Our First Christmas

We had a great first Christmas as a married couple. It was very busy and we were pretty exhausted by the end, but it was fun.

First, on the 20th, we had a party out in Draper at Brian's aunt's house. That was the night that a huge storm came in and just dumped tons of snow all over the place. Cars were sliding all over and some couldn't make it up the hills. Brian's parents picked me up from work and we drove for about an hour to get there. Brian was already in Draper for work so he got there a lot faster. When we got there, the power was out in her neighborhood, because someone had lost control going down the hill and ran into the power box and was at a 45 degree angle on top of it. Pretty crazy. It was still a lot of fun though.

Friday night, we had another family party at my grandparent's house in Bountiful. We had dinner, played games, and got to open our grandkid's gifts. We all get fairly matching things each year.

(Aubrey, Dani, Sarah (Nat - in St. George) Brittany, (Marci - in St. George) (Wendi - at her husband's family party) Me. We always line up youngest to oldest, but we were missing a few this year.)

Parker, Austin, Brad, Taylor, Mckay, Wade, (Brendyn - on mission in NYC) (Phil - had to go back to work) (Adam - in St. George) Brian.

On Christmas Eve, as mentioned in a previous post, we had the Barlow Christmas Eve Party at my parent's house.

It was quite the challenge to fit so many people in the house, but totally worth it. The little bells you see on the table were used at place settings. We wrote everyone's names on them. We're all getting older and bigger, and families keep expanding, but it's so much more fun that way.

My cousin Curtis and his wife Karlie were there with their little baby Brynlee, who's about 6 weeks old. She's so adorable. I just wanted to hold her all night. Brian realized what a mistake it was to have me hold her so long because I totally wanted a baby as soon as I gave her back to Karli. :) Eventually. She was a way good baby though, and slept through the whole loud crazy party. I doubt my babies will be that calm.

We spent the night at Brian's parent's house, and Stuart woke us up at 5:30ish. He wasn't suppsoed to until 6, so he climbed in bed with us and we sang Christmas songs until 6. Then we went and woke everyone else up and opened the presents. It was fun, but I definitely don't do so well with so little sleep. :)

Derek called around 9:30 and we got to talk to him. He sounded really good. He's about 1/4 way through now. It's gone by so fast.

Then we headed over to my parent's house and opened our gifts there and the gifts for my family from us. My parents got me an electric piano so I can keep playing. I was so happy.

Then we headed to Brian's Grandma's house for a little party there. Then later that night we headed to my grandma's house for another meal and family get together. It was great to see all our family, but I was pretty tired by the end.

Brian and I went shopping together for most of our gifts to each other. Brian got me lots of cute clothes and shoes, and he got some new clothes and a coat as well. Our families were also generous and we were happy with everything.

My mom made each of her children a stocking, so...

I decided to make Brian a stocking as well. He had a teeny one already, but each of his brother's got progressively bigger, so now everything fits inside of it. :)

This is our first Christmas tree, and the lights that Brian put up for us.

And here is our first Nativity. Thanks for the idea Susie! Though, next year we'll have a real one, because Nancy gave us one for Christmas. :)
And here were are at the end of our busy Christmas. Tired, but very happy.