Christmas Day 2012

I was up by 6:30, along with Cooper. We were tired, but too excited to do anything about it. I gave Devin about 30 more minutes, and then woke him up. We had our own little Christmas morning, where we opened a few gifts from each other, including our ornaments this year. 

< Devin got me a red Hunter boots ornament, because he knows how badly I want actual Hunters

> I got Devin this classic piece: Ralphie in his bunny pajamas from "A Christmas Story" 

We had a lot of fun getting cooper a few treats, a new tennis ball, and his very favorite: a big stuffed alligator. That thing became his new best friend, and even though it was just as long as him, he carried it everywhere. He loved it so much! It was just like how he was as a baby puppy with his little stuffed lion. He has since ripped all the stuffing out and his friendship with Gator ended far too soon. Gator found his way to the trash within a few days. The joys of a dog! haha

 

After we got ready, we went down to my parents' house and did Christmas morning with my family. I love my family so much and we had so much fun just being in each other's company. I'm sorry I failed miserably at documenting our Christmas! 

From there, Devin and I went to Grandpa Willis and Virginia Rae's for some food and more celebrations. Grandpa Willis is the most stylish and classy guy around. We love seeing them, along with Devin's aunt and his cousins. 

Next up was Grandma Houston's, where we missed breakfast, but made it in time for everything else. We opened a few gifts and had a blast hearing all about Santa's visit from my cousin's 2 small kids. My grandparents gave all of the couples in the family a Belgian waffle maker for Christmas - which is perfect, because ever since Devin and I discovered our obsession with Bruge's Waffles and Frites in SLC and our lack of funds to fuel that obsession, waffles are happening at our house at least twice a week! 

My mom LOVES owls so this was one of her christmas presents from her mom. Creepy or cool? I really can't decide...

She has already titled herself "Grandma Hootie" even though she has no grandchildren yet, and none on the way. Ha! I love my mom :)

After that, we went back to my parent's house to relax a little. Devin, Sean, Kelli and I spent most of the afternoon outside in the hot tub at my parent's house. It was a pretty sunny Christmas Day, but deceivingly chilly. We finally got out once we realized how pruney we were! 

Devin and I headed home once we were cleaned up, because we had left Cooper there all day. It was so hard for me to leave Cooper! Devin kept reminding me that Cooper doesn't know the difference between holidays and regular days, but I couldn't help but miss him. 

When we got home, we cleaned up the house and made waffles! haha! We ended the night with the second half of The Polar Express, and just like that, Christmas was over.

It was a day full of lots of family and lots of parties and lots of things to do, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It was stressful at times to rush from house to house, but I'm glad that we even have that option. I love that all of our families live so close, and we don't have to trade off which holidays we spend with who. We wouldn't want to have to choose anyway, because our families are so amazing! 

This year, Devin and I have had a lot to be grateful for, and instead of focusing on presents and material things, we spent most of the holidays feeling extremely humbled. We have been on the receiving end of a lot of service, and could not be more thankful for the people in our lives. It definitely wasn't a big, showy holiday - but it meant so much more to us than any gift ever could. I am so grateful for Devin, and the example he sets for me, and everyone else, and for his willingness to serve and work hard. He and I have been our own little team lately, and we've been handling everything that comes our way as best we can. I think this Christmas, we were most grateful for the opportunity it gave us to take a step back and look at our lives and be truly grateful for where we are and what we are doing, and it's been the most meaningful Christmas yet.

Oh, and although I did fail miserably at documenting our Christmas, we at least remembered to take a family photo by the tree, even though cooper is blurry and we look like giants! And, we do have a few photos from setting up our Christmas tree, thanks to Devin!

as you may remember from last year, almost all of the ornaments on our tree, I made. we do have some small gold balls that we bought, but I have had so much fun making the ornaments. This year I added pinecones I collected from the park and spraypainted gold, and the salt dough ornaments I posted about earlier. It's coming along! 

