Downhill Backwards

A couple weekends ago we went sledding with some friends of ours. We love sledding and get rather into it. We got all our snow gear on and headed to Rock Canyon bowl, which is THE place to sled. I am talking groups and groups of college/high school kids sledding on whatever they find...cardboard, ice coolers, mattresses, and couches. We were unoriginal and just brought sleds.

Sledding brings out Matson's daredevil side (along with any other physical activity or motorized vehicle). We all had our own sled and went down a few times individually. Matson lost his hat and boot. Then Matson wanted us to all get in a chain and go down backwards. The whole rest of our sledding time we could only go backwards. It made it more exciting, I guess.

Every run ended with us tangled up or pig piled on top of each other and laughing hysterically, which made for a good time. 

We ended our night with hot cocoa and Matson forcing our friends to watch his favorite movie Uncle Buck. If you haven't seen it, you should go rent it uh..I don't think there is any place to do the verb of "renting a movie"...So I mean, buy it or TiVo it.  

Welcoming 2013 {a little late}

New Year's Eve was at my in-laws again this year. We always ring in the new year with them by playing loads of games and eating lots of food! This is one of Matson's favorite traditions.

Personally, I love watching all the celebs in New York perform and chit chat. Does anyone else feel like Jenny McCarthy made a fool of herself this year? And Taylor swift rockin on stage...she definitely isn't a sweet country singer anymore.

2012, you blessed us with opportunities and love. You will always be the year that we hit our 2 year mark of marriage. The year that brought my sister her hubby. The year that Matson left his job to start his company with my brother. You will also be that year that brought us our very first adorable little nephew. Thanks for a good year. See ya later.

Cheers to a New Year!

This is from my sis in law's polaroid camera. I want one!

Baby Stealers

During our break we loved playing with all of our favorite little buddies. I guess you can call us the baby stealers. I will snatch up any baby whose parents will let me! Anytime, anywhere.

Our little nephew showing off his standing skills for us!

Nothing like cuddlin' with a toddler. 

So if you need anyone to steal your baby, we are your people! Seriously.

Ice Skating Tradition

We went ice skating again this year. It was such a blast. And I definitely made a fool of myself again. I always start out ice skating like a little weenie holding onto the side and inching my way around. There's just nothing that looks good about falling on our bum on hard, cold ice. Slowly though, I realized I could do it. I wasn't the best ice skater on the rink, but I did it. Pat on the back.

Read about our Last Year's Ice Skating Tradition

Christmas-y

Give me a little bit of a break this week as I try to catch up on some blogging and what we have done the last month. Starting off with CHRISTMAS! I have this word that I use all the time in the month of December that I am ssssurrrre Matson gets very sick of hearing...

The word is: Christmas-y

...Yes, Christmas-y.

...I say things like, "Matson, let's do something Christmas-y" or "This decoration just feels so Christmas-y" or "Man, these snowflakes are so Christmas-y"...ok, you get the point.

So here are some of the Christmas-y things we did.

A Christmas concert at Thanksgiving Pointe.

Many nights ended like this over the break. Snuggling in the warmth and
falling asleep to a Christmas movie by the Christmas tree with hot cocoa.

One of my little primary students gave me all these yummy treats! So cute.

Santa worked with the Easter Bunny and hid our stockings this year all around the house.

A really bad self timed iPhone pic on Christmas Eve in our PJ's. 

Cleaning off loads of snow with one of his gift I gave him for Christmas.

Our happy nephew on Christmas.

Overall one of our favorite things was spending time with our people whether it be just watching a movie, playing games, or snuggling with each other made it the best! Plus, the white white white (snow) everywhere was awesome and veeeRRRyy Christmas-y.

Our Annual Christmas Party 2012

Every year we have a Christmas party where we invite our friends and kick off our Christmas break from school the right way. This year was no different, so last weekend we had our annual Christmas party. We ate yummy in my opinion, it was yummy food, played a variety of games, had a gingerbread house competition, a Christmas photo booth, white elephant gift exchange, and a lot of fun chit chatting with friends!

Favorites from the night would be:

• Matson and I completely failed at gingerbread house making. First, I pull out the icing pack out of our packaged gingerbread house kit or in other words a "no effort necessary" gingerbread house and I had to actually make the frosting, I am talking like go add water and mix it all up ok, call me lazy. So I was ticked. Fail number uno. THEN, I pull the gingerbread house pieces out and I break a piece. Double fail. But I still had faith in our skills. Lastly we gave up completely once our roof was just sliding off like 10 times in a row. So we made an awesome pants roof (made from Frosted Mini Wheats) with no house underneath it. Triple fail.
• Reading the guesses people guessed on how many peppermints were in a small jar. There were 38 and I read votes of 16 all the way up to 90. Why was that so funny to me, especially when I am the worst at guessing things like that too?
• When our friend J* opened his white elephant gift thing it was a Star Wars lightsaber and whipping it out in the air to then find out it was not a lightsaber, but a set of airport ramp agent/worker flashlight wands. You know what I am talking about...those were a hit!
• The guys won Couches way too many times (an awesome highly competitive, memory like game between the ladies and gents). It never gets old when someone messes up a name or yells out a name that isn't even in the bunch.

I failed at taking pictures of the night, we were just doing too many activities! I mean I didn't even get a picture of our gingerbread house fail. The night was super fun and we look forward to next year's party!

The winners, my bro and sis in law, of the Gingerbread House Competition 

Our friends the H*'s won best roof (sorry you can't even really see the roof). 

Christmas Party Photo Props: Oh Happy Day!

Christmas Photos 2012

A couple weeks ago Matson's sister took our Christmas photos for this year. We got some good ones and I thought I would share! She is very talented and worked super fast for us to get the back to us so I could hurry and order our cards! Thanks T*. Make sure to check out her photography website and blog!

Remembering Christmas' Pasts

As this new Christmas season starts I can't help but to think of Christmas' pasts. I can still remember all of my family's wonderful Christmas traditions, especially since we still do most of them (I'm talking like 25 year olds running around to see what they got in their stalkings). I am the type of person that likes to celebrate everything and make it the best that it can be. Decorations, gifts, specific recipes, and other traditions were and still are very important to me at Christmas, but the one thing that is most memorable to me is the time spent with family and friends. Like the time spent choosing gifts together, sledding together, giving Christmas to those who are less fortunate, watching our movies, and playing family games. For me it is these times that stand out to me from Christmas' pasts, so for this year that will be my focus - spending time with Matson, our families, and our friends.

Christmas 1992 - Santa brought bikes for my brothers and I!

Matson and I when we were dating - Christmas 2009

Christmas Party 2010

Christmas 2011 at Rockefeller Center in NYC