Christmas 2014

I was lucky enough to have both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off that year! It will probably never happen again so we made sure to make the most of it. Andrew worked a half day on Christmas Eve so after he got home, we ran a couple of errands and headed to his dad's house for chili, gifts, and an outing to go look at Christmas lights. It was a perfect start to our Christmas.

Christmas morning we woke up to find that Santa had come! Santa was so good to both of us this year. Later in the morning, my parents, my brother and his wife, and Andrew's mom came over for more gifts, Christmas movies, snacks, and finally a yummy Christmas dinner. It was so nice to have our family over in our home with us on Christmas Day.

The following Sunday we celebrated Christmas with Andrew's mom, his brother and his wife and their three kids, and the dogs. We hung out, exchanged even more gifts, and finished off our Christmas celebration on a high note.

As we get older, the holidays start to have a different meaning to us. After such a tough year, we just wanted to be with our family. We didn't care so much about gifts. We didn't care so much about what the world was doing. We just wanted to celebrate the birth of our Savior with the ones we love most. We truly felt the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts and are already looking forward to future Christmases.

      Christmas Day 2014

      Christmas Eve 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

We did Thanksgiving a bit differently this year. I was scheduled to working Thanksgiving night and knew I would need to sleep in the afternoon, so we planned on having our Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday night. I had spent Wednesday afternoon preparing the complete Thanksgiving meal. We invited Andrew's mom over and we ate as soon as Andrew got home from work.

Thanksgiving day was spent lounging and napping before work. Andrew went over to his uncle's house for Thanksgiving dinner and I was able to stop by on my way to work. Although we did things a bit differently this Thanksgiving, we definitely enjoyed the holiday and the extra opportunity to reflect on our blessings and thank our Heavenly Father for all He has blessed us with.