Merry (belated) Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! I hope everyone and their families had a blessed and Merry Christmas!!

Our Christmas was fun and intimate! Since Eric's sister (who lives in Colorado) is expecting the very first grandchild in the family right around Christmas, we celebrated Christmas early with Eric's parents, grandpa and brother. We celebrated with my family over the phone on Christmas and Christmas Eve :) As for the real holiday we spent it with Greg and Shasta, Eric's brother and lovely girlfriend. We spent the night at their house, ate all night and played Grandpa's old school games like battleship, connect four, jenga and one I'd never heard of: run yourself ragged.

Shasta pouring us some sparkling cider for our intimate candlelit Christmas Eve dinner for four...and Greg doing what he does best (next to snowboarding), cooking.

After falling asleep to A Christmas Story (everyone but Eric)...we woke up to gifts from Santa.

Because Eric is a really good guesser, and shakes every single one of his gifts, I have to deceive his gifts by putting them in bigger boxes and stuffing them with whatever I can to prevent them from being "shakable" - this year i stuffed sheets and plastic bags in a bigger box...he didn't know what it was until he opened it, after all, that IS the point! He has done this to me every Christmas since we've been together, once he even put weights in my gift to make it seem heavier than it really was...sneaky sneaky!

After opening gifts and watching Mr. Kruger's Christmas (a cute old school LDS Christmas film), we went to the movies and saw Bedtime Stories...would see it again! Can't wait to do it all over again next year!

Festival of Trees

Christmas is officially over, tear drop, but I have a few posts related to Christmas. We went to the Festival of Trees this year with some friends, Joseph and Carin. I'd heard so many great things about it that we had to go. There were so many gorgeous and creative trees...here are snapshots of our night.

These were some of the most popular trees. The glass tree and the trinket tree - that's what I called it. It had balls go up and down the tree along with other cool trinkets.

This was my favorite tree - one of them anyway, it was made with mini colored marshmallows and was darling. Surprisingly, it was still for sale (we went on the last night at almost the last hour) so I tried to convince Eric to buy it for me. Although it went towards a great cause, sadly, we couldn't afford it. That's what I loved the most about going to the Festival of Tree's, all the proceeds went to Primary Children's Medical Center. What a great way to raise money and see creative tree's at the same time!
Of course we had to get a snapshot with the grinch...they did an awesome job with this tree! I loved how almost every tree has a story behind it. I was watching the news and Big Buddha from Fox 13 was at the Festival of Trees talking to a woman whose young daughter passed away and she created a tree dedicated and decorated for her, it was touching.

Since we didn't put up a Christmas tree this year...we got our fix by going. Now I've got some good ideas for next year.

Christmas Tag

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper for sure, gift bags are no fun to open!

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real all the way, however, since I've been married we've been too broke to buy a real one. So we've done a fake one the last 2 Chiristmases. We haven't even put up our Christmas decorations this year because we are moving next week :(

3. When do you put up the tree? If I had it my way, before Thanksgiving. You put up all those decorations for only a month, you should enjoy it longer. I just love how the house feels with the decorations, so homey. Eric won't let me put it up before Thanksgiving though, he says putting up Christmas decorations before another holiday is ILLEGAL! I think not!

4. When do you take the tree down? Parents house, after the new year, my house, maybe before new years - I've only done it twice so I don't really remember :(

5. Do you like eggnog? LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Eggnog ice cream is so so good too.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The same as every child's favorite gift, their first bike! The one I'm talking about is the plastic kind with 3 wheels...pink and white. I loved it, I have so many pictures driving it inside the house - oh the good ol' days.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Growing up, no one in my family - my parents loved anything I picked out, such good parents! However, Eric's brother Greg is the hardest to shop for now, he owns his own shop so he has everything he wants!

8. Easiest person to buy for? My mom - she always wants me to buy her something cute and fashionable. I can usually do a good job of that.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Of course, I got one just like my mom's and abuelita's from Mexico, bought it last summer during our trip to Mazatlan. The prettiest one you'd ever seen.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail...who emails Christmas cards?

