you have even reminded me multiple times how far behind we are). For that Jason and I are sorry that we have not kept you all posted on the happenings in our lives. However, we do have a bit of a problem. Yes, we finally got our computer, and it is oh-so nice to have in our home. The problem is that we do not have internet. We have tried Digis, Qwest, Comcast and even tried to go in on a bill with our neighbors for wireless internet, but all of our efforts have failed, and we are still without internet. Apparently there is something wrong with our computer, which is upsetting to both Jason and me (mostly Jason...he feels a little cut off from the world). Any way, we apologize, and for now, we will try to blog from other various computers. Just so you know.