the Christmas buildup

  One of our favorite traditions is going to the University of St. Thomas to play in some wonderfully awful snow. :) It was hard and icy. But oh so fun. I'm afraid that this is as good as it gets in Houston.

They have a ceremonial Tree lighting at #universityofstthomas #deckthemall #notcatholic #christmasenthusiasts It was really fun being with old friends again.

The highlight was definitely the Camel riding though #wethreekings #bff #universityofstthomas #lilmissaria #myjeffyboy #serbianfriends #lovethewaytheytalk

In memoriam: Bessie - my 2nd car, Nate's first. I got pulled over in her the first time I asked Nate out. Our honeymoon getaway vehicle, Brought home our two greatest joys from the hospital, 5 moves, she fits a two person lovesac in her trunk, 250,000+ - she was a warrior. Hope you love her as much as we do HPM #npr

 In December we went to our friend's house, the Jenks. We met them our first year here and we've loved going to their parties every year. They play fun and awkward games and brilliantly awful gift exchanges. One of the white elephant gifts this year was flavored crickets. Nate was brave enough. I was definitely too nauseous to try any of that sort of thing. That was the first night I really got scared with this pregnancy. I was only one week in and we hadn't told anybody. When we got home from the party I was bleeding. I hadn't bled with any other pregnancy during the first trimester excepting my ectopic and I was panicking. I even forgot to give the babysitter a little extra money for doing the dishes because I was so consumed with anxiety. I bled off an on for the next few months but we made it through that first trimester unscathed.

We've slowly been making friends here. One of Jeff's favorite people is actually Aria's age and one day, Jeff came up to me and says "Look, I'm Dallin!" haha. It's so true. Dallin always wears his hat like that.

I got creative this year. Those are a bunch of fabric triangles that I used spray adhesive to attach to the wall. I loved creating it.

This year, Nate and I have been singing in a choir called Consono. It's a local LDS choir. For one event we sang at this chapel that has a week long nativity event where they have hundreds of nativities set up in the 'gym' and they have guest artists come in and provide music. On the way home, the kids fell asleep like this. I documented it because I just adore how much they love each other. Even when they're sleeping.

We did gingerbread houses! I bought them this year because frankly, I just didn't have the energy. But we had so much fun.

We got our Christmas present. New chairs from West Elm. I'm obsessed with them. They are the love of my life... haha jk. But the kids loved making towers and forts out of the boxes. They loved it.

Aria had her first real piano recital! Not that the ones I hosted weren't real... they were, but her first one without me as her teacher. Her new teacher gives away statues for high performers.

"Joy to the World!"

 Nate is always taking pictures of me. This is before I knew I was pregnant, but I suspected it.. :)

 I do love wearing red.

 We had another great Christmas party hosted by the Auvenshine's. They say we helped plan it, but we didn't. :) Either way it was nice to get out for a nice linner. They have this tradition where they go out all fancy for this meal at like 3:00 in the afternoon. It was super challenging for me to get there when they were having it so I'm hoping I'll be able to change that in the future. It was the first time in a long time that I didn't feel guilty about eating bread at a restaurant! Part of it was that I was starving starving. Pregnant and not telling at this point...

We opened Christmas a few days before we left to go to Utah so we didn't have to haul a bunch of stuff with us. One of the favorites was this table pingpong set from Uncle Ben and Aunt Michaila. It was a good warm up for the Radmall Wigwam. :)

Here we are ...6 am... headed to Utah. I was so nauseous....but at least I looked cute. :) The kids obviously had bedhead.

Got my hairs cut before Christmas. It was nice to get a fresh start. Again... hard to keep my mouth shut about the pregnancy... I was so excited. I also went to lunch with my friend Heidi who was about 8 weeks ahead of me. We were both miserable at lunch together.

We decorated Chrismas cookies for Santa with the cousins.

 Cafe Rio with the Grandparents in Cedar Ciy is pretty amazing too.
I quite possibly had the best meal of my life that night #lunchthenextdaytoo #grandparentsgreatatthekidstable #caferio

Had our traditional Christmas Eve program... with Grandpa Swallow's yearly reading of the Night before Christmas.

And all the kids are here in their brand new PJ's... At this point.. Aria was starting to get very disappointed about all the Minnie Mouse stuff. She just didn't know that Minnie mouse stuff implied a vacation to Disneyland. Ha! Love these cousins.

Christmas day we got to say hi to our very favorite missionary! Love you Uncle Devin.