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I have the worst memory and can't think of one...I can never answer this question. One of these days I'll remember the worst gift. However, when its not from my parents or hubby (they should know what I want), its the thought that counts - so I'm happy to get one even if it's the worst!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Gosh, I can't think of just one. I love The Santa Clause, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone 1 and 2, Elf, A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street. I absolutely love Christmas movies. All the ones on Lifetime and ABC Family are great too. Now that we got a DVR, I recorded every Christmas movie on T.V. Its so nice.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? In December - I haven't even started this year. isn't that horrible???

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? A whilte elephant gift, not a real one. Actually, yeah. When people give me soaps and lotions that I know I'll never use (I never use the pretty smelly body washes) - sorry! But I don't re-gift it for Christmas - just give it away.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My mom's arroz con leche, eggnog, ginger bread cookies, anything pumpkin.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes, multi-colored or white. Haven't decided.

17. Favorite Christmas song? All of them, no joke! Christmas is my favorite time of year - I start listening before Thanksgiving. I love I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause, Jingle Bell Rock, Up on The Housetop, Feliz Navidad, Ya Llego La Navidad, Los Peces En El Rio...etc.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home - most of the time. With my family we would sometimes rent a time share in Mazatlan, Lake Tahoe, or Washington.

19. Any holiday traditions? Drive down Candy Cane Lane and have the Firefighters hand out candy canes with Santa...in Redwood City.

20. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? let's see, Rudolph, Dancer, Prancer, Donner, Vixen, Commit, Cupid, Blitzen...that all of them?

21. Angel on the tree top or a star? A pretty shiny star...however, at the Festival of Tree's everyone had sticks sticking straight up out of the top of the tree. It was pretty. Good idea for next year.

22. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One gift on Christmas Eve, the rest Christmas morning.

23. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? As much as I love christmas songs, playing the same ones 24/7. Rude people at the malls/stores.

24. Favorite ornament theme or color? Eclectic. Different ornaments with special meaning behind them. My family never had a theme, however, I'm thinking of creating a theme this year and having them all match.

25. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Similar to Thanksgiving dinner - ham, roles, etc.

26. What do you want for Christmas this year? To spend it with my family!

Thanks Jalaine for the Tag, this was a fun one!
Now I tag: Andrea, Abbey, Emily T., Christina...and anyone else who wants to do this tag :)

Christmas Kick-off

On Saturday we went to a Christmas Kick-Off party with some friends - Joseph and Carin. We started off by going to Temple Square so see the Christmas lights and watch the West Jordan High School Madrigals performance. They sang Christmas songs and had funny acts - it really makes me feel and get in the Christmas spirit. I want to attend all the short performances now, they are free and are practically on the hour every hour at various locations on Temple Square (so I hear anyway).

Joseph, Carin and us above...and West Jordan H.S. below...they were so good!

After enjoying the lights, the group walked back to to their house (not very far) for good company and food. Eric served his mission with Joseph and Carin in the Philippines - they were mission comps 3 times. Joseph is from the Philippines and moved here not too long ago - he and Carin got married, but no worries, they didn't fall in love on the mission. Joseph is the best cook and whenever he has us over he always cooks the most amazing Filipino food. Saturday was no exception. Whenever we go over, Eric gets to practice his Tagolog because Filipino's and RM's always gather a Jo's house...

Happy Birthday Greg and Jalaine!

It was both of our very great friend's birthday this past week (and they happen to be married to each other). 1st it was Greg's, he was so wonderful as to share his birthday with us! We went out to Goodwood BBQ, bowling (which we haven't been to in a long time), then to one of the many yogurt craze shops. We had a blast...here's the proof:

Eric didn't quite make his face in the ice cream...too bad!

Us...

The boys...what best of friends they are!!! While waiting to bowl, we played pool and Eric beat Greg...a first time EVER!!! Good job babe! But it was his birthday, we should have played nice :)

Eric's first strike!

