Christmas & New Years

Well this is better late than never I suppose. I've had this post started for a couple of months now but have gotten busy with life, so here it goes!

Christmas was spent with the Doriuses in St. George this year. We had so much fun! We were blessed to have Jesse with us for a good chunk of time since he often times has to work a lot during the holidays so that was such a treat.

We ate sticky buns.

Kadin got two lizards and Kylie got a couple of hamsters.

London for whatever reason was obsessed with the hamsters. She was so cute would love to sit and watch them play. If they were in our hands she had to be sitting right by us with her nose to their nose sniffing them and trying to figure them out. I think she thought it was fun to have something smaller than her around the house. She was always very gentle and mostly just looked until the time (I think) she tried to pet one of them in my hands. I figure she saw us petting them and she wanted to try it too. It was so funny to watch her!

I got this darling scarf that Santa so cleverly wrapped around my stocking!

Dad got some really "classy" ties. The snowman one is pretty awesome!

Kylie loved getting I Love Lucy.

Honestly, who doesn't love that show? It's hilarious!

My mom and Kylie were very sneaky and got me a couple of necklaces that I had been drooling over for a month or two. I was so excited.

Jesse of course always has to get something to increase his database of random facts.

And the highlight of our Christmas by far was getting to talk to Elder Dorius! We talked to him on our Christmas Eve (His Christmas afternoon) and it was so much fun! That two hour phone call from Brad from around the world really made our Christmas special. He sounded like he was doing great, he told us some about the culture, his companions, their investigators, food, and had some funny stories. My favorite was when he and his companion saw a person wearing some mittens and Brad couldn't quite remember the name of them, but he turned to his companion and said "We need to get some muffins like those." and then thought, "Wait, not muffins, mittens!" haha. So I guess that means he's learning a little bit of Korean if he's forgetting English words!

(So in case you can't tell, this is the family gathered around the phone that we had on speaker so we could all talk and listen to Brad.) Having a missionary out is the BEST!

This is Jesse and I enjoying the phone conversation.

Isn't my man cute!? :)

New Years was spent up in Salt Lake with the rest of the Doriuses as usual. We're a random bunch but we sure have fun together!

My sweetheart and I as we welcomed the new year.

At these New Years Dorius gatherings we always have the privilege of doing a talent show. Some years we are more prepared than other years. This was one of those other years, as in we picked out duets while we were together over Christmas and did not play them together until this mini performance. It was kind of hilarious!

Especially when I forgot to do the repeat of a section and finished my portion 2 lines before Kadin. That was awesome.

The duet with Kylie went a little better. Her part was awesome at least. My part may have been lacking a few notes. Oh well.

It was a wonderful Christmas & New Years. We felt so blessed to be able to spend so much time with family especially since we knew we'd be moving soon after and won't be able to get together nearly as often.

(we also spent time with Jesse's family but I am pretty sure I didn't have a camera. It was fun though too!)