Christmas Update

Happy New Year!!!

We had a great Christmas up here in WA.  Christmas Eve, Chewie and I started out at his parents' (my future in-laws) to celebrate with his whole family.  His mom made a delicious homemade lasagna for dinner, and then we opened presents with the kiddos.  Chewie and I made cute matching shirts for all of them, and they turned out fantastic!  For the boys, we used an adapted version of this, and for the girls we used this tutorial (shirts) and this tutorial (flower pins).  We were so happy with the results.  Thanks to these bloggers for the help!

The best part is that the kids loved them more than we expected.  Especially the boys, which was a big shocker!

After the in-laws', we headed over to our friends' house for more festivities.  We opened presents, ate yummy snacks, and played games.  Chewie and our friend Robbie got Nerf guns for Christmas, and a war ensued in the living room.  I'm still surprised I didn't get caught in the crossfire!  For Robbie's mom, Chewie and I made a candy jar to match her kitchen, and she LOVED it.  And we were especially excited about how it turned out.  We used this tutorial, plus a little ingenuity of our own.

This was my first time away from my family on Christmas, which was difficult.  But we called on technology for some FaceTime action so that I could watch them open presents and they could watch me open mine.  It was definitely better than not seeing them at all!  Then Chewie and I headed for church for our Christmas morning service with our church family, which was packed and wonderful.  We had dinner with some friends and ended the evening exhausted but merry.

We rang in 2012 with our friends, which was fun, and now we're getting back into our daily routine.  Wedding planning is going relatively well.  I got a dress last week!  And we finally nailed down where we will have the ceremony and reception and ordered save the dates!

I'm looking forward to what this year has in store for me.  Hope 2012 has been treating you well thus far!