Christmas Eve Funtivities

Man! Christmas is no break! We were constantly on the move, seeing so much family and doing so many fun things. We had a blast, but it was exhausting! That being said - I hardly had any time to take any photos! I'm so sad! I think I'll add "be better at taking photos" to my list of resolutions...

Christmas Eve, we slept in and when we got ready, we headed down to Devin's parent's with Cooper. From there, we went to Nana and Grandpa's for their "Christmas Eve Open House" they've been doing for the last few years. We helped Nana make some chicken salad and we feasted (literally. Nana is such a good cook!) and munched and snacked while we skyped with the babies in Vernal. They had been tracking Santa all day on norad.com.

From Nana's, we headed up Rock Canyon to give Cooper some time to run around and get out some energy. Next we went to my parent's house, just in time to see my dad's best friend Kevin, stopping by with a big box of oranges, just like he has every single Christmas all my life. When I was younger, I legitimately thought Kevin was one of my uncles. It was indistinguishable. He and Dad have been friends since they were kids.

From there, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Houston's for a chinese food dinner (Christmas Eve is also my Uncle Tim's birthday, and this year he turned 50! So he got to choose dinner). We couldn't stay to eat, because we had another party to go to (naturally!).

Devin's parent's was next. We did all of our family gift exchanging and had the Wagstaff's on skype again so they wouldn't miss anything. We had a pretty great time watching Koda and Cooper rip up all the wrapping paper (Koda's an awesome teacher). And Riley was the fun police, he would come growl at them when they were having too much fun, ha!

 

Amanda made all the dogs bandannas! Cooper loves his and looks so handsome in it. Yellow is a perfect color on him! 

One of my favorite gifts this year was what I got from Brandon (devin's brother). He drew my name for the family gift exchange and this year we decided to go home made. Remember how Brandon is an amazing chef? His gift to me was the meal of my choice, cooked by him in my home! What more could you ask for!? Devin and I have gotten really close with Brandon this year, and spend time with him as often as we can. He is very quickly becoming one of my best friends.

Devin and I drew Sean and Chloe for christmas this year and had a ton of fun making these racks for them!

After that, we went back to Houston's and just missed the white elephant gifts, but don't worry. The family left us some awesome movies (including Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!! i love that movie!) and a bunch of airplane toiletries. Classic. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with my cousins and laughing hysterically at their funny stories. We also spent most of the night trying to tackle the Logo Quiz app game - unsuccessfully!

We went home pretty tired, and finished the night off in bed with the first half of The Polar Express - my favorite christmas movie. (I need the book!)

What I love most about Christmas is the chance we have to set everything in the world aside and spend 2 full days (at least) solely with our families. Devin and I are surrounded by some pretty incredible people, and devoting this time to them is such a blessing - but also a lot of fun! We are so lucky to have so much family all in the same city - or at least really close.

The 10th Date of Christmas

After spending the afternoon at the dog park, we got home and relaxed for awhile. Then we watched "A Christmas Story" - such a classic. We can't have Christmas without it! And we made a big steak dinner. 

I can't tell if I'm just getting lazy, or if our Christmas Dates really aren't that cool, but I'm pretty sure it's a little of both. Depending on next year, we may just toss out this tradition! haha!

Also a head's up? Dates 11 and 12 were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They count :) 

And also? We definitely spent both those nights watching The Polar Express (split into two parts). 

The 7th, 8th and 9th Dates of Christmas

On the 7th date of Christmas, we did Christmas pajamas! Yes, early. But Devin couldn't wait, haha. This post is a lame catch-up, non-picture post because i'm lazy and also busy, and also it's Christmas time, so there's that.

On the 8th date of Christmas, we finished our christmas shopping, got some groceries and came home and had a big waffle dinner while we watched the christmas episodes of some of our favorite shows. it was maybe relaxed and uneventful, but that's just the way we like it.

