Christmas with the Ballards

After spending time with my family we headed to Nathan's parents.

Christmas Eve was super relaxing. The boys made a fire and we read some Christmas stories together. Then it was off to bed so Santa could come.

We woke up the next morning and waited in the hall with Zach before we could go in and see what had come. We felt like little kids sitting on the floor impatiently for the parents to be ready. I felt super special having my very own personalized stocking filled with goodies on Christmas morning.

Christmas afternoon was especially exciting for the family. Meg and her cute family came over and we all had the chance to Skype with Sister Ballard! We even had Carly's friend, Daniel, over for it as well. It was great to see her and talk for a while. She is doing awesome and is the cutest missionary ever!

After the phone call we had a big lunch and played some games. Scategories was pretty interesting... haha Good times.

The rest of the day was just relaxing and enjoying the spirit of Christmas. Nathan and I took a good long nap as well so we would be ready for the next part of our Christmas break....

Nathan and I said our goodbyes and his dad drove us to the airport to catch our Redeye flight to.... FLORIDA!!! Merry Christmas to us!

Christmas with The Blietschaus

We had an amazing Christmas Break filled with family, friends, and fun!

To start things off we went down to Utah on the 23rd and partied with my family. When we arrived we had our traditional Christmas Eve German feast (a day early) for dinner. I seriously look forward to it every single year and have had it for as long as I can remember. It's always pretty much the same:

• German Potato Salad (The Germans do something to it to make it different and amazing!)
• German Gerkins- Pickles (One of my most favorite things in the whole world!)
• Rotkohl- German Red Cabbage made with bacon and apples
• Wurtschen- German Hot dogs (But, oh so much better than a hot dog!)
• Blietschau Beer- apple juice and sprite or ginger ale
• Rolls and sometimes jello (Nothing German about those...)

We had our German feast a day early so my cousin Katie and her cute family could join us. It was so much fun getting together with them and their cute little kids. It felt like the good old days at Oma and Opa's. I wish I would have taken a picture of everyone and our meal so I could show you all it's goodness and glory.

Later that night we opened up our family gifts, since Nathan and I wouldn't be around Christmas Eve night. We gave my family The Big Bang Theory Trivia Game, which was great because they ended up getting the entire series. We all had a lot of fun playing it together... Nathan and I will need to watch a lot more before we play again though...

On Christmas Eve I woke up and made the family french toast for breakfast. We just relaxed and enjoyed the day together. Then we headed to Salt Lake to eat at the Spaghetti Factory. While we were down there we also walked around Temple Square and City Creek. I love the beautiful lights and the atmosphere of it all. Then it was time to say goodbye and head off to Nathan's side of the family.

Hawaii Video

Nathan has been working really hard on creating this awesome video of our vacation in Hawaii.

I LOVE IT! 

I hope that you enjoy it too. It sums up everything I have been writing about in 2 and a half minutes. 

P.S. Thanks Blake Campbell for getting the fun shots of us walking on the beach and making leis!