The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

I've put it off long enough. It's time to blog about CHRISTMAS!!

This was the first year Toren and I had a REAL Christmas tree. Our first Christmas we enjoyed a fake 3-foot tree from Walgreens before we went to Washington and Seattle for two weeks. Last year we were living with Toren's parents. They left for Arizona on Christmas day, so they didn't put themselves through the hassle of decorating.

But this year, we had a beautiful 7-foot Noble Fir.

We decorated it mostly with inherited (hand painted by Toren's grandma) ornaments and a few scraggly ones from Toren's childhood (I strategically put these ornaments in the back). Having our apartment decorated really filled us with the Christmas spirit. It was wonderful.



The weekend before Christmas, we met up with my family in Seattle (Mom, Dad and John flew home from Hong Kong. Laura drove back from school. And David had already been living there). First they surprised us with all sorts of knock-off goodies...like my amazing Jimmy Choo purse, and then we just spent lots of time laughing and catching up. It was great. Toren went back home on Sunday night, but I spent a few more days (mostly shopping and eating) with my family.

Most of the ladies of the family enjoying a Chipotle lunch and our new purses from Hong Kong.

My mom drove me back down to Portland on the morning of Christmas Eve, where she accompanied me on an ultrasound appointment.

That night we spent with Toren's family (minus Blake, Maren, Braden, Brent and Mallory). We enjoyed a Christmas Eve feast and watched a Nativity movie.

And then Christmas morning came....

Our stocking loot.

Baxter was SO excited about his new bone he wouldn't even let me get close enough to take the stocking off.

Toren got a pre-Christmas gift this year: a Playstation 3. So all he wanted when Christmas actually rolled around were games.

And all I wanted was a Sonicare (and HP 6 of course!)

Toren's mom gave him this perfect 6-month BYU football jersey. Toren is already daydreaming about the first game he'll get to take his little son to.
(P.S. I don't think I even announced it yet, but we're having a BOY! We are ecstatic!!)

Baxter probably got the best gift of all. (It's a Pez dispense for pets. The dispenser freaks him out but he'll endure it just long enough to get the Pez!)

After opening presents and trying out all our new gear, we went to watch Avatar (of course in 3D) and spend more time with the family.

All in all, it truly was the most wonderful day of the year! And though I've only really mentioned the worldly aspects of Christmas, it also wonderful in spiritual aspects as well. It was a humbling time to reflect on our many blessings and give thanks.