Yesterday was the 9th Date of Christmas! Holy cow. We're almost there! Devin had to work all day and also teach a class at the gym. Luckily for me, Kelli didn't have any plans, so she took frontrunner down to Draper and I picked her up and we spent the whole day together. We got lunch, made a ton of christmas treats (recipes to come. trust me. you'll want to try them!), finally watched Pitch Perfect (hilarious, but not worth the hype), and then tried to round up some last minute things on her list (we were totally unsuccessful. and we walked right of gordman's once we saw the line, even though i FINALLY FOUND starbucks hot chocolate mix there and had armfuls of boxes of it. i'll just have to go back. fine.) Awesome day. Loved it. And cooper? He loves kelli. He cuddled with her the whole movie, and was even SMILING. you know how dogs do that? he was totally doing it. it was adorable. he loved her.

When devin got home, we watched Pitch Perfect again (it was funnier the second time) and finished all of our wrapping. We went out for a late night burger and milkshake and called it a night. We've been having so much fun together lately, even when all we're doing is driving to In-N-Out with our crazy dog. I love my life.

The 6th Date of Christmas

The 6th Date of Christmas was also spent in the company of awesome people. We celebrated 25 years of Josh Hancock. He and his wife Amy are some of our closest friends, and they just had a baby, Nolan, which has been quite the journey for them! Good news is, he's healthy and handsome as ever. I love that baby already and I haven't even met him! Nolan was taken to Primary Children's Hospital earlier that day so the doctors and specialists could run some tests. Pray for Nolan! He's a strong kid, though :) Anyway, we had some dinner at Tucano's, which I absolutely love to eat and absolutely hate paying for. Every time we go, I completely forget how to say no and end up with a giant pile of meat that I can't keep up with. It is so delicious though! When we were finished eating, we grabbed some hot chocolate (hello, 15 degrees) - and Devin and I snagged a dog bone for Cooper, of course. Then we headed to Josh and Amy's for awhile. It. Was. A. Blast. I forgot how much I love the Riverwoods at this time of year. When I worked at the Bath and Body Works down there 2 years ago, it was so fun to see everything going on and be a part of it - that was such a fun job! I miss it. Anyway... Christmas time. It's awesome. 

The 5th Date of Christmas

For the 5th Date of Christmas, Devin had to work late. Cooper and I hung out all night, and when Devin got home, we fell asleep to a Christmas episode of The Office. It's lame, but it's still a Christmas date! Plus, the Christmas episodes of The Office? Priceless. Those things are television-gold.

The 4th Date of Christmas

The 4th Date of Christmas was on Monday (i'm way behind. as usual). We spent it in the company of some of our very best friends, the Holdaway's, doing what we and the Holdaway's do best: classy dinner partying. They brought the caesar salad and Ryan made some homemade alfredo that was creamy perfection. Devin made his signature gnocchi (an exceptional batch, i might add). We included the traditional (and mine and danica's favorite) french bread dipped in olive oil / balsamic vinegar / herbs / spices, and had chocolate mousse cake for dessert. We even went a step further in classiness and had sparkling peach cider. It was a total success. And in true Katie fashion, by the time I remember I needed documentation of our date night, all that was left were dinner's remains. The puppies played on the floor the whole time, and we played a few rounds of bananagrams, until we all got sick of Ryan winning, and then we called it a night. One of the best CDP's ever! This date wasn't too christmas-y, but we were in the company of some of the coolest people we know, so it counts.

The 3rd Date of Christmas

Devin and I woke up sick this morning, so after a Walgreens run (of course, we had ZERO cold medicine in the house), we spent the entire day in bed. We finally got up around 3:30 and got some housework done. I made cookies and devin made dinner. While he was cooking, he asked for the 700th time if I wanted to try and see if I could find a Christmas movie on hulu plus or netflix for us to watch (since we don't have cable), so I finally let him open a christmas present early, which was a bunch of our favorite christmas movies. We ended the night with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (just like last year). Such a classic.

