NewThanksmas Eve…or something?

We got together with a bunch of high school friends a few days after Christmas to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve. I think it was called NewThanksmas Eve? Anyway, it was great to see friends we haven’t seen for a while and it’s so funny how many of us married each other from high school!

We dressed up in our holiday best and Dan and I found these sweet sweaters on sale at JCPenney for 80% off. Danny bought two different ones. Don’t hate. We had a yummy dinner, played Minute to Win it games and watched the Jazz game.

Danny starting us out with the cookie challenge. He was successful. Not surprised.

I did the pencil challenge where you had to balance pencils on the top of your had then flick them in the air and catch them. You keep adding more pencils to your your pile so by the end you have to balance a lot and it gets pretty hard! Luckily with my huge man hands and some concentration, I was able to pass the challenge! My last pile of pencils…I was concentrating and sweating a lot. Dan had to try to blow the Christmas cards over to the edge of the table but just enough that they didn’t fall off. He had to try to balance one side of the card on top of the table and the other half is hanging off the table. It was wicked hard and Alex was the only one was successfully passed this challenge.

Here is the group in our holiday outfits. I really loved Alex’s turtleneck and denim shirt and Dustin’s semi-transparent mustache that Kaley filled in with make up. Good times with WJ friends!

Christmastime

I have a ton of pictures from Christmas that I still need to post. We had a good holiday but of course, it went by way too fast. The time off from work was great and I worked from home two days as well which was awesome. Hopefully I’ll be able to start working from home a couple days a week soon.

We went to Grandpa Goates’ house for Christmas Eve as usual. It was a madhouse and his house isn’t very big either! The grandkids (Grandpa Goates’ great-grandkids) got their usual pajamas and it’s so fun to see how excited they are to get new jammies.

Katelyn with her present before she got to open it.

Emily and Sarah with their presents.

The group (only one side of the room!) in grandpa’s basement.

The great-grandkids with their new pajamas.

Christmas morning was spent at our house and it was so fun to open presents with just us. Of course, Dan couldn’t wait to open presents until after our 9:00 church, so we got up early to open them. Dan put a ribbon on my Silhouette and put it under the tree even though I got it awhile ago.

Dan got a backpacking pack that he really wanted and a few other exciting things.

I got some nice cookie sheets, a new mixer/scraper thing for my Kitchenaid, some lotion and a gift card to get a massage! I can’t wait to go do that.

Dan showing off his new backpack and the lumberjack flannel shirt I got him. It have accepted the fact that he will never be into fashion and there is no chance he will wear anything that would ever be metro in any way. He loves camping/lumberjack/casual stuff so I just got him what I knew he would love! Luckily, he dresses up for work and he does enjoy getting dressed up for church and work so he looks awesome in his work and church clothes

I also got a sweet U of U sweatshirt that I rocked when Utah came back and won their bowl game in overtime! Sweet!

We spent some time at Dan’s parent’s house talking to his brother on a mission and exchanging presents. It was a smaller group this year because Mark’s family wasn’t there and Ben and Becky are in Mongolia.

Wellyn wanted a picture with his present…no idea why he made this weird face. He is a funny kid.

Mike, Hailey and Katelyn looking at the book we got Mike & Hailey for Christmas. It is a book of awkward family photos and it is pretty awesome.

We spent the rest of the day/evening at my parent’s house. We got some awesome presents and had a delicious dinner.

My grandma (Dad’s mom) moved in with my parents a few months ago after her husband passed away. They had been living in Texas and we didn’t see her much so it’s been nice to see her a lot more.

We had a great Christmas and New Years and it was pretty rough to go back to work last week! But now we have our trip to Puerto Rico to look forward to!