I haven't been very good about my December posts so I thought I would just lump them all together. These are just some of the few fun happenings that we enjoyed this Christmas Season. They're not going to be in any specific order since uploading onto blogger is such a nightmare sometimes.
My parents
Skeen Family Christmas Party this year was so much fun! They got me and my sisters all rooms at the Ogden
Marriot. Then my dad sent us on a scavenger style hunt up and down 25
th street. Then they treated us to dinner at Union Station. Afterwards we went to see the lights display on 25
th street and the little village houses. We all got hot chocolate and enjoyed walking around. The
Searles were able to join us for the evening and it's so fun to spend some time with them as well. Afterwards we went back to the hotel pool and we all swam and sat in the hot tub. Then we had a treat exchange and went back to our rooms for bed time. Ryan played games in the lobby with Ryan C. and Josh. It was my favorite
family party ever!
This is Emma and
Jaken. My dad pushed them in the jogger while we completed our scavenger hunt/amazing race. They're so cute together.
We helped celebrate my friend Carrie's birthday by going to firehouse Pizza and enjoying every bite! She and I both have our birthdays fall right before a big Holiday, and so we are united in that. Sadly, I didn't get any
pictures of the birthday girl, but she got some of me, thanks Carrie :)
After firehouse we went to the 36
th street
cemetery to enjoy their beautiful luminaries display. This was a childhood tradition we did in our neighborhood when we lived in Arizona, so I especially loved it.
Afterwards we drove out to Willard to see their lights display. Jed had borrowed his dad's expedition so we could all drive together. Emma has a little friend her age, Addi, and so the girls loved sitting by each other and were so good the whole night. Emma looks like she's not having fun, but really she did :)
Kylee, my cousins who is like a little sister, and her husband both graduated from USU. Lee had a great celebration party for them and we had so much fun playing games and visiting with them and the
Searles, another family of ours who we just adore.
Ever since Emma stayed with the
Jensens for 2 weeks last year while we went to Thailand we've been really close with them. She loves those cousins so much and I just love the friendship we have developed with their family. So we had them out for a Christmas party with games and an Amazing Race.
I also enjoyed putting up my Christmas decorations this year. I have a Christmas tree collection that I have really grown to love. Ryan buys me a new tree every year and so it's fun to watch the
collection grow. Also for my birthday I spent my money from my parents on some new
tree decor, and I am so pleased. Emma is at such a fun age where she just loves all of our Christmas decorations and she is so good to abide by the "no touching" rule.
This was just before Thanksgiving but all of my aunts and cousins within a 2 hour radius came to Ogden for us to go to lunch and see the Premiere of Twilight. It was so nice to see everyone and enjoy this movie and fun afternoon together.
Hopefully a new tradition has started by us going to the starlight Christmas Parade in Ogden. The
Casperson's and my parents joined us. It was such a fun way to kick off the season.
Another new tradition we started this year is a baking day with my mom. Emma and I went up for the day and my mom was willing to help us bake whatever we wanted. I chose home made bread and rolls and Emma made suckers and sugar cookies. So much fun, and so yummy! Thanks mom!
Other activities we enjoyed this Season but didn't take pictures of:
A date night, just the two of us, to Salt Lake for dinner at Thaifoon and to see Australia
A date night with the Stowers to Olive Garden and to see 7 Pounds
Christmas Shopping
Dollar movies with Emma
Driving around to see Christmas lights
And we have loved every minute of every snowfall
This is our little dining area. I love the bench, if anyone is considering buying a bench for their table. It is very handy. The chairs we bought from D.I. five years ago and Ryan took them apart and reassembled them to be stronger and then we painted them and they have done us proud all these years. Those pillars are very weird to some people, but they're just something my family is into and I love them.
Ryan made this shelf for me when we first moved into the house. The rest of it is all from Tai Pan, which I adore.
This family room and the two rooms below it were unfinished when we bought our house. Ryan did most of the work himself since he has a major problem paying someone to do a job that he can do himself, even if he doesn't have the time for it, it's a whole principle thing.
We've made Emma a little play corner behind the couch where we have her joy school. It looks quite small because of her tent, but it's perfect for just her. She plays here the best when it's bedtime. If you tell her it's bedtime she will go in her tent and play with her care bears or dolls for a good while. She talks out loud and we just love hearing how creative her little imaginary World is.
I bought this old window on ebay and have been playing around with it. I still need to put one more picture in the corner. I'm not LOVING the color of it. I think I might paint it red or black, not sure which. But for now it's a great way to display a lot of our favorite photos.
This is our very small office. The house had a horrible basement floor plan which made it difficult for us to decide what to do with it. So in the end we decided to make two bedrooms with good sized closets for storage. Our other option was to make one large room that was awkwardly shaped but had a full bath. In the end, the was the better idea for our family, especially with Ryan's office out of our home.
In the office closet is where we keep our food storage. For Christmas my parents gave us a very generous food supply. You know you're an adult when you are completely thrilled with the idea of food storage as a Christmas gift. This rack has two more shelves on top and in the next closet are MRE boxes, dry goods, water and other supplies. It's such a good feeling, thanks mom and dad!
I have some flowery chairs from my mom that are her rejects, but I gladly take them, because it's either that or nothing, or buy something I love and have to make payments on it. So our home is very eclectic between things we bought, and things we're given. Either way, we're very thankful.
This is Emma's big girl room. I haven't put up her decorations and finishing touches. I'm saving that for her 3rd birthday which is March 1st. But I have a lot of cute ideas that I can't wait to try out.
