A Holly Jolly Christmas

Oh Christmas, what a wonderful time of year! This Christmas Season has been one of my favorites by far. This wasn't our first Christmas as a married couple, but since last Christmas we were literally just getting home from Mexico it sure felt like it! We made sure to do this year right. We kind of went overboard on presents, definitely went overboard on sweets, and watched the Grinch at least ten times. We made gingerbread houses, played Christmas music all the way from Rexburg to Spokane, wore Christmas sweaters as often as possible, and did just about every other Christmasy thing we could think of! And I am happy to say we get to spend the Holidays with my family this year, no matter how much we miss the Muirs.

My family has a few fun Christmas traditions...one of which is none other than the acting out of the Nativity! My dad always reads the story from the scriptures while we do our best to act it out. Each year it gets more extravagant.This year I am proud to say that Kirby played a wonderful donkey, and was a great addition!

However, I think that my favorite tradition is the sister slumber party the night before Christmas. We all pile blankets and pillows into the living room and watch Christmas movies until we can't keep our eyes open anymore! This year Kirby joined in on all of the giggling and girl talk, as we fell asleep to the sound of "It's a Wonderful Life."

Christmas morning was as glorious as ever. We all turn into little kids with out eyes all aglow and can hardly contain our excitement. One of my favorite moments was when my mom and dad opened my cheesy gift. When I was a little girl we would always say "love you, sweet dreams, best friends, sleep good" every-night when they tucked me in. So I made them a sign to put in their bedroom, so it'd be like we were still saying it (see? I told you it was cheesy). But it made my mom cry so...score! Soon the tears were flowing more when she opened a new diamond wedding band! By far the best gift of the night. Anyways...here are my favorite memories from the day.

Highlights from this Christmas:

• Acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve
• Sisters slumber-party in the livingroom (plus Kirby)
• Mom's new wedding band
• Hours and hours of wrapping presents
• New Hunter boots for...yours truly!
• Buying Dominic a basketball hoop and seeing how excited that made him
• Breakfast casserole
• Kirby being forced to watch the One Direction Movie twice
• Going to Nana's for the traditional ornament exchange
• Making ornaments with our faces on them
• Peppermint Pig
• Kirby opening the guitar pedal I bought him
• The beautiful tree at my parents

My mom's beautiful tree!

The family nativity...Mandy: Mary, Kirby: Donkey, Bailey: Sheppard, Buster: Sheep, Jessica: Joseph, Madison: Wiseman, Mom: Angel.

My most attractive lover.

seriously love him so much

Christmas morning

After the ring was opened!

The ring!

Mandy and cousin Maggie

Birthday Number 22!

Before we get into the festivities I need to say happy birthday to a very special man. I am lucky to share my birthday with Joseph Smith, the prophet that changed the world. I admire everything about him, and owe so much to him. So happy birthday Joseph Smith!

Having a birthday 2 days before Christmas can sometimes be a little difficult. Everyone is always so busy bustling around, trying to finish up preparations for Christmas day and it sometimes feels like a side-note, just something else to cross off the list. But the nice part about having my birthday during such a time, is that ever since I entered Kindergarten, I have NEVER had to worry about school interfering with my special day. And now that I am in college it only gets better, because no school means that I get to spend it with my whole family!

Being the lucky lady that I am, my day started with my mom's special crepes for breakfast and a phone call from my best friend. Later on, after presents, we headed down to the handsdown best restaurant ever...Waddells! (For those of you in the Spokane area who haven't gone there GO, you will thank me later). Anyways, it was a great day full of great food, family, and smiles all around. I am one lucky girl!

Merry Snow Day!

Merry snow day fellow Rexburgians! After an uncommonly nice fall/early winter, it now looks and feels like the Rexburg that we know and love!

While it technically was not a snow day, it sure felt like it...let me tell you why! Kirby and I normally sleep with a fan on, just to drown out any background noises. At about 6:00 this morning we woke up to dead silence, it soon became apparent that the power had gone out and left us without a fan...but that was the least of our worries. It was COLD like bitterly, unbarably cold! I heard everything from it was -40 to it was -17 degrees out this morning...whatever the truth is, it was dang cold. So we snuggled up closer, pulled the blankets up higher, and then went back to sleep.

About an hour later we got a text from the school telling us that the power was also out on campus, so classes were cancelled until 11:30. We smiled silently to ourselves and rolled back over. A couple of hours later we received another text informing us that classes had been cancelled yet again until 12:45. Hallelujah! This meant Kirb didn't have to go to a single class, and I only had to go to two of mine! While it might be freezing out, it was a nice chance to catch up on sleep. When we were finally brave enough to peel the covers off and load on the clothing layers, we joined the rest of Kirby's family in his parent's living room where a nice fire was burning. We helped set up the last of the Christmas decorations, played with the nephews, made some hot chocolate, and took advantage of our grown-up snow day.

Now...let's talk about those Rexburg roads. You think that a place that experiences so much snow and ice every winter would have a good system figured out by now. But they are far from it! Sure the plows push most of the snow off of the road. But that's literally all they do. The roads here are straight, thick ice. In some spots there are literally mounds of ice in the middle of the road that no one cares to move. Come on Rexburg, you can do better.