Merry Christmas!

We had such a nice Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve dinner with my mom and little sister, and had a nice ham dinner. Then we swung by Nate's parents' house and visited with them for a little bit. That evening we snuggled and watched a Christmas show before falling asleep. Nate set his alarm for 5 am, like usual he can't wait to open presents on Christmas morning, he's like a kid at Christmastime. As is our tradition, Nate and I spend Christmas morning just the two of us. Nate read us the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures and then we went downstairs to open gifts. We both were totally spoiled. Nate went to take out the garbage and we were shocked to see that there about a foot of snow on our back steps. Nate and I went to his parents' for lunch at 1 pm and it was nice to have his whole family there. That evening we stopped by my mom's place and played some games with my mom and sister. A busy day, but a nice day. We were tired when we got home, but we both commented on how much we love Christmas and love having so much time together at this holiday season. Christmas is always a little hard for us. It such a family oriented season, and it's hard to not have children this time of year. But Nate does a great job of making me feel loved and I'm so grateful to share my Christmas with him.

Christmas morning.



We're hoping to adopt, check our profile out at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800 and feel free to pass it along!

Christmas Prep

My favorite holiday is coming soon! I love all things Christmas. My goal is to have all my Christmas decorations and tree up by December 1st each year. Then I get to relax and enjoy them all month long. So this last Monday for family night, Nate and I got to work decorating. We got a new tree this year and I love how big and full and grand it is. The only part of decorating I don't like is fluffing/straightening out the tree branches, but it's so worth it in the end. I've been enjoying the last five days of having the tree on all day. It's so soothing and peaceful to have it on. Tonight for our date night activity we kept our tradition alive and purchased our ornaments and Christmas book for the year. My ornament is called moonlit sleigh ride and Nate's is a really cool three wise men one. Nate picked out our Christmas book this year, it's by the same author that wrote "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." I love having the house all decorated, and with the exception of one person, our Christmas shopping is complete. Now we get to enjoy the rest of the month and celebrate the reason for the season!

Cute Nate getting the tree put together.

Our completed tree, I need to take a better picture.

My new ornament. I love that it sits on a bulb and gets illuminated in the back.

Nate's new ornament for 2015.

Our new Christmas book. We always had lots of Christmas books growing up, so it's been fun to carry on that tradition.

We're hoping to adopt, check our profile out at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800 and feel free to pass it along!

Thanksgiving Re-Cap

This year was our year to spend Thanksgiving with Nate's family. We all spent the holiday week up in Park City. I think there was a total of 24 of us gathered together. Unfortunately not everyone was able to stay the whole week, but we had a blast still. Each married couple was in charge of a dinner one night for everyone and an activity. Nate and I made meatball sliders and salad for our dinner and I made a Thanksgiving themed bingo game for our activity. We used skittles as our bingo markers and that definitely was the highlight of the game for the nieces and nephews! Other activities included Bunco, making homemade turtles, minute to win it games, and there were multiple trips to the hot tubs and pool. Nate and I usually hit up the outlets when we go to Park City, but we didn't make it there this trip. For our Thanksgiving meal we divided the labor. Everyone was in charge of a dessert to share and a certain dish. Nate and I made the stuffing, a green bean casserole, and a salted caramel chocolate crusted cheesecake. I have to admit, I really enjoy cooking with Nate. We have a lot of fun in the kitchen and I love watching his cooking skills grow. He'll tell you he's not very good in the kitchen, but that's simply not true. It was a really nice holiday and both Nate and I had a great time with his family. A big thanks to Ben and Katie for making our Park City trip possible! We came home on Black Friday and spent some time with my mom and sister Kelley. No Black Friday shopping for us, it's too crazy. We did get a few cyber Monday deals though. Once we came home, it took me a few days to adjust. It was so quiet at our house compared to Park City! I missed having breakfast with the nieces and nephews and having them come in and jump on my bed. Nate and I agreed, we need some kids to liven up our house, especially around the holidays! All in all, Thanksgiving was so fun and I loved having so much time together with Nate.

One of Nate's many trips swimming.

This is just after playing our minute to win it games where Nate totally cheated!

Nate posing with our green bean casserole on Thanksgiving. Does it still count as a vegetable dish if you add cheese and bacon to it?

My plate, yes, I am a picky eater. No gross stuffing or sweet potatoes for me.

A slice of the cheesecake I made. Nate definitely wants it made again. It's a really time consuming dessert so I told him I can only make it on special occasions.

We're hoping to adopt, check our profile out at http://adoption.com/profiles/nksmithfamily-1800 and feel free to pass it along!