Our first Christmas without family.

This Christmas was Brent and my first Christmas without any family, so we did not get out of bed until about nine in the morning. We then read Luke 2 and said our family prayers and then it was gift opening time. Payton went first, Brent was skeptical that Payton would open his own presents, but low and behold he did it (with a little help from me (just a little bit)).

I swear Brent is the best husband ever!!! Even though he made me go out on black Friday to buy this AND he made me wrap it AND he made me wait until Christmas to open it, he is still the best hubby ever. He also let me buy some slippers and he was nice enough to let me wear them for the last month, I think it is because I was always stealing his slippers.

We bought Brent some cute PJs so that we could take some pics on christmas eve, but we did not get around to taking any so here are some of him on Christmas morning. I want to start the tradition that we always get a pair of PJs on Christmas eve but I am not so sure that Brent likes that idea.
Brent got a recipe for sugar cookies from Holly his sister, and she told him it would make about 100 cookies, but numbers for Brent do not always register. So as we were making these cookies I asked him how many does this recipe make he said oh about a hundred or so. What on earth are two people going to do with a hundred and some odd cookies? So we went around giving all of the people that Brent home teaches dozens of cookies, and the sister missionaries are coming for dinner tonight so we will give them a dozen or so too.
A word from Brent: Never try to mix something that has 6 cubes of butter and 8 cups of flour with a hand mixer, and in a bowl with really shallow sides for at least two reasons: 1 Hand mixers are weak little things, nothing like the Bosch mixer my mom had growing up and 2 With our kitchen being the size of a soup can that cookie dough can fly all of the way across the kitchen underneath the fridge (which we might just leave (hopefully our landlord is not reading this)).

School Is Out!

Last Friday was Brent's last day of finals and school for the semester. Brent worked really hard this semester; I'm very proud of him and all his hard work. Brent really loves school, but he was definitely ready for a break and I was ready to get to see him a little more and spend more time with him. We decided that we needed to celebrate so last Friday night we went out on a double date with some friends. First we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, the food was really good. Then we went to the theatre and watched the musical Sweeney Todd. I have been excited about going to this for a few months. For those of you who don't know Sweeney Todd the movie came out this last summer with Johny Depp, it was one I wanted to go see, but it was rated R so I didn't get to watch it. When I found out that it was coming to town I was very excited. I really enjoyed it, for a musical all about murder and revenge and a barber on a killing spree I think they did it pretty tastefully.

Our Tree!!!

Well here it is, our cute Christmas tree. Yes, Payton has his own stocking and presents. Since last year was our first Christmas together as a married couple we bought each other ornaments; Brent got me a "World's Greatest Hairstylist" blow dryer ornament and I got Brent a Red Sox jersey ornament. Sadly Brent didn't feel that Payton needed both a stocking and an ornament, so he got the stocking since I already had a small homemade one courtesy of my sister Debbie.

A Little Behind

So I know that I'm a little behind on posting but I figure it's better late than never. This year for Thanksgiving Brent's mom and dad came to our house. It was so nice to have them here for a few days. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, and lots of leftovers. Mom helped to teach me how to cook a turkey, dressing, and sweet potatoes. It was so much fun. Brent's mom and I got up bright and early to hit the sales at Walmart on Black Friday. It was great, I'm not the die hard early morning shopper, but it is fun to go and look for good deals. It was a great few days with family. We were so happy to have visitors and Payton always has fun when Brent's parents come to visit. Brent has finals next week and then he is done until January, I'm so excited for him to be able to have a break for a few weeks and to be able to have him at home a little more. I'm getting really excited for Christmas. We put up all of our Christmas decorations on Sunday, which didn't take long, we have a very small tree, stockings, and a Nativity; but it gets me even more excited to have it all set up.