The 2nd Date of Christmas

We spent all day together, and it was magnificent. We slept in late, and when we woke up, I made us a big waffle breakfast with nutella, fruit and whipped cream. Delicious. Then we wrapped some presents, and went Christmas shopping. We also went to Goodyear because there was a nail in our tire! They fixed it for us and when Devin asked how much, the man just said "it's on us. Merry Christmas. " Are you serious? That kind of generosity is so incredible. We have been on the receiving end of so much service this year, and it has only encouraged us to pay it forward! So later that day, when we took Cooper to the dog park, and some people there had dropped their keys (in the park, in the 8 inches of snow), we spent the rest of our time there helping them search for them. Once they gave up, we gave them a ride to their house to get their spare key, and drove them back to their car at the park. It was the least we could do.

We ended the night at our ward christmas party. We have such a great ward! Everyone is friends, and everyone is involved, and it makes living this far from home and family that much easier.

The 1st Date of Christmas!

Yay! Christmas has officially begun, once Devin and I start our christmas dates tradition! Last night was date number one! We started the night at Devin's parent's house, because Amanda and Jason came in to town (since they now live in Vernal, which kills me!) and we played with the babies and gave them their Christmas present, then we went to my company christmas party.

Reunited with my Addi-mae. Oh, how I love this little girl. She's growing up way too fast. Good thing we've got another baby in the family coming in just a few weeks!

The party was at the new Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo. It is such a gorgeous building! And HUGE! We walked into the wrong party at first. There were way too many people there for it to be my family-owned company party, ha! We finally found the right crowd, and had a good time! I was surprised at how much fun I had. I was nervous by default (just how I am), and I have only been working there since August, so the only people I know are the ones in my shop. I only knew a few people in the Orem and Provo stores. Kristy, who had trained me, and works as the A/R Manager in Provo is engaged to one of Devin's high school friends, so we sat by them and had a good time. We also sat by Haley and her husband. Haley works as the receptionist in Provo, and her and I talk on our company IM chat pretty much all day long, haha.

The dinner was catered by the convention center, and absolutely delicious! We had a little work trivia, which was informative and hilarious and our table won the prize! Devin and I came home with a bunch of candy (snowman peeps!!!!) and a costa vida gift card. There was a slideshow honoring one of the owners, James, who died in August, and then a white elephant gift exchange. I was so so nervous about whoever had me and what they gave me! I ended up with a thermos and some lotion from Caleb - fwew! It was pretty cool. I drew one of the body techs, Brandon and got him a snuggie covered in penguins. It was pretty hilarious. After that was another slideshow, but Devin and I left early because apparently Cooper had thrown up at devin's parent's house! (He's fine.)

This is the only photo I got from the work party. Apparently, this escalator is the longest in the world, or some crazy statistic like that. It's pretty long, so I believe it.

on the 12th date of Christmas...

since I counted Christmas Day as a christmas date, it was really unavoidable to not count everything we did as our "date". I guess we could count watching Lion King (one of the things I got Devin... haha) and then The Polar Express (which is my favorite christmas movie of all time). That's just a lot of movies to have watched! But really, you can only watch Christmas movies this time of year, so we needed to take advantage of it! (not counting Lion King... we just watched it since we haven't seen it in years!)

my favorite part of the whole movie is this scene: makes me crave hot chocolate every time! 

on the 11th date of Christmas...

Christmas Eve celebrations aside (more later), we had our own date of Christmas: watching A Christmas Story!

since we didn't get back from family parties until late, we didn't watch very much of it, but it's a classic, and definitely a tradition for us!

on the 10th date of Christmas...

we watched this. which i had never seen before (hence the reason we watched it).

 

after? we watched Benihana Christmas (the office episode). then, the B-rand came over (that's brandon. devin's oldest brother) to take back his vacuum he has so generously let us house while he traveled the country. [at one point in our marriage, we had 3 vacuums. now? we have zero. it's only been 7 months?!] 

on the 9th date of Christmas...

we took it easy. Devin wasn't feeling good. we were both home all day (me to answer his every beck and call), and I was pretty persistent that he didn't get out of bed unless it was absolutely necessary.

so when bed time rolled around (8pm on a sick day for this little family), I crawled into bed next to him with a piece of paper and we wrote out all our plans for the crazy weekend of christmas we were about to endure while we watched the office. 

christmas eve and christmas will result in:

