Christmas

Christmas in California is my favorite type of Christmas! (The only way to celebrate in my mind!) Steve and I flew out to San Jose December 19th as soon as he got home from school. We had a little delay but it gave me time to finish my mom's Christmas present which was great!

Once we got there, it was later in the evening so we chatted for a bit with my parents then went to bed. I had a dentist appointment in the morning, then we did some grocery shopping with my mom and picked up my dad's Christmas present! We made homemade egg rolls that night with Thomas Dyreng and just hung out.

Friday my parents worked and I had a residency open house so we just chilled around the house. Later that night Jenny and Emily came over to learn how to make cake balls and catch up. It was fun!

Saturday was a busy day. We played volleyball in the morning.

Our family has a tradition started by my Grandma Holland to adopt a family at Christmas time and provide Christmas for them. Sometimes it is anonymous but most of the time we know the family. This year we adopted a family my mom knew with several children, and on Saturday we delivered Christmas. I felt like an elf putting the gifts around the tree and the mom of the kids was just crying. It was a good feeling to know we did something that meant so much. After that, my mom, me, Emily, and Joanne got our nails done! Later that night, our family headed to Santana Row to eat dinner and go to the Winchester Mystery house Christmas tour!

Christmas Eve was really fun! This was our first time without both Grandma and Grandpa which was different. We ate a great dinner at Julie and Dave's, played Minute-to-win-it games, re-enacted the nativity (might have been slightly sacrilegious...yes we had a 12-year-old baby jesus), ate yummy desserts, did a White Elephant exchange, played the chimes and caught up with the family. I think everyone had a great time!

The video for this lovely nativity can be found at the bottom of the post....

Steve doing chimes!

Christmas morning, Kyle came over and we opened presents! Dad got a new bike! A sweet cruiser! My mom made me a quilted table runner for the table that Steve and I are building. Steve got new basketball shoes, an iPad mini, and new luggage, and Kyle got lots of new professional clothing. I gave my mom a quilt I made out of all of my grandma's old fabric from her sewing room. I think she liked it a lot! She is even re-decorating my room so she can use it as a bed spread.

Dad trying out his new bike!

We got to talk to Jake on Christmas and that was the highlight of the day! He looks great and was so fun to talk to face to face. We are all excited for him to come home in July! Linda and Bob came over to chat with him for a bit, as well as Dan Morain and Nate Wallace.

Christmas night we saw Les Miserables and it was great! After Christmas, I had some more residency open houses. We headed to the beach one day, we caught up with friends and family, did a lot of shopping, ate at our favorite Mexican food restaurants daily, watched Kyle's band play (The English Language), went country dancing at the Saddle Rack, and had a ton of fun! We were so sad to come back to Utah. Especially considering the weather here is between 0 and 16 degrees every day since we got back :(

Hopefully we will be back in Cali soon!!!

Here is the nativity video if you want to watch it...haha! (Sorry it is not complete! I can't find the rest...I will find it and post it though! The birth of Jesus is the best part!)