Holiday Highlights

As always, I loved the holiday season. There are so many things that I love about this time of year. I love going to the Festival of Trees. I love all the treats and good food. I love the pretty snow (for awhile). I love the decorations (Thank you Aaron for putting lights on the house, even though we weren't home the day after Thanksgiving!). But my very favorite thing is getting to spend so much time with friends and family. I love seeing people that come from out of town as well as having an excuse to see the people that live close by that I don't get to see often enough.

I got to spend an evening with four of my fabulous former roommates. These girls are the greatest! And I love any opportunity I have to get together with them.

My mom cooked up a storm during the break. I'm not kidding you, she produced one fabulous meal after another from ranch chicken to ham to pork chili to fondu to breakfast casserole...and we even got to have a "cookie party" just like we had when we were little kids.

It snowed like crazy over the break. We stayed at my mom's house for two nights to avoid the morning and evening commutes (especially because we were down to one car after someone hit Aaron's car). On Christmas Eve Aaron measured 11 inches in front of my mom's house! And it has only gotten deeper since then. The boys built this cute snowman and we went sledding! Apparently Aaron's feelings about sledding are similar to his feelings about swiming in the ocean (so that's why he isn't in the pictures).

On Christmas Eve we got our traditional gift of pj pants. This year they were BYU colored plaid with a BYU logo on one leg...which unfortunately you can't really see in this picture. Even baby Jacob got his first piece of BYU clothing.

Christmas day was spent eating a lot of good food and enjoying some of our new gifts. All three couples got the newest Raving Rabbids game for the Wii! If you have never played the second one, it is a hit! We haven't played the third one enough to give a final review...but we are pretty excited to try it out.

The little wooden hexagon in my hand is a replica of the brick that Aaron got for me at Disneyland! It will have our names on it and be installed in February between Disneyland and California Adventure on the walkway. Now we will have to make another trip down to see our brick!

Jacob was blessed at my parent's house on December 28.

And we held our annual Bodell holiday party as an early New Year's party.

Aaron taught Becca the hamster dance,

and Brandy and I got to take pictures with Zac.

We got to spend New Year's Eve with Aaron's old roommates. I tried to get him to take a picture with his friends that I would have posted on this spot...but he informed me he doesn't care about documenting these sorts of things (in other words, he thinks I'm crazy for all the pictures I take). But as always, we had a great time with them.

We are now back to regular life after our lovely holidays. Aaron is trying to adjust to life as a teacher without a student teacher (one that actually has to teach). I'm learning how to teach math (and finding out that not all high schoolers know the months of the year or how to tell time) and enjoying learning how to use Photoshop CS4 (more on that later). We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a wonderful new year!