Christmas!

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It's funny how there is this big anticipation for this one big day, and then all of a sudden it's over. Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We are in Utah right now, staying with Dan's family. We got here on Monday, the 21st.

Anna got a lot of good stuff. It was so cute to see her open gifts. It took a gift or two, but she finally got the concept of opening gifts. She got some new books, which I'm extremely happy about because I was getting tired of her old ones. :) We usually read about 10+ books a day, so day after day, it gets very repetitive. :) Her grandpa made her some wooden blocks, complete with a wooden carrying case. He made one block with pictures of me, dan, a horse, cat, dog, etc. You roll the block and whatever it lands on, you can spell that word with the blocks he made. I thought that was a clever idea. He is very talented with wood. Last year, he made her a rocking horse! I'll have to post pictures later, because I haven't downloaded them yet and want to wait to do it on our computer at home.

She also got a little doll, a cute pair of pajamas, and the CUTEST little ballerina outfit with a tutu, a leotard and ballet shoes. I cannot wait to put it on her and take pictures. We bought her a little music instrument set-maracas, tambourine, cymbals, the triangle, etc. Plus a leapfrog toy and some books.

We decided for us this year to just get a certain amount of money and we can buy our own gifts and then buy each other a small gift. I got Dan an iTunes gift card because he is always wanting to buy music. However, I didn't want him to guess what I got him, so I wrapped it in a small box and put a book in there to trick him. I told him I got his gift at Michael's (which is true, but I knew it would throw him off). He kept insisting he knew what it was, but I knew he was wrong!

He tricked me pretty well this year. I told him I could use some ink pens for my cricut machine. I told him he could get it at Michaels and I even had a coupon for him to use. Well, he went there a few days before we left and I knew he was going to get it. He came home and said he was going to wait to get it in Utah. Then a few days before xmas, we went to the mall and he said he needed to get my gift. Then, a while later we met up at a bookstore in the mall and he had bought my gift. Well...Christmas morning I open my gift and it was the pens I wanted. He had bought my gift before we left for Utah, and went to the mall, just to throw me off! He got me pretty good this year. I thought that he had gotten me jewelry.

Christmas was good and it was just so nice to be with family and enjoy each other's company. Dan's family has some funny traditions. One of them is running out in the snow xmas morning, barefoot. Their front yard has a slight downhill slope and a bush at the end. You're supposed to run out and touch the bush and come back and warm your feet by the fire. Well, this year it was so cold that the snow had become crusty, so it hurt to run it it. Oh, the crazy family I married into. :)

Little Anna has been loving life here at grandma and grandpa's house. They have a dog and 2 cats and she just loves being with them. The cats don't care for her and usually run away when they see her. When she does get to be with the cat, she keeps wanting to poke it in the eye or grab a tail! Then when the cat or dog go away, she says bye-bye titty/dada. It's so adorable. Everyone just loves little Anna.

Tomorrow, the 27th, is our 3 year anniversary! We decided to go skiing on Monday. I'm looking forward to going skiing with Dan. We've never gone together and the last time I went was 4 years ago. I'm just hoping we don't break anything. :) I'll write more about that later.