We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Getting ready for it was a lot of fun, and then getting to go home to Laramie was just what I needed. The girls are at such a fun age. They believe in the magic of Christmas, and everything that goes with it. As soon as we got home from Idaho we started getting ready for Christmas. We enjoyed looking at lights, decorating our gingerbread house, decorating, listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, wrapping presents, and making presents.
As I said before, we went to Laramie this year. We left late on the 22nd because of a storm that was coming. We got to Laramie at 3 in the morning. My dad was so funny...from the moment we left he was watching the road and calling us with updates. He stayed up the whole time waiting for us to arrive. The girls were great, they slept the whole time. One problem with that is that when we arrived they were ready to play with Grandma and Grandpa. We got the car unpacked, and were finally able to get everyone settled in.
The next day was pretty relaxed. We slept in, and then just hung out with my nephews, dad, and grandma. My mom and sister had to work, but we did go by my sisters work to visit her for a bit. When everyone got off work we had dinner and then celebrated my mom's birthday. The girls were also able to open a belated birthday present from my sister. They got one of those Tinkerbell dress-up trunks. The girls loved it, and it was used A LOT while we were there. Later Allison and I had to go to Walmart to try and finish up some last minute Christmas shopping, and while we were gone the guys decorated another tree with the kids downstairs, and played pool with them.
Christmas Eve was spent at home with all the family. We ate A TON of food, watched movies, and had a great time visiting. Later in the afternoon we started opening presents. It is a tradition in my family to open presents on Christmas Eve, but things have changed a little since we are all grown and gone, and now work schedules interfere. Leonard had to be at work at 4 on Christmas eve so they wanted to start early so that he could be there. I wasn't a huge fan of opening presents in the afternoon, and once Leonard went to work we stopped until after dinner. Another tradition in my family is on Christmas Eve we have nachos. I am not sure why we do this, but we have done it for as long as I can remember. So...we had some nachos, and other good food, and then opened the rest of our presents. The girls got a lot of great things, and we want to say "thank you" to anyone that sent them something. Among the favorites are their cameras, roller skates, princess table and from Santa they got a doll house. My favorite gift is the carpet that Tegan got me...she is so cute, she couldn't wait to give me this carpet that she got me! And, right after that my next favorite is the carpet cleaner that my parent's bought for us...I can't even tell you how excited I am to have one. When we finished opening our presents we got the girls ready for bed, and then I decided to check the internet to see where Santa was. As soon as Tegan saw that Santa was close she got so excited. We could barely get her calmed down enough to stay in bed. After writing Santa a letter, leaving out some treats for him, and some reindeer food for his reindeer she finally got all settled down.
Christmas morning didn't start too early...thank goodness. I heard Tegan get up, and I waited for her to come back. She came running back into the bedroom squealing that Santa had come. We got up, and we followed the girls upstairs to see what Santa had left. The big gift from Santa was a dollhouse with some furniture, which the girls LOVED. After going through the stockings, and playing with everything else we had breakfast. My nephews got rock band for Christmas, and they brought it over to my parent's house for all of us to play the rest of the time we were there..
We spent the next several days playing rock band, playing the Wii, playing with all the gifts we got, playing cards with Grandma, eating and watching movies, and just visiting. On Tuesday we ended home. It was hard to leave, but we needed to get home. I was really sad to be leaving. I got to my sisters to say goodbye, and when she hugged me I just started to bawl. I miss seeing her everyday, and hanging out with her. Hopefully I will get to make a trip home again soon.
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