7 house stops / parties / get-togethers

13 gifts to give to others via name-drawing

4 treat / side dish obligations

i honestly can't wait. it's going to be an amazing weekend!

on the 8th date of Christmas...

with devin being so sick (did i mention he stayed home from work yesterday, too? hmph :(...) we practically forgot about it. 

i had come home around 4:30 as usual, but after i made us some dinner, i was back out for a quick costco trip (no such thing as a "quick costco trip" by the way. even if you only buy ONE thing like i did) and then headed to saratoga springs to get my eyelash extensions refilled (see PRETTIES tab for more info on Baylee! and yes. i do that. and i love them.) I got home around 8:30 and D was already in bed, so i made some toast, grabbed the mac to check my emails and joined him. 

we watched an episode or two of modern family and i realized we hadn't done our date or christmas! so... we searched "christmas funny" on youtube. i don't recommend this. we didn't find anything that was very funny. youtube is mostly just weird homemade videos now. we accidentally watched some japanese dance and ended up watching those videos of guys who take a picture of themselves ever day for 6 years, and things like that. 

BUT we did manage to find this gem. i love jeff dunham! hilarious. 

on the 7th date of Christmas...

we headed to Wilson Diamonds!

remember, this is where Devin and I got each other's wedding rings? Because Devin's cool friend, Matt is a real life Wilson? yes.

anyway. we went becaaaaauuussse Matt set up a lights show outside the store! I thought it was sort of funny to do a holiday lights show outside of a jeweler's, but I must say, it was really impressive! I don't know how they do these things, but it was awesome!

we just parked the car, tuned our radio to 99.9 FM and watched the lights dance along to songs like "Mr. Grinch", "Charlie Brown Christmas", "Carol of the Bells", some techno christmas something, and some other song I can't remember.

see the blue face in the tree? it sang the grinch song. the mouth and eyes moved like it was talking, and it was pretty legit!

don't mind the fact that i look like a drunken/moonface girl. i can't seem to take a decent picture lately.

It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. even more awesome? is the fact that i got some on video! (on the far right, you can see the lights on the windows do the wave several times. that was my favorite part.) also, i stopped it before the end. oops! (you know, when it goes "ding! dong ding!" and then a really low bass guy goes (doooooonnnnnggggg.) so sorry.

 after the show, we went to our current favorite restaurant, Wing Nutz. i'm pretty sure Devin is constantly craving these wings. in all seriousness. he always wants them. (and i really don't blame him. they're amazing).

after we ate, i told devin i wanted something sweet, like a cake bite from the Sweet Tooth Fairy a few shops down. he politely declined and said we should eat muddie buddies at home. fine with me!

but. we were both too restless to head home immediately, so we headed to Home Depot to kill some time (yes. we spend free time at home depot window shopping). we like to pick things out for our future house / dream home. it's actually really fun. plus, devin has been dying to get some tools, so we spent the majority of the time over there, playing with drills and nail guns.

meanwhile, I get a text from my younger sister, McKayla, who just so happens to work at [the previously mentioned] The Sweet Tooth Fairy. She says she is working right now, and has a $10 giftcard for the place she wants to give to us. Wha??

It doesn't really get much better. I excitedly tell Devin, and he gets that look on his face and says "...but it's a long way to drive. and we just came from there..." and, of course I said, "well. maybe you learned your lesson then. you should have listened to me the first time i said i wanted a cake bite. besides, i already told her we'd be there soon." [it was just a pretend fight, guys. i promise.]

ah-ha! i'm sure devin wasn't possibly disappointed about the drive clear across town when we came home with this:

a lemon bar, grasshopper, fairyfettie, peanut butter, and red velvet cake bites, and a cookies and cream cupcake. scooooore. 

on the 6th date of Christmas...

