"Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy."

Friday, January 18, 2013

Christmas Eve

In the morning both Griff and I had to work... So my parents watched Blakelee until we got off. I only had to work till 2, Griff had to work a full shift.. Dang it!! When I got off I headed to my parents and we just hung out. When Griff got off he headed to my parents house. We wanted to go grab a bite to eat so we headed out and after driving around to a few restaurants we found that Applebee's was open!! We usually go to my Grandma Anderson's on Christmas Eve but they did their party a week early. So our Eve was very different. We played it by ear and just made it up as we went along. It ended up being a fun dinner with my parents!! When we got back to their house we watched a Christmas Story since it is on TV all day!!
Afterwards we headed out so we could go see his family. When we got to their house no one was home. They were out at the Airport picking Devin up since he has been on his Medical Rotations, he was only able to spend about 22 hours with us... Bummer!!! Once everyone was home we sat and chatted for a bit. I gave Griff 2 gifts that he was able to open, they were pj's for him and Blakelee!!! This is now our Tradition. I loved having one gift to open every Christmas Eve and being able to wear my new pj's to bed! We put Blake's and Beau to bed so we all could play some games. We played Bingo and Wolf, it was a very fun night!! We stayed up WAY to late but enjoyed every minute of it. 
Gifts from my parents to his!

What a great Christmas Eve.
We went to bed around 3am so Santa could come!!!

Christmas Party and Lights

On December 22nd my Grandma and Grandpa Payne had their Christmas Party. We usually do this party on Christmas morning but everyone is having their own traditions and so they decided that they better start having their party a day or 2 early. I got off work early so we were able to make it. We got spoiled!! Lots of fun gifts, cookie sheet, camping things, jewelry, shower gel, and Blakelee got some fun things as well, pillow pet and diapers!!! :)
After gifts we had a lunch and decided to play our White Elephant game. Instead of gifts we do gift cards. We play Apples to Apples and the first win gets to choose the GC that they want. We ended up with Walmart!! You can not go wrong with a card to there, we shop there so much!!
After the party my parents came out to our house to see our Christmas Decorations and give us part of our Christmas presents because it was a bit large!! They gave us a camp stove! We are so excited to use it :). Also they gave us storage shelves. We have been wanting to start our food storage in the basement but we just never had any place for it so now we do!! Yay thanks mom and dad you guys spoiled us. We got some Kneaders for dinner and then headed to Thanksgiving Point to see there lights with Lindsay and Zach's family (Griff didn't feel well this night so he stayed home to feel better.)
It was a very fun night seeing all the fun lights. Also very nice of Zach's mom and dad to invite us to tag along. Blake's fell asleep during the wagon ride. She was tired, it was a BIG day!!
Great night with some great people!!! Love this Holiday!

Temple Lights

The weekend before Christmas my family and us went to see the downtown temple lights!! It was such a perfect night. We went to Su Casa for dinner. It is a Anderson Family Tradition to eat there on the Eve of Christmas Eve. But since that was on a Sunday we decided to do it earlier. Once dinner was over we drove downtown to see all the pretty lights. We parked and took the tracks just so we didn't have to worry about parking around the temple. It was a very full night to choose to be down there. 
Blake's first tracks ride!!
Once we got to the lights we walked around for a bit and got some great pictures. It was pretty chilly my toes were frozen!!! Blake's was getting hungry so we headed to City Creek so we could get her out of the stroller and feed her.
On the way to City Creek we stopped to see the famous Candy Windows. I remember when I was little I loved seeing all the fun designs in the candy windows. When we stopped doing them I was beyond bummed. It is so good to have them back. Now hopefully Blakelee can grow up with this fun tradition for Christmas!!!
She had a great night, all snugly warm in her stroller and now with a full tummy. She was a trooper!!!
Love my family!! It is so much fun to see the lights and have this night with them! Griff and I have been going downtown for years together.
Love them!