Christmas in a 'Picture-Shell'

I took about million pictures over the Christmas break, so instead of elaborating on all the fun events I thought I would just put up the pictures of the events!

Here we go: Christmas Carol at Hale Centre Theatre
 Double date with Bass and Megan going to see Santa Claus down Santa Claus Lane

 Making yummy sugar cookies afterwards..

 Christmas Eve Morning!!! Since we were spending Christmas morning at the Oder home we had our own little christmas morning at our house and opened some of our presents to each other. Man, we spoiled each other rotten, I loved it!

 After opening early presents we went to the Little America for Christmas Eve breakfast buffet! Sooo yummy, definitely making that a tradition.

 Christmas Eve dinner at the Higginson home

 The whole family (almost everyone was there): Some of us were holding letters that spelled out FAMILY (a gift that I gave to Amy), though it's kind of hard to see the letters.

Midnight Mass at the Madeline Cathedral. So cool but I definitely get sleepy

Christmas Morning with the Oder family! 

 This is not the most flattering picture... but Tyler and I purchased these onesie pajamas for Christmas day specifically and they were a hit. I was the moose caboose and Tyler was the bear bottom :)

 And finally, our Christmas was complete when we were able to purchase our first dining table thanks to the Chrastil family! I say first dining table because before this one, we were dining at a desk :) gotta love first year of marriage!

 There's the beauty! It seats 6-10 people!!! Wow! I am in love.

This was one of the best Christmas' we have ever had! We are so grateful for all the amazing people in our lives who have blessed us and helped us to get where we are today. We couldn't have done it without you and, especially around this Christmas time, we realize that we couldn't have done anything without our Savior. Merry Christmas to all!

Weekend adventures

This weekend was full of Christmas Cheer! We started it off with Noah and Jeanie's wedding at the Grand America Hotel. Probably the most gorgeous wedding I have been to and they looked so happy together. Side note: Tyler is really good friends with Noah, having gone to high school with him. Jeanie and I have known each other since elementary school. Such a small world when those two got hitched and so fun seeing them together at the wedding.

Then we were able to go to Linda's ward christmas party with Amy and little Addyson. I love it every time I get to see my little niece, she is a doll.

Saturday afternoon brought us to a lunch date at Olive Garden (thank you to Holly and Andy :) ) and then to the Dicken's Festival at the Utah State Fair Grounds. If you have never been, I highly suggest going. Tyler and I had never heard of it before and we were not disappointed!

 Ghost of Christmas Past. We were able to watch the play 'Scrooge' at the festival and this man was terrifying!

 Reindeer!

 How old fashioned can you get when you can make your own candles!

 Our handmade candles up in our house :)

And finally, my mom gave us tickets to go see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert!! This is one of my favorite holiday traditions. It was definitely worth it to wake up super early on Sunday morning to go and see. I have never seen the conference center decorated more beautifully. 

Now we can hardly wait for christmas to get here!!!

Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

I am obsessed with traditions. I have loved starting new ones with Tyler and this year we have added a new one to the bunch. With our friends, Breanne and Chace, we threw a Christmas party with a bunch our friends and it was a hit! I wanted to go all out, so we made a ton of yummy treats and had some crazy games to keep us entertained.

This is Dustin about to snarf all of the food before everything is even set up on the table, of course.

 Kitchen crew: Me, Breanne, and Chace. Thanks guys!

 Big D and Lacey, what a cute couple!

 Maritza and Lukey

 Dean and Reagan, love them.

 Chase and Laura

 Breanne, Chace, Megan, and Kevin

 Chillin' on the couch...

 J and Shelby

 Alright, here we go for the crazy games of the night. This picture below shows the game 'Get As Many Ornaments On the String As You Can With NO Hands In a Minute'. You had to work with your partner at getting the ornaments on the string, no doing it by yourself and hands had to be behind your back.

 As you can see some couples got a little steamy.... The winning couple got 6 ornaments on the string, holy cow! That is talent!

 I didn't get any pictures of this game, but Breanne and Chace had the game where each person writes on 4 pieces of paper a name of somebody famous. Then we put them in the bowl and passed it around. Each person had 45 seconds to describe as many of the people in the bowl as they could. It was boys against girls, and now that I'm trying to remember, I have no idea who won! But it was fun :)

Our final game was pure chaos! Tyler and I wrapped 4 boxes within each other: A box within a box within a box (Make sense?) and the very middle, smallest box contained a gift card to Starbucks. That was the ultimate prize of the night. So how we played: there was a pair of ski gloves and the couple would have to wear them (boy wears one glove, girl wears the other). Then, with the ski gloves on, they would try as fast as they can to unwrap the boxes before the next couple rolled doubles. As soon as doubles were rolled, the gloves had to be passed on to that couple and they got a chance until doubles were rolled.

Tyler and I thought we did pretty good wrapping with packaging tape, but it all ended when people weren't unwrapping but punching the boxes :) Silly boys.

 Here's the lucky winners of the awesome gift card!

 For the final event of the night, we had a white elephant gift exchange. Never in my entire life have I been to a more disgusting gift exchange...

First present opened: FOR REALS DIRTY DISGUSTING BOY UNDERWEAR!! FOR REALS! No faking, these were actual underwear from some unknown person that has been at a friend's house for over 3 months. EW.

Second present opened: Used toilet paper.... even more EW. This particular toilet paper was tossed around the room and landed....

 HERE: on Dean's face. He just about barfed. I don't blame him!

 Little did we know, the used toilet paper actually had chocolate on it. Such a good idea for a white elephant!

Here's just some more pictures of the opening of gifts.

 Unit's stinky old basket ball shoes opened by Luke and Maritza. They are now hanging over the electric wires outside our apartment complex, thanks guys.

 The last present opened: Luke's BRAIDED rat tail, cut off of his very own head TWO years ago... yup.

We have such creative friends :)

Such a classic night, we can't wait to continue this tradition every year. We are definitely blessed with such great friends who make life always entertaining. Merry Christmas!

Ps here is cute Tyler helping me with clean up after the party. He is so great!