A Very Merry Christmas Indeed!

Its hard to believe that Christmas is already gone. It came so fast and furious this year that I wish I would have had time to enjoy it more. Since Mike and I are both from Colorado it makes visiting our families quite convenient. We started off the break by spending the night in Salt Lake City with our friends Aaron and Viv. You simply cannot visit SLC during Christmas and not see the fabulous lights at Temple Square. This year the lights were all red, orange, white, and a touch pink. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was nice to reflect on the true meaning we celebrate Christmas, the birth of the Savior of the World. I love Christmas time but it is easy to get caught up on buying and receiving gifts, and lose track of what it is really all about. The Nativity at Temple Square always brings a warm tear to my eye as a see the humble circumstances in which the King of Kings was born into.





When we were in Littleton at Mike's house, we spent the majority of our time chilling with the family, shopping and eating. Mike was pretty happy because he got to eat Chipotle three times. I was happy because we ate at my favorite Mexican food restaurant, Jose O'Sheas. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.....

I finally met Edward!!! Well, kind of. This is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Edward.

This year we spent Christmas Day with my family. Last year when we were engaged we spent Christmas at Mike's house. At Mike's house they all get up at 7:30am, take a picture of everyone sitting on the stairs with bed head and pj's, and rush to open presents. My house is a little different. We all sleep in (I made Mike sleep in until 10am with me), then all of us sit and chat for a bit in the family room, drink some orange juice, and take about two hours to open presents. It has gotten pretty relaxed over the years because we are all older and our excitement doesn't wake us up at dawn anymore. We were pretty stoked about our gifts because my parents made Mike a huge apple green blanket. We also got a painting that my mom did of pelicans by the water, and I was so excited to get "Mamma Mia" on dvd. Mike is pretty excited about it too....not.



Since my parents only live an hour outside of Aspen we decided to take a little day trip. I really wanted to see some celebs but unfortunately did not. I heard Mariah Carey spends every Christmas there but she must have forgotten we were coming this year. Oh well. A funny thing happened though. Mike and I went into the Ralph Lauren store and some paparazzi followed us in to see if we were celebrities. When he found out we were just "common folk" he bounced.

"A little place called As-pen"

Mike hasn't being snowboarding for about three years, because of his mission and being in school, so we were finally able to go together. Dave and Mike snowboarded while I skied. The original plan was to ski at Vail but we just couldn't see ourselves forking out $1oo per ticket, so we were to Sunlight for $50 a pop. It definitely did not hold a candle to Vail but we still had a blast. Its nice being married to someone who is as passionate about skiing/snowboarding as I am.




One Christmas tradition we do in my parent's house is making tons on sugar cookies. They are pretty much taste like heaven.

Tis' the Season

When we returned to Rexburg after the break, we had a Christmas party at the Village Apt. lounge with a bunch of our friends. We ate dinner, exchanged white elephant gifts, had a girls vs. boys gingerbread making contest (the girls totally won!), and watched the movie "Elf." By the time the party was over it began to snow.

The girl's Gingerbread house. We totally beat the guys.

So typical....but cute.

Darlene and Me

Greg and Darlene Swapp

The girls

Aaron and Vivian Burrup

The boys

Each year the McCabe girls get together and make a Christmas craft. This year the craft was glass candle holders wrapped in tissue paper. I always enjoy crafts when they are simple and functional and this was definitely one of them. First, we painted a thin coat of Mod Podge on the candle holder, then put a layer of tissue paper on it, and finally put another layer on Mod Podge to seal the tissue and make it look glossy.

Austin, Sarah, Lauren, Mam Maw, Me, and Catherine

To kick off the holiday season we went Downtown Littleton, CO where they light the streets the day after Thanksgiving. Mike and the guys decided to stay home and watch football. They missed out!

Lauren excited to see Santa!