December

Wow! It's almost been a month since my last post! That feels like forever to me. December has been pretty busy. We'll have put about 3000 miles on our poor car by the time we're back home in a week.

After Michael's last final we headed out of town. We got away later than we expected, so we ended up having to grab a hotel for the night rather than make it all the way to my parent's place. It got down to -20 degrees that night where we were! Crazy cold.

We spent a little less than a week with my parents. I got to celebrate my birthday there. 24 years old! Some of you may laugh, but I'm feeling really old now. Not the cutest picture, but oh well.


We did a mini-Christmas before we left. Jessica loves her doll things she got, especially the stroller. Thanks!

Then it was off to spend some time with Michael's family. More driving... and more... and more. But it felt so good to be in some beautiful weather. Jessica LOVED playing with her cousins. She and Emma would spend at least an hour every night in the bathtub.  The night of Christmas Eve we went to the temple to wander around and look at the lights. Afterwards we had hot chocolate and snacks. It's one of my favorite traditions.


Christmas itself was super fun! It's always nice to be around little kids on Christmas and see their excitement. We kept it pretty simple this year for Jessica. We gave her some coloring stuff, stickers, a baby doll, some snacks, a book, and a kids makeup set (which she and Emma got lots of use out of). From others she got some cute princess dolls, bath stuff, an adorable cape, and I'm sure some more. She was in heaven!

For the most part, Michael and I decided to save aside some money and choose some things after Christmas. But we each got a couple things for each other. We're one of those weird couples that is totally fine with getting/giving exercise stuff. Michael got me some and weights as well as some books I'd wanted. I gave Michael some of those "Perfect Pushup" things as well as a shirt and some stuff for his new Mexican-cooking obsession. The funny thing about the push-up things is that Michael's sister got her husband the same thing! We're going to have ourselves some buff husbands. :)


Michael's little brother Adam has his mission farewell (or whatever it's called now) the Sunday after Christmas. It was great to be able to be there and hear him speak. He'll be an incredible missionary and we're all so proud of him. We took some great pictures before church that day.


Adam went into the MTC that Wednesday. It was my fourth time there. I don't think it ever gets any easier to say goodbye. We're proud of him.


After the MTC we went over to the BYU Bookstore to wander a little bit. Jessica was being a little pig all day and I was totally on my last nerve with her. Next thing I know she just head-butts me as hard as she could. It came as such a shock I started to cry. I felt like such a nerd. Then we ran into some friends of our from back in San Diego. So there I was all red-eyed and whatever. Angela, I swear I'm not that much of a head-case most of the time! :) It was so good to see them anyways.

Last night we made the drive back to my parent's place. Michael will be working for about a week. Then it's back to school for out LAST semester! Hooray! I am so looking forward to having a real job and finally being done with school!