Christmas Cheer (warning: ridiculously long post ahead!)

This being a "Self" Christmas year, Chase and I packed Livia up in the car and headed down to Apple Valley. We had planned on driving down on Christmas Eve, but at the last minute decided to leave Tuesday night instead, and drive through the night. Lest you forget, let me remind you that I once got in a major car accident when on the spur of the moment I decided to drive all night long to Arizona. Needless to say, I was a little nervous about our decision, but if we hadn't gone then we would have missed ALL the Christmas Eve festivities! So I went to the library, which is luckily open pretty late, and checked out a book on cd. Those things are magical. Chase and I were so engrossed in the story that neither one of us fell asleep even though our journey began at midnight and ended at 6:00 in the morning.

Now I need to brag a little about what an awesome husband I have. Chase had a conference call scheduled that morning, and we were both anxious to get in a couple hours of sleep. We brought in our bags and finally got into bed. Naturally, Livia chose that moment to wake up. Really wake up. She was wide awake and ready for the day. Chase immediately offered to watch her while I slept, and I gratefully accepted. I only slept for about 2 hours, because then he had to get on that conference call and couldn't watch Livvy anymore, but those were some much needed 2 hours! I don't think I've ever felt so loved in all my life! Poor Chase didn't sleep at all until about 3:00 in the afternoon. He ended up having to work a lot during this vacation (including on Christmas day!) which was a major bummer for both of us. But overall we had a ton of fun, and loved spending time with my family.

Growing up, we never had a fireplace (not much need for those in L.A.) and so always laid our stockings out on the couch on Christmas Eve. We have fireplaces now, but the tradition has continued. So here are all our stockings laid out from youngest to oldest. Chase enjoys making the weirdest faces possible in pictures.

This is a much more normal face. Notice Livia's little stocking at the very end.

Most of my family's Christmas traditions take place on Christmas Eve. So we read the Christmas story from Luke, did a little secret santa-ing, and drove around to see Christmas lights. There are a couple amazing houses in Apple Valley! One man has santa's workshop set up in his garage every year, another had a huge tv and recliners set up in his front yard with Christmas movies playing (very trusting, I thought), and another house had a sign in front of it that said "Tune to 107.1" and had set up their own little radio station of Christmas songs to which their flashing Christmas lights were choreographed. So cool.

We had a little musical program, as usual. Austin's rendition of Once in Royal David's City on the guitar was by far the best, but I thought the duets on trumpet and violin turned out pretty well, considering how rarely we play. Then we sang carols around the piano and hurried off to bed so Santa could come!

This picture was taken Christmas morning, right before we ran down to the living room to see all the presents. Emily and David look pretty excited! Livia...not so much. But then again, she didn't know what was coming!

Livia with her haul. I think she had more than anyone else! A big thanks to everyone who was so nice to give her presents!

I made a random little thing with buttons and a zipper (her favorite things in the entire world) and she seemed to really like it! She got really excited about the doll from Whitnie and Richie.
She loved all her presents, but like a typical baby, her all-time favorite part of Christmas morning was....the wrapping paper!!!

And the bows!!!Here is our little family on Christmas. (Please excuse the Ute socks. They were the only socks she had that matched her outfit)Here is our big family on Christmas.The rest of our vacation was spent chatting, eating, playing the wii, and enjoying each other's company. It was SO nice to have so many people around who wanted to play with Livia! Chase and I were able to go out to dinner for our anniversary (2 years, baby!), go to the temple, play tennis, and go shopping without having to worry about her at all!

Here we are on our anniversary. I thought about trying on my wedding dress, since it's at my parent's house and I am offically back to my pre-baby weight (woo-hoo!), but then I forgot.

Me and my sister, Laura.

Livia, enjoying all the toys at Grandma's house.

It was time to return home all too soon. Livia was an angel on the way home and slept almost the entire way. I was convinced that since she slept all day she was going to be up all night long. But she slept all the way until 8:00 in the morning! What a blessing. She spent the next morning entertaining herself by unpacking for us.

And now we wait in anxious anticipation for our next trip to Apple Valley, as well as next Christmas, which will be spent in Guatemala with Chase's parents!