Christmas Memories

First, I just want to start by saying that we love this time of the year. Even though it is so commercialized and it will only get worse, it's great that we can reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ. We can celebrate his glorious birth and ponder on the meaning of his life and the great impact it has on us. I feel the true meaning of Christmas the most when I am around family and friends, enjoying the great feelings and relationships; and making memories with the ones we love.

Wow! We had such a fun and relaxing break, I'm still not ready to go back to school. In two of my classes I already have assignments....which by the way, school doesn't officially start until Monday (when you figure that one out, let me know).

We stayed in Laramie for the first week of the break as I had to work, so Mark just hung out, ran errands for me and slept in. Then we headed to GR for two weeks. We stayed with the Harmon's for the first week and it was their turn for Christmas this year. We got to visit with Mark's oldest brother David and his wife Amy. We rarely see them so it was a good visit. (We're hoping they move to Laramie next school year!)



For Christmas Eve we went and hung out with my family and then went and ate dinner with the Harmon's at Umma and Umpa's (Grandma and Grandpa Norris's house). We acted out the Nativity and Mark and I were Mary and Joseph (we had to use a baby doll because didn't have any recent babies in the family). We then opened presents and went back to the Harmon's and talked with Mark's little brother Keith who is on a mission in Thailand. It took us 40 minutes to get through to him, but when we finally did it was so good to talk to him. He sounds like he is doing wonderful and we miss him. I can't believe he's been gone for over a year already.

Christmas morning we woke up early (6:15) and went over to my family's house (Mark's dad had to work until 2:00 pm- so we basically had Christmas all day long). At my parents house we had a lot of fun. My little sisters received a Nintendo Wii from Santa and we played that all morning. (I have a video of my dad boxing, but if I post it he probably wouldn't be too happy!) Mark and I received an AWESOME present from my parents.

Here is us opening it....



And here it is....





Yep! A trip to NEW YORK CITY!! We are so excited and will be going sometime this summer when we can figure out our schedules! Thanks Mom and Dad!

So later that afternoon we had Christmas with the Harmon's and it was also fun. Mark and his little brother Isaac got some Star Wars Miniatures (a game) that they played with for hours.

The next week of the break we stayed with my family and spend New Year's Eve/Day with them. My mom (and dad) conjured up some tasty snacks. It was funny because we had like 10 different kinds of snacks (stuffed jalapenos, stuffed mushrooms, seven-layer bean dip, shrimp dip, and the list goes on and on....) and there were six people there. Let's just say the snacks lasted for many days and they were soooo goood! Other than that we just hung out, ate lots of food, played games, ate more food, watched movies, and ate lots more food (gotta love the holidays!)

Here are just some other random pictures from the break:

K and J on Christmas morning (don't they look beautiful)!



Brothers (5 out of 8)