Me, Madilyn and Janika. Aren't they growing up. They are both gorgeous girls. I can't believe it. Thanksgiving was amazing. The food was great. I just missed my Buxton family and Grandma Smith. Instead of dwelling on it and getting sad, I just decided to be thankful for the technology that exists that I can talk to my family although they are far away and also for the knowledge that I WILL see my grandmother again. I cannot wait!!! I was also thankful this year for being here and not in Brasil. Although I would have loved Brasil and would have been also grateful to be there, I was so estatic to be with Deven! He is so sweet and treats me like a queen. He also happens to be ridiculously good looking! Lol.
Brett, Megan, Braxton and Logan were with us during dinner and afterwards for dessert. It was fun having them there. Those boys are so stinkin' cute. Brett freaking tickled me like he used to when I was little. I just about died!
Here is the family.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Lights
This train is gorgeous. The picture is kinda blurry, I think Deven got this one. It was the better than the one I tried to get. They had music going on at the stage and a guy was singing Christmas songs. All the little kids were up on the stage just dancing away. I asked Kolby if he wanted to go dance. He was sooo excited. We went up there and started dancing, then I spun him around and he liked it a lot, so we spent the rest of the time up there just spinning. It was hilarious.
This is one of the very many houses that are decorated in the park. I had so much fun. I was kinda nervous because I kept thinking that something important was going to fall out of my purse. I went with Deven to go put my purse back into his mom's car and on the way, I had a really bad feeling about leaving it in the trunk, so I ended up just carrying it with me. I was just super careful.
The little old lady who lived here before left Deven a whole bunch of things inside the house. One of them being this Christmas tree. Her name was Lyda, pronounced LIE-DA. I am not sure exactly how she spelled it. Anyway, back to my story. This tree was already lit with colored lights. I am not a huge fan of colored lights, and wanted them white. Deven agreed. I quickly volunteered him to do the lighting while I started doing the other decorations. This way, I didn't have to deal with lighting the tree which I absolutely hate, and I also had the opportunity to decorate the house the way I wanted without Deven's imput. Afterwards, he looked around and liked everything that I did. I won't post all the pictures that I have. Needless to say, his home looks a lot cuter than it did before. I started collecting all the ugly old-grandma decorations that are still hanging up on the walls. Yes, there are still quite a few. I am putting everything into an extra room upstairs. Then, we will have to make a DI/Dump trip soon. Deven did a wonderful job lighting the tree. We decorated it together. He had these cute little snowmen that have fishing poles, etc. Then we bought balls for the tree so it can be manly. LOL. Jk. We also bought the ribbon and bells that have snowflakes for the handles atop. There are metal snowflakes and then random ordiments also on the tree. It turned out really cute. You really can't see all of the details from this picture. I'll try to get a better one. It is really super pretty.
This is the nativity set that I bought this year. I went out and bought a whole bunch of different things. So between what I bought this year and what I have previously collected, I have quite a few decorations. Not quite as many as Peg-nog but still quite a few for a single girl. This nativity set is really beautiful, I only hated setting up the staff that Joseph is holding. It was a freakin' pain in the you know where to get that to stay. Oh well. I need to learn patience better. I am working on it. I got to thinking about the reasons why we celebrate Christmas and the real meaning behind it. I feel extremely grateful for my savior Jesus Christ and everything that he did for me. I am also thankful for Mary and Joseph. I started thinking about the things they went through, and I am grateful for their love towards that little babe that they cared for and for their faithfulness. Can you imagine having a calling in life such at that? Wow.
This is one of his end tables is his living room. I CHALLENGE everyone to re-read The Living Christ. It is magnificent. I am so thankful to have the gospel in my life. It truly brings me happiness. Life can throw some pretty rough curveballs at you and with Christ as a coach, we can learn how to manage everything, it is wonderful. I didn't know if you had heard, but Elder Wirthlin passed away sometime last night or early this morning.
Yay! I get to display my jack-in-the-box. It is super cute!
Wicked Awesome Christmas Gift
So, I gave Deven his first Christmas present yesterday. It was kinda funny. Mom got a gift years and years ago from Aunt Debbie. It was a book that had a collection of inspirational Christmas stories. It also had a scripture schedule. What you would do is start December 1st, and read the scripture it told you to and the story as well. I have always liked that idea but the one mom had wasn't very cute and some of the stories were not my favorite. I decided that I was going to make one for Deven, except it would be cute and I would do the stories that I wanted. What was funny is that a few days after I decided to do this, Deven told me that he wanted to have a really special Christmas season with me and wanted to read about the life of Jesus and serving others, etc. I chuckled inside that I was already working on something that would be special like this. So, every night starting last night, we light the candle, get out the scriptures and read a passage, then we read a Christmas story, and to finish up we sing a Christmas song. It will be really neat. I am excited. I want it to become a tradition that I will do with my family. I also made Deven's mom one as well. It took forever and a day to complete those so I could give it to him yesterday. I barely got it done in time. Deven loved it.