Christmas Break & Baby Jake

I was lucky that my boss at work gave me quite a bit of time off, so Darrell and I were able to spend Christmas break in Ohio. I was especially looking forward to this trip because my sister was expecting her baby any time! I wanted to be there so bad so I could see my first little nephew.

We were able to do a lot of fun things, like meet up with Darrell's brother and his wife for dinner (he is going to Law School in Michigan, only about 4 hours away from my parents house), celebrate Christmas at my Grandparent's house, spend Christmas night at my aunt and uncles house, traditional day after Christmas shopping with my cousin Megan, my annual Christmas party with my wonderful high school friends, shop at Amish Country, and play lots of games.

My sister's dog legitimately opened his own Christmas gift on his own. It was so cute! The only down side was, he then thought all of the Christmas presents were for him and would try and sneak them under my sister's bed.

 Decorating Christmas cookies

 Christmas morning

Side note: Darrell mentioned to me once that he would like a fleece robe, so when my mom was asking for some suggestions on some gifts for Darrell, I told her a robe would be a good idea. He was so excited when he opened it on Christmas morning. He even put it on right away and told my parents they could call him "Hef." Maybe it was one of those moments where you had to be there, but it was so funny.

 Darrell was excited that it is Christmas tradition at my grandparents house to have filet mignon for dinner

 Me and my cousin Grace

 Some of my beautiful high school friends. Still so much fun to get together with them and catch up on each others' lives. I'm so lucky to have such great friends!

My sister and brother-in-law live in Columbus, Ohio about 2 hours away from my parents. Before she had her baby, her doctor told her that she wasn't allowed to leave Columbus, so we made the trip back and forth quite a bit (Darrell and I calculated that we spent about 26 hours in the car over break, but it was SO worth it)! The day that my sister went into the hospital, my family went down and hung out in Columbus just waiting for the good news. At 11:12 pm, we heard that news that Jacob Andrew was born. Even though it was so late, we made the trip to the hospital. I don't think we got back to their apartment until 3:00 in the morning, but it was fun going to meet little Jake.

 My mom enjoying bonding time with her sons-in-law at the hospital

 I am so excited to be an aunt!

 My sister and brother-in-law's poor dog felt so neglected. I'm not much of a dog whisperer, but he and I definitely bonded.

 My grandparents with their first great-grandchild

 My cousin Megan made Andrea a super cute quilt. Even jungle themed like Jake's nursery.

 Uncle Tom with little Jake

 He is just so darn cute!!

It was a great Christmas break and I was so happy we were able to be there when Jake was born!

Christmas Season

Darrell and I had such a great first Christmas together. We had a lot of fun doing Chrsitmas-y things to get us excited for the big holiday.

Here are a few of my Christmas crafts:

 And our first little Christmas tree

One of my favorite things to do around Christmas is to go to look at all the Christmas lights on Temple Square in Downtown Salt Lake. This year, we met up with my brother-in-law's little sister and her husband. We had a lot of fun with them!

We also went to see a play on Temple Square that was all about the birth and life of Jesus Christ. It was a great reminder of the reason for the season.

It really is the happiest time of the year!

Peppermint Party!

I know this is very late, but I wanted to do a post about our Peppermint Party (or PP party as Darrell started calling it). It all started one day when I was looking through the dollar section at Target where they have all of the little holiday decorations. I bought some peppermint stripped cupcake liners. When I brought them home, Darrell asked me what kind of cupcakes I planned on making and that's when I decided that I wanted to have a Christmas party with our friends. And I wanted to have a themed party. Thanks to the cupcake liners, the peppermint theme was decided.

After I decided on a peppermint theme, my eyes were on the lookout for all things peppermint. I found some great peppermint recipes, peppermint decorations, peppermint invitations, peppermint wrapping paper, and peppermint napkins.

Thanks to Pinterest, I also found some fun Christmas party games to entertain our guests.  We had some Christmas Trivia and played quite a few Minute to Win It Christmas-style games, which were very entertaining.  And of course, all of the prizes were peppermint themed as well. I am also a big fan of white elephant gift exchanges, so we had one of those too. 

Darrell and I decided that our first party was a success! The only bad thing was, I forgot to take pictures during the party, so I only have before pictures...

Despite what this picture may look like, Darrell was excited about the party too!

Peppermint Invitations

Table set up and ready to go!

 Peppermint Grass-Hopper cookies

 These Peppermint Rice-Krispies were hands down my favorite Peppermint dish. I got the recipe from ourbestbites.com

 Peppermint flavored sugar cookies

 Chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting

 Chocolate-covered pretzels rolled in crushed peppermint

 Peppermint fudge! This was a close second as far as favorite recipes. It made so much fudge! This is only about half of it. One day after the party while I was at work, Darrell texted me and told me he was eating this fudge by the spoonful. I guess this was his favorite.

 White chocolate peppermint popcorn

 Hot chocolate in the crock pot

 Darrell and I

 Some of our great friends, John and Elizabeth

I told Darrell that since I have all of these peppermint platters and decorations that we should start having a yearly Peppermint Party. Here's to hoping we make some new friends wherever we live next year!