Greg and Jalaine making funny faces...

Group picture...

It was boys against girls...we win: boys buy us dessert. They win: we buy them dessert (yeah, it comes from the same account but it was still fun to bet, we do it all the time together!)
Jalaine took one for the team and did awesome! She came in first place! Good job Jalaine. Next came Greg, then Eric, then me! I was beating Eric the whole time and by the end he beat me by one point, I was so disappointed.

So the boys bought us yogurt. Mmmm...can you tell whose belongs to who? Healthy...and not so healthy.

Next was Jalaine's birthday. Greg had left early that morning to fly to Mexico (they are opening a Best Buy in Mexico City so Greg has been helping with the process...his Spanish skills have definitely come in handy!). So we celebrated Jalaine's birthday with the girls that night by going to Macaroni Grill. This was fun too...here's more proof:
Jalaine opening one of her many gifts

Getting sung to by us all...look at that delicious cake!

Group picture:

Me, Jalaine, Leslie, Lexi, Tia, Shannon

We had a blast celebrating their birthday's! We love hanging out with you guys....thanks for letting us share your special day with you and hope you had a fantastic birthday!!!

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving was fun and intimate this year, just us and Eric's lovely parents. Eric's mom, Eileen, unfortunately had foot surgery the day prior to Thanksgiving so we forgoed the cooking and headed to Mimi's Cafe so they could do it for us. Bright side: no clean up, down side: no left overs. Mimi's did a pretty good job, but next year we'll be sure to do the cooking - I always look forward to the yams and they were a bit disappointing. After dinner we headed to the movies and saw Four Christmases - what else do you do on Thanksgiving other than pig out and spend it with the fam? The movies of course! Four Christmases was ok, like the characters but didn't think the movie was amazing - not quite the Christmas spirit movie I was hoping for. Oh and nap too, Eric had to be to work at 4:30am for the big day after thanksgiving sales and I had to be to work at 6am...so we made sure to go to bed early.


Above: Eric's cute parents...and Eric having a little too much fun with the sparkling cider :)

Here are a few thanks for Turkey Day:

1. Eric: First and foremost, I'm thankful for my better half. I couldn't have found a more perfect match for me. Eric is so patient and loving - he still loves me even in my crazy ways - I'm biased but he really is the best husband a wife could have! My life has become so much more fabulous with him in it. I'm so grateful for him, for his love and patience with me. He is such a wonderful friend, my best friend. I love everything about him, his quorkiness, his personality, his willingness to help others, all of his goofy faces, and most of all for the person he has helped me become. After almost three years of marriage...I still can't get enough of him! Thanks Eric...for everything!

2. Familia: I'm so thankful for my family! I've been blessed with an amazing, loving family. I could go on and on about my family and how much I love them...but that would take pages. I'm just so thankful for my parents and the wonderful example they have set for me. After 30 years of marriage, they can still act like newlyweds. I miss them so much and wish I lived nearer to them - my parents, brother and sister live in California and another brother lives in Oregon. I miss having my niece and nephews around too - they are so much fun (Eric isn't an uncle yet but will be this month, woo hoo!). But Utah is the right place for me...right now. I've married into a great family and am glad they live so close - they have adopted me like their own daughter. I'm also thankful for my wonderful extended family in Mexico, my abuelita had 15 children so you can imagine how huge and crazy family gatherings are. I'm excited to fly out and see them next month!

Here's a picture taken 2 summers ago with me, Eric and my cousins...and this isn't even half of them, seriously! Aunts and uncles aren't even in this picture.

3. Religion: I'm so thankful for my religion, and religion in general. I'm so grateful to have been raised in the LDS church...and for all the many wonderful blessings that I have received from it. I'm so thankful for a living prophet to guide and counsel us; and for the scriptures, they have changed my life. I'm so HAPPY and love being a member of the church. I'm so thankful for missionaries (and members) who share the gospel all over the world so others can share my happiness.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!