Christmas

I'm a little late on this post...oops. Sorry.

Let me preface this post by saying a few things about Christmas. I grew up, an only child, loving Christmas because I was the only one opening presents. It was the bomb. Then I married RJ and he has continued to spoil me on Christmas, and I love him for it. This year was Blaine and RJ's turn to be spoiled, and I loved it even more. Blaine received a ridiculous amount of presents this year...some of which come with a warning that say, "4+ years." So we have boxes everywhere that I have almost found a spot for. Almost. Coming back to Rexburg made me twitchy because we now have even more stuff that I have to find a spot for. A lot of stuff. As in we had to drive two cars from Utah to Idaho to fit everything. And we have to lower Blaine's crib mattress, which means that we have even less space under there. Hmph.

Christmas was a lot of fun, though. It started on December 22nd with my parents. Blaine attempted to open presents, but mostly became really frustrated. He enjoyed playing with everything once it was open, though. And of course the wrapping paper. That was his favorite part.

We flew into Salt Lake in time for the Evershed Christmas Eve Party where Blaine met Santa for the second time. It didn't go well with this Santa...

I was really excited to help my mother-in-law, Paula, wrap all the presents. Next year I'm going to ask to see everything before I start wrapping.

 These pictures don't do it justice. There were way too many presents. I was literally wrapping presents for 4 hours and then I refused to wrap anymore, so RJ took my spot and finished up the last hour without me. I should also add that these pictures only show the presents for Christmas morning. They don't show the presents for the two exchange parties that we had.

Blaine seriously scored this year. His favorite presents are his little piano, his bead maze, fire truck, and dump truck.

RJ and I started a new tradition this year where everyone in the family gets new jammies for Christmas. We all opened them on Christmas Eve, but they were my present from RJ. I forced him to take this nasty picture in front of tree because I wanted a true, Christmas morning picture to look back on. I regret that idea now.

Anyway...

RJ also gave me the newest book by my favorite author, and I scored with a ton of gift cards, a new down comforter, a ton of clothes, and a video baby monitor. I also got a Brave doll, which I am super excited about. She's clearly the best Disney Princess.

As a couples gift we were given a gift card to Sam's Club and a wireless router so we don't have to use our ghetto Ethernet cord anymore. Awesome. 

RJ got a new golf club that he's really been wanting, a couple of new jackets, two Redskins shirts that I convinced him he wasn't getting, golf balls and tees, some shirts, a Blu-ray player and two movies, an XBOX game, and a one year subscription for XBOX live.  Oh, and he also got socks. I was handing out the presents on Christmas morning, and I specifically handed him his bag of socks after everyone had opened something really exciting. He was so excited to open his first present and then he pulled out socks. We laughed hysterically. He didn't think it was as funny.

I think the most exciting thing for me this year, though, was that it was my very first white Christmas AND I saw an elk in the backyard! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him, but it was one of the most exciting and scary things I've ever seen. There was so much snow that he came up from the canyon to eat right at the backdoor. He. Was. Huge.

Our New Years was kind of quiet, and we actually celebrated early so we could all get to bed. It's Evershed tradition to go skiing on New Year's Day, so everyone needed to go to bed early. We went to Hire's Big H for dinner with Nathan and Morgan and their families, and then played games with Paula and Roger. We went to bed around 10 after having an early countdown. Yeah, I know, we're lame.

We did eat something spicy on New Year's Day for dinner though, Mom & Dad!


Right before we left Salt Lake Blaine learned how to pull himself up to his knees, which meant he had a blast crawling around on furniture. Or getting things previously out of his reach.

He also uses this new found technique to torture Lola when he finds her minding her own business on the couch. She has retreated to the very top of the couch, since he can't reach her there. Yet.