we haven't been doing very fun and exciting Christmas dates. I think it's because I didn't anticipate how busy we would be. Or that we would both not be feeling too well this week... we've kept it pretty low key. The important part is that we are making it a point to spend time together doing something that isn't an obligation (or is at least a fun obligation). I told Devin that the next 6 dates have to be fun ones, so tonight we planned a good one :) 

anyway, last night, on the 6th date of Christmas... we finished all our Christmas shopping! We just had a few last minute things to get (gift cards) that have just been put off for awhile, and we spent a good 2 hours getting them, along with a quick target run to grab all the stuff we need for all the holiday treats we are brining to all the parties! (remember the peanut butter ball from jon and jenaya's christmas party? i'm going to make it for the christmas eve party at devin's parents' house! recipe to come.)

by the time we got home (2 hours. 3 stores. holy moly!) we both had headaches and I was grumpy from being so hungry (i'm like a 5 year old when it comes to eating), so we made some dinner and watched pawn stars.

after that, i made fresh muddie buddies, we had a last-minute visit from our friends Jason and Bailey, and we ended the night watching the Office in bed and eating muddie buddies. 

counts to me! :)

on the 5th date of Christmas...

we went to church! in sacrament meeting, we had a Christmas Program, put on by the ward choir, and it was so great! i was impressed with how well they sounded! it was a great way to celebrate christmas on a sunday (which is what we'll be doing in ONE WEEK!) 

i obvious didn't take any pictures, because that's probably a huge sin to take photos in the chapel. during sacrament meeting. but it was wonderful. 

after our christmas date in sacrament meeting, we had nursery. today we had 9 kids! that's a lot of 2 year olds! 4 new kids today. it was a crazy, crazy day. i'm surprised we made it through all 2 hours, especially with how sick i've felt the last few days. 

right after church, we went over to devin's parents' house for dinner, and grabbed some paint and brushes to finish up my project (because devin's was done 3 hours after he started!). 

we got home and haven't moved much off the couch since. other than when i painted my project. shawn came over, and it's always so good to catch up with him. hopefully we'll see more of him around now that school is over! 

i'm sad this weekend is over. i don't feel ready to start the week again. thankfully, it will be a short week, and it definitely helps that next weekend is CHRISTMAS! 

on the 4th date of Christmas

we went to a Christmas party thrown by some of our good friends! (saturday night)

aside from throwing a great party, they also asked everyone to bring a toy for Toy for Tots or clothing for the Salt Lake City Rescue Mission. I thought that was such a great idea to keep the spirit of service in the season. i picked out a cute teddy bear, and when devin saw it, he said "well... I want one!". no. we didn't keep it. even though we wanted to.

the party was awesome. so much good food. seriously. i will never get over the pulled pork sandwiches. or the salami. or the peanut butter ball (yeah. i'll post that recipe soon. already have plans to make it for christmas eve parties!) we left a little early because a) i have NOT been feeling good and b) we forgot to bring white elephant gifts.

the rest of the day, before the party was spent by devin, finishing his project (the project i talked about with all the lumber.) and i did some more christmas shopping (we have 2 more little errands and then we're DONE! hurray!). devin brought home his finished project and we put 2 coats of paint on it right then, and it was done! we had it in it's place before we were out the door. it's amazing. i'll post about it soon.

on the 3rd date of christmas...

we celebrated Kylee's 21st birthday!

i have always tried to make it a point to separate kylee's birthday from christmas. i don't wrap her presents in christmas paper. i don't use christmas decorations. but it still counts as a date of christmas. after all, we ended the night by watching Elf as the crowd filtered out of our home.

we had a pretty big crowd gathered in our little home last night! it was such a great time! lots of good food and good people, and even a funny game! devin and i, kylee, david, tracey, kameron, shelly, kaylee, ryan, valeri, garrison, bailey, kelly and travis all came, and i am so glad that they did! 

this party was the perfect excuse to get together a group of friends that doesn't get together very often! this is the typical crowd for our "girls night"s, but i made it a point to invite the husbands and boyfriends this year. 

the cake i was so stressed out about? turned out great! i didn't decorate it very cute, but it is pretty creative. and this picture of it is all i have to show for the whole party. i was too busy being at the party to think about taking pictures of it, but i had to document the cake! plus also? it tasted good. chocolate cake with raspberry frosting between the layers and chocolate frosting around it. winning (duh).