now this is christmas

wow. this post is a novel. what can I say? we have been busy little bees this Christmas season! And it has been lots of fun all at the same time!

We've had Christmas parties like this one at Eric and Tamra's house. It was a potluck/ugly sweater/white elephant party with a bunch of couples from church. The food was great, the sweaters were hideous, and the gift exchange was ... well ...incredibly entertaining!

here are some party go-ers ready to exchange gifts

our awesome hosts with the gift they opened!

me and the hubs. he didn't have a sweater so he wore an ugly christmas tie thanks to my dad. It was pretty bad, complete with loony toons characters on it! My sweater came courtesy of my mom's neighbor!! My mom and I were out shopping and I couldn't find a sweater and I tried brainstorming someone that might already have one and AHA! I thought of her neighbor. I actually felt bad because I knew she would have a sweater because she actually wears them, my mom called her and told her I needed to borrow a Christmas sweater, which was true...

Moving on to the next festivity: a hay ride! Our friends got a bunch of people together to pile in a trailer full of hay to drive around and look at Christmas lights! It was so much fun! There were lots of kids, a little crying, lots of treats, and awesome lights to look at. We went out to Pecan Grove, which is famous for their lights, I have wanted to go out and look at the lights there every year and never have! I've lived here my whole life!! Sad story! But, the wish has officially been completed. Almost every single house was decorated and it looked awesome!

Everybody piling in.

it's us again!

you know you're in Texas when you see Merry Christmas Yall in Christmas lights! I want one for my house someday :)

jess, me and kelly after the little trip! (oh, and lil miss laci of course!)

Next, Christmas Eve part 1: spent at the Harris family casa, complete with delicious lasagna dinner, pansanella salad, and homemade breadsticks, followed by reading the story of the birth of Jesus and opening none other than...Christmas pjs!

talk about hilarious...Janet complains that Victor always buys her ugly pajamas for Christmas eve, things she would NEVER wear. I'll vouch for that...I've seen some of them and they aren't the cutest. Sad part though is that he thinks they're great! Anyway, as a joke Victor got a pair of footy pajamas with sock monkeys on them! I was rolling!! Lucky for him after he tried them on she had a real pair of pajama pants awaiting.

Christmas Eve Part 2: We went to Christmas eve mass with my family. Just doesn't feel like Christmas to me without it!

Here are H and Fo ready for church. That morning Forrest was watching Fox News and the Fox News religious contributor was a Catholic priest and he was talking about church on christmas eve, etc. So, Fo asked if he could tag along! It was a lot of fun!

Us again!

mi familia after church. only missing my sister and bro in law. they took a christmas vacay to costa rica instead of coming home this year.

Christmas Eve Part 3: we went BACK to H's parents house for some treats, baking, chatting, and a little game of Ticket to Ride. Thank you to Nick for humoring my sweet husband and playing with us. Houston always wants people to play with him and no one ever wants to :(
Christmas Eve Part 4: returned to our casa and opened stockings. I know I know a little untraditional but we were waking up and leaving again early in the morning so it was like our little christmas just the two of us.

H got Jewish mustard in his stocking!! haha! One of my best friends from high has a bagel shop around here, well her family does, and I've been going to Bagel Express for years. Last time we were in there Houston saw the mustard they had for sale and said he wanted some/he bet it was really good. So in the stocking it went!! Kind of fun but I knew he would like it.

and we can't forget our fur baby. Santa brought a bone for harley!

Christmas Morning Part 1: we woke up bright and early and headed over to my in laws for breakfast and presents in our new pjs.

miss mckay just hangin out in her new duds

Houston, SO excited about his present!! I'm glad he liked it, it's been a long time coming. Back in May when we went back up to Utah Houston bought a BYU pennant. I thought it looked cool but I told him there was no way on God's green earth he was putting that up in my house with a push pin. So, it's just been sitting in a closet ever since. But, not anymore!

Nick, sporting his new BYU gear. I'm pretty sure we get him something BYU related every single year. Oh well. I know he'll always like it!

probably my favorite gift we gave someone! a grill apron for the grill master himself that says... "I turn grills on" :)

Austin showing off his new t-ball set. He was so cute. He would open a present, go play with it, and come back all excited when it would be his turn to open another present, then go play with that one instead and start the cycle all over again.

My big gift...a Silhouette! Houston was SO excited about it and I was too!! Now I just need to figure out how to use it!! Houston said it was the closest thing to an electronic item/toy that he would ever be able to get me and I would actually like it.

Christmas morning/afternoon part 2: headed over to my parents house for a late lunch and more presents

my amazing cook of a mom and goofy dad in his elf hat

the christmas tablescape

our untraditional traditional Christmas day meal: mexicana tenderloin, saffron rice, and cilantro cream sauce. SO GOOD! this year to go along with it we had some cheesy potatoes, black beans, and asparagus/green beans/brussell sprouts.

my brother "guessing" what his present was. I guess my dad had my brother wrap his own new Iphone. Oh dad...

My sweet grandparents. The gift from all the grandkiddos was a bunch of picture frames/pictures to put up in a collage in their house. Ever since I put one up in my house my grandma has talked about it nonstop so we did one for them too! They were pretty excited about the first one they opened since it was their wedding picture. After that my grandma was still excited, but I'm pretty sure my Grandpa could have cared less! One time he audibly said..."oh, it's another picture frame..." haha!! Sorry gpa! It's hard to pick out presents for a 94 year old man!

Har pup and her new buddy Sophie. (we're puppy sitting for a little while and couldn't leave them out of the christmas festivities)

H's I love bacon cook book from my brother!

Christmas part 3: consisted of going BACK over to the harris casa for christmas dinner. I didn't get any pictures because by this time I was pretty exhausted. Driving back and forth is really tiring! But dinner was amazing as well! Victor got the Bobby Flay Throwdown cookbook for his birthday and made a steak recipe out of the cookbook. Oh so good. I told him that could be my requested birthday dinner from here on out!

Christmas part 4: we went to the movies with my fam and saw True Grit. got home around 12:30 and fell asleep immediately. It was a LONG day but we got to spend it with our family which always makes it worth it!