Christmas Plus Some

This is the final push to the end of the year, so this is gonna be long one to catch up on everything. Brace yourself:

Our holidays FLEW past this year. I actually kinda enjoyed it though...I think I was a little antsy for the coming year and just wanted it to get here already. To start things off, we did something I have wanted to do for almost two years...RIPPED OUT THE CARPET IN MY DOWNSTAIRS!! This was my birthday/Christmas/Dev's Christmas present. We put the "fake" wood in our downstairs and I love it! It is so easy to keep clean, especially with Reese. Dev spent his week 1/2 off of work installing the floors for me. He did such a good job and was really good about working on it without me nagging him to do it. Basically the best present ever! Occasionally we had some friends come over and help, and of course Bruce was a huge factor in ripping the tile up from our entry way. My parents came over one day and helped me get some of our new baseboards painted also. Those still aren't fully done because we need to order more, but we are so close and I love it!!!!

Due to the fact that the floor had to be done during the week of Christmas while Dev didn't have work, our Christmas decorations came down a few days before Christmas, but we didn't spend any of Christmas at our house, so I felt ok about it. We started off Christmas on the 23rd with Devan's siblings and mom. It is starting to get really fun because there are kids now running around everywhere, not just boring adults anymore. We just chatted and ate delicious food that Tori mostly made. We then exchanged a couple gifts. Tori had brought ours over to the house earlier and gave us a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD about Joseph Smith which has some of my favorite songs on it. She gave me some boots/slippers that I love and actually wear around like normal shoes, and Dev got a super soaker. It's funny because when we were Christmas shopping for Trent who is 11, Dev made the comment that he would still love to get a super soaker for Christmas even though he is 25. Crystal got everybody socks, and this was actually Devan's favorite present. She got him a really nice pack of dress socks that he still makes comments about everytime he wears them. I wear the socks she got me all the time too. They are soooo cute! We got Adam and April and Crystal and Mike aggravation..the classic versions from ebay. If you recall...that was our favorite game to play when we were at the cabin this last summer and nobody owns it because it is from the 60s. There is a 90s version, but it isn't as fun. We also got Ashley a copy of one of Dev's favorite movies: Family Man. He says that everybody needs to see that movie and he's right. It is really good. All in all, great to see Tori this year and get all the family together in one place at the same time!

On Christmas Eve I started me day bright and early at 4 am for a 10 hour shift at the hospital. Dev worked on the flooring and we met up at my parents house when I got off for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner. My mom always puts out tons of snacks before it is actually dinner, so of course most of us were full when it was time to eat. But at my parent's house Christmas Eve dinner is steak so how could you turn it down? We then did the annual drive down "Christmas Lane" to see all of the lights. This street seriously goes all out and it is ridiculous. To continue with traditions, my mom usually reads us a story around the Christmas tree, usually something that tugs on the heartstrings a little. This year my sister read the story and it was the one about the 3 Christmas Trees. It was way good! We then did the annual reading from Luke 2 and proceeded to open our one present. Normally we get pajama pants, but this year we all got new slippers...Devan's idea...and I thought it was great! To finish off the night we headed over to the Thompson's which we also do every year. They have lobster for Christmas Eve dinner so of course we have to hit that up! It's always nice to just sit and chat for awhile too.

Alrighty....Christmas Day. We made it to my parent's at 8am for presents. They of course were way too generous again. We got a Lowe's gift card, which we desperately needed, and the game Scrabble at Devan's request. I got some new cookie sheets and other stuff from Pampered Chef...sooooo nice...a new jacket, some new jewelry, and of course money. Dev got a new white shirt, new t-shirt, and money. My mom then made Swedish pancakes, which is a Gundersen tradition and they were delish. We then headed over to the Reese's and were the only one's there aside from the Millette's. We had German pancakes, a Reese tradition, and then opened our family exchange and sleigh gifts. We got the cutest nativity ever from Sherri. Grandma and Grandpa gave us money which of course is always exactly what we need. I then had to head to work at noon, but Dev stayed at his grandparents for awhile until his dad and the rest of his siblings showed up. He then spent the rest of day relaxing and working on the floors.

That night we had an ugly Christmas sweater party at James and Michelle's. They made a ham and everyone else was supposed to bring the side dishes. We were in charge of sweet potato pie. Turns out the entire world closes on Christmas... even Walmart! I didn't know Walmart ever closed! So, we had no sweet potatoes and ended up with mashed potatoes out of a box. Classy, I know. But the rest of the food was good and the pictures were HILARIOUS! We played an awesome game of pictionary and if I recall correctly, the girls kicked butt. The night was really fun, but probably would have been more enjoyable if I wasn't dead tired. Dev and I left a little early because we were both turning into zombies. That Christmas tradition will definitely be continuing through years to come though. It was great to be able to spend time with all our families and friends (and make time and a half at work). Pretty much awesome holidays.

And here is my little plug for New Year's Eve to finish off the year...we finished our wood floors. We didn't even realize that it was midnight. No fireworks, no news coverage, nothing. We are super boring, but my floors look dang good!!!!