Merry Christmas!!

     So.  This is our 2nd official Christmas together.  This, however, is our first Christmas spent with other people (well last year we were on a cruise but this is the first year with people we know and care about).  Albert has not yet gone completely insane with so many people around (only 15 people are staying this year as opposed to the 25 people who were in the house last year while we were staying here around the time of our wedding.) for which I am eternally grateful. :)
     But first a little bit of other information.  For those of you who have not heard yet, I'm pregnant!!  YAY!  the baby is due on July 3rd.  I will be 13 weeks tomorrow (the 26th) and both Albert and I are very ready for me to be over the morning sickness part of the pregnancy.  :P  We heard the heartbeat for the first time on the 15th of December and we get to find out the gender right around Valentine's Day. :)
   Anyways, back to Christmas.  So my parents were wonderful enough to fly Albert and I out to VA.  My body switched over to UT time pretty quickly...Albert...well....he sleeps a lot lol.  mostly if I move around a lot at night though...I've been doing that more and more lately.

No, Albert isn't playing the piano...he's on his laptop

     I was quite excited to be coming out because I just knew that I would get to play Mary in my family's Christmas pageant because I'm pregnant....not that I'm really even showing...only a tiny bump. maybe there will be a picture later...maybe...  anyways, so last night dad and I were planning the whole project and we decided to do this year's pageant differently and have everyone as angels and look down at the manger scene  and we got Tiffy, Will, and Katie to set up the barbies into a manger scene...they did a pretty good job I think :)  anyways.  So I wasn't Mary...but I'll be much more pregnant some other year and then I will be Mary. :)
     I have loved watching my nephew, Will, and my niece, Katie, play with everyone at my parents' house.  Their little sister Emily is just 3-4 months old and is super smiley and completely adorable...basically.  I really love watching my dad and brothers play with her.  Will is 3 and completely obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon.  Katie is completely adorable.  she has super curly messy hair and refused to give me a hug when she first saw me...guess I'm too scary.  Wednesday I cleaned out my bins of stuff from high school and I found a wooden model piano.  Katie decided she really liked it and began "playing" it and she started singing along to what she was "playing" and it was just super duper cute.  :)  yep.  My family has so many cute little kids. :)  wish I could see all of them more often.

 Playing...some game...someday I'll remember the name of it.

Christmas Eve dinner. (Shepard's Meal)

    Until this morning I've been able to eat almost whatever I want...not excluding chicken enchiladas...which sound horrible to me right now, but tasted really good when I was eating them.  yesterday we mostly ate bread...which was wonderful because most of it was my mom's freshly made wheat-ish bread. :)  yep. :)  it was lovely.  anyways, so this morning I ate bacon and that was the straw that broke the camel's back...so...I got sick...and threw up...twice...but I've been good since...I'm grateful that I'm not the only married woman here and that the 2 women older than me have both had children. :)  it means that they completely sympathize and my mom completely understands when I tell her that I cannot eat the chicken-noodle soup.  :)  Life is good.
     Found out 2 days ago that one of my super-great friends, Laura Crenshaw, got her mission call to San Fernando, California. :)  Albert and I are super excited for her.

it snowed too much so church was cancelled so we had church at home

Relief Society/Young Women

Playing Ticket To Ride

Sunday Dinner

Puzzle completing is a HUGE family tradition.

     Just realized I haven't talked much about Albert's experience this Christmas...he thinks my family is strange...which is not a surprise because we kind of are...he's had a lot of fun playing dart gun battles and dominating at Risk.  He wasn't too happy when I was up at 5:09 this morning cuz I couldn't get back to sleep, but he loved his presents. :)   What he didn't love was the fact that my mom gave me MORE craft/sewing stuff for the house...baha!   ah well... :)  good thing he loves me.  He's excited to be in our own house and in our own bed...yep...we leave the 28th so that we can split the holidays evenly between my family and his family....also so my family doesn't drive him completely insane lol.  Anyways, yep...that's us. :)  I'll add some pictures later.