Christmas and New Years Resolutions!

Christmas Eve was spent at the Martin's eating homemade pizza and watching A Christmas Story. It was a lot of fun to have everyone together before the big day. But we did have to get home early so that Santa wouldn't miss us!
The next morning for Christmas Alex got toothbrush heads in his stocking..... of course ;)

And a brand new scarf that's definitely soft and black. I don't know where the picture went of him holding his cousins gift from Collin, but it was really cute. A gift card to Sears that came in a cute little Craftsman tool box. He's so excited to get tools!!

Alex gave me this AWESOME nail file that never dulls. It's made out of glass and crystal and will last forever as long as I don't drop it.... hmmmm
He also gave me an itunes gift card (so did the Martins) so I can get all the music I've been asking for!! I'm so excited. When he bought the nail file it came with this cute little bear named Argyle... don't know why, but we love the style of argyle..... so this little bear is perfect for us.

After our own Christmas at home we headed to the Martin's for some DELICIOUS sweet rolls!
We gave Jim a universal gun cleaning kit and he was just as excited as if he didn't already know what he was getting. Genuine smiles :)

Taunya spends some time reading in her house so along with her clock, we gave her a fluffy throw. I almost thought about keeping it.....

Alex got one of his favorite tools to date. A dremel and all the fixins with it. He was so excited that all the pictures we have of him opening it are blurry or his face is covered by the dremel. Thanks Jenny and Jim & Taunya.
Adrienne is just flowing with the style of the headbands this year. WE LOVE HER!!!

Sad to say we had to leave before the rest of the Martin clan got there, but we did see them a few days later and got caught up on all the goodies that Santa brought.
Afterword we headed to the Hoffmann's for Christmas dinner. Since mom and dad are taking us to Hawaii in June, we didn't really "do" gifts this year. They did however remind us of our trip with a few Hawaiian decorations, including our own dancing hula girl and "plane tickets."

Later that night Alex and I had brought our new game for Christmas for everyone to play. It's called Curses and is one of the funniest games EVER!! Here's mom following her curse cards: talking into your hand like you're on a CB radio, talk in a high pitched voice, speak as though you are Scooby Doo - beginning all your words with R's. And that was just her list. Everyone had a plethora of curses and it was HILARIOUS.

Dad treated us all to caramel popcorn, to which we were all grateful. Even the neighbors who came over because they could smell it. Right Amanda? ;)

Our headbands may look a little different than Adrienne's but it's the same concept. Ben's ex-wife made us girls these headbands... yeah she made them!

Our Christmas tradition for this year was a puzzle. We started it on the 24th and finished it on the 30th. If every puzzle was as hard as this one, I don't think we'll keep it as a tradition. I mean seriously, the trees were hard enough but the snow!!?! We thought we'd never finish. Now we don't want to put it away, cause we know we'll never put it back together again.
It was such a good Christmas with family and friends. I can't believe it's here and gone already. We missed you Tom, Rayne, Josh & Brooke, and can't wait to see you in a couple months!

New Year's Eve!!
My sister's birthday is on this eventful day. So I must first give her a shout out - Happy 29th!! Sorry you are sick and hope you feel better soon.
I spent the morning with my parents traveling to Ogden to visit some family. Our first stop was my grandma, who bless her heart ALWAYS has peanut m&m's in a dish just waiting to be scarffed down.

This lady has more m&m's than I could ever dream of having in my house at one time.... and that's saying something, coming from me! I snapped a shot of her pantry where THREE more DOUBLE XXL bags of these delicious treats were just waiting to be eaten.

While we were trying to figure out what to eat for lunch, Grandma asked us all what kind of food we like. I said, "m&m's!!" and then said, "My dad likes them too!" ;) Well wouldn't you know, she went out into her garage and brought out ANOTHER XXL bag of m&m's and gave it to him!!! This woman is crazy about her m&m's..... maybe there's something in having her name as my middle name that gave me the same crazy love for m&m's?

We had planned to spend the evening with my family after we got back from Ogden, but when Alex got a call from his good friend Jason that we was having a special concert at his house, Alex rushed to come get me and we headed over.
Jason has been a good friend of Alex's for a long time and he'd told us about this concert a few weeks ago, but wasn't sure when it would be happening. Well last night was the surprise concert and we were delighted to be on the short guest list. The performer was Kalai and if you haven't heard of him.... well you should. My favorite album of his is Accousticism - it truly is divine. But not only does he have a gift for music, he is HILARIOUS!! I've seen him in concert with my sister before but I've never been up close and personal with him.
Kalai and Jason have known each other for a few years because of different circumstances and have recently recorded a CD together. He played a few songs on his own last night and then did a few with Jason, and they were AMAZING!

This is one of my favorite songs, and he played it with Jason. We sat front row in his living room.

Jason is one of the coolest guys I've ever had the privilege to know. He has such a spirit about him and I can see why he and Kalai get along because they're both hilarious.After the concert we headed back to my parents house to squeeze out the old year and rush in the new. We had a fire in the living room, COOKIES!!!Made by my dad, And a tantalizing round of Apples to Apples (which I won!)Followed by our Midnight celebration with sparkling cider! CHEERSThe boys lit fireworks outside, but I think they were just stink bombs cuase it smelled like Yellowstone in our backyard.Careful Jacob!

Adrienne - I hope you had a good new year on the plane. Sorry we didn't get a chance to say good bye. We thought we could swing by before Jason's but with such short notice you were gone by the time the concert ended. We miss your face and can't wait to see you again!!

Once it was officially January we decided to give dad his birthday present. His birthday is Jan. 5th and since we wouldn't be here I wanted to see his face when he opened his latest Glenn Beck treasure. For some reason dad likes to watch all those political shows, but Glenn seems to hold a special place in his heart. I hope you like this dad!!

Old year in REVIEW:
Resolutions .... COMPLETE!!!!! Yes that's right, if none of you remember I definitely have. My New Year's resolutions last year included me not buying any shoes this whole year. It's a miracle because I seriously didn't buy a single pair. That's not to say that I didn't see many cute pairs that would have been perfect for my feet. I also completed a race, which Elaina and I have decided to make a tradition. Here's an open invitation to anyone who would ever like to do it too. As for the blogging thing, well I did blog more than I ever had before, but I didn't make Alex do it too much. It's really not his thing and I'm the one obsessed with pictures, so we'll count him out of this one.
He did complete most of his goals too. His major is Information Technology with an emphasis in security systems - whatever that means? He did also eat cereal pretty much every morning. He would have eaten it every day had it not been for me asking to make something different like waffles once in a while. Thanks hunnie!

So overall, a successful year and I will NEVER make the same resolutions twice ;)
My new years resolution is to be a more positive and creative person. (I got all these wonderful craft tools and ideas from Taunya so don't be surprised if ya'll start getting awesome looking cards) As for other goals.... they are yet to be decided.

Enjoy your new year!!!!