A Cheerful Christmas 2015

I love Christmas time. I love to decorate my house for Christmas. I love to wrap presents and make them really pretty and all matching. I love to send Christmas cards. But this year I was having a little trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. I was realizing that another year had gone by without us growing our family, when we were sure that 2015 would be our year. I was frustrated with my health. I was sad that I was away from home and away from my mom. So one day I bought a Gingerbread house for us to decorate, hoping this would cheer me up. I quickly realized that Chris was not into it like I was and he could really care less  how it looked. So I told him he could do whatever he wanted with his side. Well you can guess who did what side. It actually was pretty entertaining to watch him. He makes me laugh every single day. Oh how I love him. :) 

Used our same decorations that we always use, but mixed it up a little. Loved that matching wrapping paper. 

This year we spent the night at Chris' dad's on Christmas Eve, then Christmas morning we went to his mom's house and opened presents there. It was really nice being with Carol and Brett, and Brett's daughter Claudi. 

Here is Chris showing off his Fitbit.

Jerry was sad because we didn't give him any presents. Poor guy.

We spent the day with family. It was fun seeing the kids come over and open their presents from Grandma.

 The boys actually did the dishes.

We also went back and saw Chris' dad for awhile on Christmas, but for some reason I didn't get any pics! Then that night we went to my mom's. Saturday afternoon we went and saw my dad with all my siblings. Here is Chris playing an intense game of Connect 4 with my nephew. He's going to be such  good dad someday. :) 

We had lots of fun playing with kids and opening presents at my mom's. It was also nice to be at my mom's and see her in her house. We continue to pray that she can still get well enough to go back home. 

Just sitting in a laundry basket eating a cheat.

My mom got all the guys aprons to BBQ with.

 My brother went in with us to get my mom a new TV for her room-so she can watch Netflix and everything. She was excited.

 Sunday we went to the Care Center and went to church with my mom there. I got to sit by these 2 cuties. 

 BEST PICTURE EVER!

My mom with some of her grandkids.

It turned out to be a great Christmas, even though our lives aren't what we had pictured they would be at this point in time. We are so thankful for all that we have, for our home and our jobs, for our wonderful family and their love. We had a great 2015 and are so blessed. 

Our New Year's wasn't anything special. We had been invited to different places for New Year's Eve, but then neither ended up working out. So we stayed home and watched TV and Chris went to bed at like 10:30 because he was so tired. I stayed up and read for about an hour before giving in and going to sleep. Be we had a good New Year's Day just being together.

My top 5 things from 2015: 

1. Spending 3 weeks in Seattle with my mom, sister-in-law and nephew while my mom did radiation the radiation was not the fun part, but being with those three was!)

2.Trip to the Tetons/Yellowstone with Chris' family

3. Trip to Disneyland/Universal Studios with Chris

4. Joining Usborne Books and More and earning a free cruise

5. No medical bills this year! (Even though we had medical problems)

We also got to do other fun things, like see my oldest niece married in the temple, go to my youngest niece's baby blessing in Wyoming, etc. We also had hard things-seeing my mom sick and how hard of a year she had, being in the hospital and dealing with a feeding tube and TPN, and finding out the only way we will have a baby of our own is with IVF-and being faced with the decision of that or adoption. But we are stronger because of these things and I know 2016 will be a great year!