Wicked!

As a Christmas gift, Justin's parents took the family to see the musical Wicked at the Pantages theatre in Hollywood. It was so much fun!! The musical was really good, and a lot funnier than I thought it would be. I'd have to say "Popular" was my favorite song. It was fun to go out as a family and enjoy a night on the town!
Here's a little picture of me and Justin outside the theatre after the show, it was great!!
Here's all the Ashton's lined up and waiting for the second act to begin.

Christmas with the Ashtons

Our Christmas time with the Ashtons had lots of events! We had a Christmas party with Justin's dad side of the family, and there it was determined that Justin and I are a great ping pong team! The only time we lost was to each other, which I have to say, makes me feel pretty victorious! On Christmas eve we decorated some sugar cookies with his family, and some of the boys judged the cookies to determine which cookies were decorated the best. Although I absolutely adored my white Christmas tree cookie, it didn't place in the top three, nor did it receive an honorable mention!! I still feel a little robbed, but I guess theres always next year.














The night after Christmas we had a Christmas party with all of Justin's siblings and his mom's side of the family. We had another ultimately tasty meal for dinner, and then opened presents and spent some time together. That day Justin and his brothers received remote controlled helicopters as gifts, a they really put them to work. Justin pretty much can focus solely on his 'flying' and not notice anything else going on in the room! I haven't seen him this focused since his fantasy football league! But he loves flying his helicopter for Brody to watch, that little guy can be quite focused as well, hmm....















He're some family pictures of us at our various parties, and I love Brody's face in this one of the two of us. It was so fun picking out presents for Brody, and it was great that I didn't have to hide his presents around the house!

Christmas day with the Hatters

Since Justin and I are from the same city, we always have two families to share Christmas with. Although traveling between the two families can be a little tricky, it's fun to see everyone and share the holidays with lots of family.
Justin is showing our little display of Christmas presents. As you can imagine, the biggest package is for Brody. With Justin's helped Brody opened all his presents, and was very excited to learn that paper makes lots of noise! His big present is his new stuffed monkey, which at present time is bigger than him, but we're hoping that will change in a few months. Brody was also lucky enough to receive some applesauce and squash from Santa, yum!

Later that afternoon we headed over to my parents house for some festivities. My mom made a super yummy Christmas dinner which was absolutely superb! Afterwards we opened some gifts, and like every year my mom got a toy gift for everyone, this year it was these guns that shoot out little nerf balls. It's always fun to see all the adults act like kids for a little while. Justin showed that his shoot and duck skills. Obviously he grew up in a family with boys, us girls never quite learned the "technique" of playing with nerf guns!

Our trip to Utah

After Justin finished his finals we decided to take a trip to Utah to visit with friends and family. Whew! It was quite a week. We took a browse through the byu bookstore (nothing interested me there!), became expects at guitar hero at Mike and Ryan's (we even knocked Mike off some of the charts!), dined out at Tucanos and the Mayan, visited the lights a temple square with the Jessops and Robinsons, had lunch at thanksgiving point with Elissa, Justin went snowboarding with Josh, I went shopping with Katelin, and Brody upgraded from rice cereal to baby food. All the while we had to stay bundled up to stay warm. It was a fun trip and hopefully next time we can catch those we missed!

Holiday cheer!

Holly tagged me so I get to share what I love most about the holiday season, so here goes:

I love the smells of the season, christmas trees, fireplaces, cinnamon, and freshly baked treats!

I love Chrsitmas music! I'm one of those people that get excited by chirstmas songs playing in October. I can listen to the same Christmas cds over and over (by the way I love Hilary Week's).

I love the Christmas weather. I know everyone from out of state is laughing at me, but to me Chrsitmas is always sunny and warm enough to try out the brand new bike you got earlier that morning.

I love watching people try to be sneaky and hide presents around the house. Much to my parents dispair, I knew where their hidding places were and I do admit to mild snooping, but its so fun to walk into a room and watch another person jump and say "Hey your not supposed to be in here!" Sorry mom and dad!

I love the magic of Santa's visit. There's nothing quite as exciting as waking up to see if Santa got you the one gift you truly wanted. What kid and adult still doesn't hope for that?

I love holiday decorations. Triming the tree, bells that jingle, garlands that garnish, and candles that flicker, I love it all. Our home is almost put together enough to add the Christmas decor!

I love to be with family! Although our numbers will be very few this year, I love the fact that you'll always find time to get together, talk, relax, and eat!

I love nativity sets. I love to see the different takes people have on the Chirstmas story. I love to see how Mary and Joseph's faces are portrayed. And I'd love to have a larger collection of nativity sets!

I love to contemplate the miracle of Christ's birth. How He came in such a humble setting, to be greeted by His earthly parents, stable animals and then by shepherds and wise men. I love to think how such a simple beginning created something so great, a Savior for every person that comes unto him.

Ok, here comes my deep dark secret: I love when my husband is able to get me the perfect surprise present. So far he's always gotten me really great Christmas gift, always something unexpected but perfect! It might worry him to read this, but I can't wait for Christmas morning!

So thats what I love about Christmas, I pretty much love it all! So to everyone who reads this, I tag you to share what you love most about Christmas...merry christmas!