Christmas Eve

We had such a fun Christmas this year! I'll be honest, this year it took me up until the night of Christmas Eve to actually get into the Christmas mood, but once I finally did, it was wonderful. You see, it was going to be my very first Utah Christmas. In the past, Ryan and I have always gone to be with family (California or Illinois) for Christmas. However, this year I was scheduled to work all day (6 AM - 6 PM) on Christmas day so I was totally bummed that I would virtually be missing everything. No Christmas breakfast, no Christmas morning opening presents, no sleeping in until you feel like getting up and opening presents, no Christmas paninis. I was sad. However, I was totally stoked that my parents and Scott were coming into town to have my very first Utah Christmas ever. We decided to have a fancy Christmas Eve dinner and do most of Christmas (the present opening) on Christmas Eve.

The dinner was awesome! My work gave out Turkey Roasts for Thanksgiving and since we headed to California for Thanksgiving, I was left with a huge bird in my freezer. So we decided to have Turkey, delicious fingerling potatoes (seriously, YUM!), jello, Gulliver's corn, salad, and the best rolls in the world! Two years ago, I made Lion House rolls for Thanksgiving and have been dying to make them again. So I did. I was totally nervous that I was gonna mess them up and they were going to be a total let down, but thank goodness I did not. They were pretty much the best rolls ever! (If I do say myself!! haha). Anyway, we had a delicious dinner with Mom, Dad, Dave, Lynne, Owen, Lila, Scott, Me, Ryan, Dave's parents and sister. It was super good and totally put me in the Christmas spirit. Nothing like eating a bunch of food to get you in the spirit!

(YUM!! I could eat those right now!!)

After dinner we opened our presents. It was mostly fun to watch Owen actually be interested in opening presents although he didn't last too long before he was in tears over his moving car andoff he went to bed. We were totally spoiled this year and loved all our fun gifts. After the gift opening I got the best gift ever! I called work to see if they were busy and to see what I could expect the next day and they told me that I was gonna be on call! That means no work on Christmas! I couldn't have been more excited! We ended the night by making homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and playing fun games! It was a fun Christmas Eve!

(All the presents under the itty bitty tree!)

(Ryan's favorite Christmas present was that the Cardinals won the World Series)

(Us and Lila on Christmas Eve)

(I swear this is like a tradition with my Dad and his girls but they say it was a one time thing. Since we did it this time, it makes it twice--and a tradition!)