"Our" Christmas

Nick and I have become very close with a couple of great families here in Las Vegas. Since it was Christmas time, it was the perfect opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation to these families and show our love for them. We decided that putting together some Christmas goodies would be fun! I made homemade oreo's chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate pretzels(you know, the ones with m&m's and melted kisses?)! :)



I made tags for each one! Using wax paper and tissue paper, I stuffed these Christmas containers full of goodies!!


Here is the finished product! We ended up making 5 of them. We delivered them the "knock and run" method because of the number we had to deliver and the distance between each persons house. We are usually pretty sneaky at "knocking and running", but this time we got caught everything! :) Each person ended up calling us afterwards and visiting with us! :) It was great! I love doing simple and fun things for other people. We are truly grateful for these families and others who have been so kind and welcomed us to Vegas. Living here as been SO much better than I had hoped for. Nick and I have LOVED it and have these kind welcoming families to thank! Merry Christmas!!




Nick and I decided that it would be fun to have "Our" Christmas together before going home to Wyoming for Christmas. We decided that Saturday the 20th would be a great day to celebrate for 2 reasons. First, we leave for Wyoming on Monday; and second, the 20th is special because it marked 6 months of being married to one another. Man... how time flys!! We had a great day! Nick got home from work that morning around 10 am. We had breakfast and then opened presents. As you can see from the picture, the present on the right is the one that Nick wrapped for me. :) It's a pretty large present for such a little girl huh? And you have to admit that the wrapping job is classic! Nice work babe!!

We enjoyed watching one another open each present. Afterwards we watched "A Christmas Story" while I finished preparing Christmas Diner/lunch. :) We did our first Christmas ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, ceaser salad, and green beans. It was pretty tasty!! :) I was surprised that it all turned out so well. After that we had planned to go sledding with the tube that Nick got us for Christmas...BUT... our planned had changed due to FOOTBALL!! :) Nick got a call from Jason and Claire right as he arrived home from work telling him that he had free extra tickets for the Las Vegas Bowl. Let me explain how big of a deal this is!! Nick had been looking for FREE tickets for the last month for him and mostly his dad, and finally gave up and then we get this phone call. SO... we changed our plans. How could I tell him we weren't going to go to the game after all the nice things he always does for me? Plus the tickets weren't exactly cheap and we got them for FREE. So after diner/lunch we took a nap and then got ready to go to the Las Vegas Bowl! :)

This years Las Vegas Bowl was Arizona vs. BYU! Right when we got to the game, Nick called his dad to rub it in a little, and he was SOOO upset that he couldn't be AT the game. Nick explained the situation about the tickets to his dad and of course he understood. By the end of the game his dad was glad that he didn't go sit in the cold to watch BYU loose! It wasn't exactly FREEZING outside that night, but it wasn't WARM either. We got ALL bundled up, but since I'm such a wimp he gave in a took me home at the beginning of the 4th quarter. It was a pretty fun day! That tube will just have to wait until we get back from Wyoming! :)
Check out all our pics (Since it was "our" Christmas morning, I made it look that way as I hadn't showered or gotten ready for the day!)

P.S. My family will probably be the only ones to know how much this means to me... BUT... Nick found out that my FAVORITE Christmas songs are by, of course, The Oak Ridge Boys! :) Nick searched and searched all over Vegas and he got me their Christmas CD!! :) :) :) Now we can make it our tradition to listen to it when decorating the tree and house!! :) Thanks babe!


This week Nick and I also found a Condo that we'll be moving into once we return home from Wyoming. We're moving out of this house sooner than we had planned, but we're VERY EXCITED and can't wait to have our "own" place! We've been very blessed to be able to stay in this house as it has allowed us to save money and learn a great deal of responsibility. With the challenges we both faced trying to "keep-up" this house (replacing water heater, having rusty water, cleaning out the pipelines, cleaning the pool, digging up plants due to the HOA's request and finding out later we dug up the WRONG ones), we've decided that houses are TOO much responsibility and we'll be happy to live in a condo the rest of our lives!!! (kind of joking!!) We're also excited to get all the moving done before school starts again! Moving in the middle of a semester would not have been very much fun! Our condo will be closer to school and work for the both of us and now we wont have to spend 1 hour trying to travel only 10 miles because of the ridiculous traffic!! It will be a 10 min drive traveling maybe 5 miles. Things are going great and we're very excited for the upcoming year and the things that it will bring! :) I have to get back to packing now... we'll be landing in Montana in exactly 24 HOURS!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS to EVERYONE!!! Have a GREAT week with all your loved ones!!