Christmas Day 2009...in our home sweet home

It is amazing what I will due to honor tradition. There were no parents snapping pictures of me just minutes out of bed, no one making me not peek at what Santa brought, but it is true, the child lives on inside of me at Christmas time. We lined up and walked down the stairs together, took this pic before we looked at our stockings or presents. Don't mind the morning faces.
Before bed last night, Grant and I sat back to back in the middle of the couch, each with the other one's stocking and a bag of gifts to be put in each, and stuffed each other's stockings. We made them look pretty and then turned our backs and went upstairs to bed, leaving only the lights on the tree on, to look pretty when we came down in the morning.

I love stockings, one of the best parts of Christmas. A mix of so much fun stuff!

Grant got hooked up as well...and Santa even brought him a new iPod shuffle. Love how tiny they are, great for running!

So ugly, but have to take a pic with some of my stuff...wearing all my new scarves and holding some earrings and my new J. Crew umbrella with a fun handle!

After opening a few presents we met a bunch of people from our ward at the bowling alley, a Christmas eve tradition, where we played a couple of games for super cheap. Grant and I both scored above 100 on each game so were happy with that. I know it's nothing to really brag about but that's always my goal.

Al and Grant (Guillermo and Earl- their bowling names) doing their bowling stretches.

The girls on lane 12!

"Are you guys sisters?" I really don't think we look alike but we literally get this question at least once a week from someone!

Merry Christmas bowling!

After bowling, we returned home to open the rest of our presents. It just wasn't the same without the family, so we video chatted with them, and attached it to the TV so it was big and we could see everyone, and they watched us open our presents and opened the ones from us. It was so much fun to feel like they were sort of here with us. I recommend it to anyone wanting to participate in a far away Christmas day!Unfortunately, because our computer chat, we didn't really take any pics of us opening presents, but those pics are usually kind of boring anyway. Here is me with some of my new baking presents. Notice I got several cake things yet not a single nursing present...am I going into the wrong profession? Cakes are more fun presents though :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! (It is weird that tomorrow really is Christmas since I truly felt like it was today). I don't mind celebrating again though :)