Christmas & New Years Celebrations...

      We had a wonderful holiday season! It was so fun to spend our first married Christmas together. Celebrations for us started on Christmas Eve. We went up to my parents' house and had our traditional big Christmas Eve dinner with the family, complete with a delicious Honey Baked Ham :). After which we headed up to the church for the annual Christmas Eve concert that my dad and uncle put on. They play their own arrangements on Organ and Piano of Christmas songs. This is always what really puts me in the Christmas spirit. Being able to just sit in the chapel (which is lit only with small Christmas lights), surrounded by family (this year including the Harbers!), and listen to beautiful Christmas songs and hymns gives me the opportunity to reflect on why we celebrate Christmas and really realize how blessed I am. After the Christmas Eve concert, Blake and I went home to carry on a tradition that both of our families do....opening Christmas jamies!! :) I had lots of fun being able to pick out our Christmas pajamas this year!

I am especially proud of the shirt I found for Blake!

      We tried to wake ourselves up early on Christmas morning so we could spend some time together just the two of us before visiting family. We went out into our living room and found a present to the both of us from Santa :)...a new digital camera! (Which definitely got put to good use throughout the rest of the day!) We then went through our stockings and enjoyed the fun little gifts and treats...after which we started in on opening presents...we got lots of fun stuff, including....

The complete Friends series on DVD (one of my presents)...

...and the complete book series of Harry Potter (one of Blake's Presents)


      After we finished our presents to each other we bundled up and headed down to Provo to visit Blake's family. We had a fun time opening presents with them and eating a delicious brunch of Quiche and Peach French Toast (a traditional Christmas breakfast in the Harber house....yummm!) While at the Harber's we got a phone call...a conference call between us in Provo, my parents and brother and sister in Salt Lake, my sister and brother-in-law in Maryland, and my little brother who's serving a mission currently in California! (...technology is amazing!!) It was so fun for the WHOLE family to be able to talk to my brother on his first Christmas as a missionary :). After spending the afternoon at the Harbers, and yet another yummy meal around dinner time, Blake and I packed up and headed to Salt Lake to visit my family. Being there we, (yet again!) opened and exchanged presents and ate another yummy traditional treat, Danish Aebleskiver! We are so blessed to have both of our families living so close so that we were able to spend Christmas day with both of them!

      Since both Blake and I had the week after Christmas off from work, it was fun being able to just hang out, play, and spend more time with family. We went down to Parowan (where Blake's grandparents live) and spent a few days there playing cards and snowmobiling...

      Later that week we spent the day with my family at the Holladay Lions playing friendly games of basketball, and swimming. We had LOTS of fun spending so much time with family over the holiday break.

      The last portion of our holiday celebrations came with a little New Years party we had at our house with some friends. New Years Eve was an especially fun day for us as we remembered that one year ago on New Years Eve morning we got engaged!! :) We had such a great year in 2010, and it was great to ring in the new year together. We look forward to see what 2011 will bring!