Christmas Day

Adam and I decided that Christmas morning would be all ours. It was so fun to have the whole morning just to ourselves to open presents and have breakfast. We had fun. For presents we set an amount that we could both spend on each other and then went to town. It became a game to see who could spend every last penny (I only had 16 cents left at the end! Alright!!). We were way excited to see what each other got. Even though we went to bed late Christmas Eve we still woke up early Christmas morning and couldn't fall back asleep (maybe the kid in you never quite goes away). Santa came!

My favorite part of the morning was Adam's last gift. I had ordered him the book "The Joseph Smith Papers" online (which he really, really wanted). I ordered it back in November just to make sure it would come in time. Unfortunately there was a problem with the publisher though and they didn't have the copies by Christmas. So instead I printed out a certificate saying it was ordered and coming. In some ways I thought this was better cause he'd have no idea what it was when he opened it. So I put the certificate in a box and then found an old ugly sweater to put on top. I thought for sure he'd lift out the sweater right away then see the certificate and be excited. So there's the naturally build up to the last present (best one) and I'm there with my camera and a big grin and he opens the box and just sees the sweater but then doesn't pull it out right away! He just sat there and stared at it (thinking, "wow, this is my big present? what is she trying to tell me by this?" as he told me later). I was dying trying not to laugh at the fact that he thought I bought him the sweater. He tried to smile. Then finally he started to lift it out... and then he saw it. That piece of paper made him light up brighter than our Christmas tree. He sat and held it and just stared at it with a big smile on his face. It was so fun to give him that (and so funny to watch his mis-understanding).

For breakfast we made a yummy apple streusal coffee cake, eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, hot chocolate and eggnog. YUM!!! I love breakfast anyway but Christmas breakfast just takes the cake. Delicious!

Later in the afternoon we went to my parents house to exchange presents with my parents and siblings. Everyone was so generous and fun. My cool brother Ryan (who's been living in San Francisco for the past few months) gave everyone these great prints of photos he's taken in the city. Man, that guy is gifted. He's got such a great eye for design and composition.

We finally ended off the night by going up to Adam's Grandpa Hock's house and hanging out with the Hock cousins, aunts and uncles. We had a yummy dinner (mmm, lion house rolls thanks to Aubry who works there) and another fun white elephant party. Adam's cousins make me laugh, they are really a fun crowd.

We had a great Christmas. It was great to celebrate the joy of giving and think about the Savior and the greatest gift He gave to all of us. Hope your holiday was merry and bright!