Baby it's cold outside

One of my favorite parts about winter is that we can go inside and just be cozy.  Hot chocolate, a good book, and good company.  Snuggled up next to a fire or under blankets.  Looking outside and being able to enjoy the world being smothered in snow, but from a safe/comfortable tempurature.  We had lots of fun doing all those things at the cabin.  Plus hot tubbing, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

Christmas Eve

Cafe Rio salads!

Melly Belly

Mason's jenga tower.

Dan on Christmas morning.

Christmas dinner.

Uncle Glen felt bad there weren't many pictures of me, so he took this one.

Dan and I played an epic game of Jenga.

We completed 35 levels!

And Dan knocked it over trying to stack the 36th level...

Snows in the snow

Mason going down!

Dave and Melanie (who you can't see because of all the snow!)

Josh (cousin)

Carrie.  My mother-in-law is so adventurous!!

Ohhh jingle bells, Batman smells

Our Magical Christmas Eve.

Our escorts, Pork N' Beans.

O'er the fields we go.

Christmas Fun

After talking to Zach  (my brother-in-law on his mission in Paraguay) on the phone, Carrie needed a pick-me-up.  So we decided to do a little sledding.  Dave managed to get some great videos of us coming down. 
More pictures to come!

Christmas-magic time is here!

On Sunday, we went to Dave and Carrie's for a Christmas Celebration!  Steph can't come up to Utah with the rest of us, so Carrie thought it would be nice to have dinner with everyone before we all leave.  Grandma and Grandpa Vaccarello (which I prob just misspelled...) came too.  It was really fun.  I loved seeing all the Christmas decorations, spending time with everyone, and especially the lasagna.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that Carrie makes the best lasagna I've ever had, hands down.  Those Italians...
We also got to open some presents--well mostly Steph and Grandma and Grandpa Vacc.  Dan and I did get to open our present from Melanie, because she was so excited.  With good reason, since she managed to get us our favorite movie of the year: Inception!

Seriously, so good.

My beautiful sister-in-law, Steph, and all her presents!

Grandma Vacc and her classy new scarf!

Mason took this classy pic of us.

Today, we got two, count 'em: TWO big packages in the mail from my parents!  We piled our stash with the rest of our presents, and quickly realized that we had way too many presents to take with us to Utah.  So we decided that maybe we should open some today.  Basically, Dan was THRILLED, because he's been begging me to open his presents for like a week.  If you could imagine a five year-old boy at Christmas time, you would basically have my husband.  After some ice cream sundaes, we dived into the presents (just the ones from my parents, because they wouldn't be able to see us open them anyways).

My mom also decided to send us this ridiculously large (but cute) stocking!

Far too many presents to take to Utah...

I got this cute sundae set from my office party!  The bowls came even came with it!

Delish

This is the one he'd been wanting to open...

Maybe because he already knew what was in it?

What could it be??

Just what I needed, a new straightener!  Maybe now my messy mane will be tamed!

Dan's new Xbox and Kinect stole the show.  But it was my idea for my parents to get him that, so that's ok.  He's already having loads of fun playing with it.  So good idea?  Definitely.  I have secured my status as the best wife ever.  My parents also got me the first two seasons of Bones (Yayyyy!) and lots of cute new clothes!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

P.S.  If anyone guesses where the title of this post came from, they get a cyber cookie.  Unless you live near me/I'll see you in the near future.  Then you can get a real cookie.

I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else but you.

You're a part-time lover and a full-time friend.

Danny got me flowers!  Precious, I know.

We sure are cute for two ugly people.

You are always trying to keep it real, and I'm in love with how you feel.

Dinner at Cheesecake Factory!!

So handsome!

It's just not Christmas without Ralphie and the major award...

"You used up all the glue, ON PURPOSE!!"

My family loves this movie.  We watch it every year at Christmastime, and could probably quote the whole thing, verbatim.

I love all the traditions my family has.  My dad reading a chapter of A Christmas Carol every night, enacting the Nativity scene, tamales on Christmas Eve, all the parties we've had with friends and family, reading the Grinch, Christmas caroling, Secret Santa, trifle, pie, ham, decorating the tree, the lights, the cookies, the sheer anticipation.

But I'm especially glad that my family also makes sure that we all remember the reason for the season.  How beautiful is it that Heavenly Father loves us enough to give up that which was most precious to Him?  How wonderful is it that Christ feels such compassion for us that he was willing to sacrifice his own life, that we may be made whole?  How lucky and blessed are we?  I feel like this is part of why I love singing Christmas songs so much.  Because thinking of this just makes me want to sing for joy.  Joy.

Event though I'm not having Christmas with my family this year, and Dan's family probably has different tradtions, they all go back to the same thing.  We're all celebrating the birth of our Savior, however we choose to.  And that is so fantastic.

Issues

I am writing a story, but I can't decide what to name my main character.  I've changed her name like three times now.  I want it to be something a little different, but not too weird.  And I want it to mean something.  And something cool, not something like "wheat field."  Which is apparently what the name Riley means.  AND I don't want people to associate her with a different character.  For instance: I like the name Ariel.  But obvs everyone is going to think of the Little Mermaid when they see that name.  I can't take this!

How am I even going to begin to name my kids.  This does not bode well.

The newest addition to our family...

Dan has been begging me for this basically since we got married.  I finally decided to give in.  (I may or may not have been bribed with a trip to Disneyland.)

It is with great pride and excitement that we announce...

The arrival of our 42" plasma screen TV!!!

We've really enjoyed it so far--especially watching Lost via Hulu on a bigger screen than Dan's laptop. =]

You have no idea the amount of coaxing it took to get this picture of him.

God: 2  Tumor:  0
My dearest friend in the whole wide world is an incredibly lucky/blessed person.  I could go on forever about all the reasons she is awesome and why I love her, but I right now I want to tell you how wonderful it is to just be able to have her here.  Ellen Jean West, you are incredible, strong, wonderful, lucky, funny, my favorite, smart, beautiful, and so, so blessed.  Through the way you live your life and the miracles that have occurred in it, you are such an example to me of faith.  I love you so much.  Ankle club fo' life.

We're hott, I know.

In other news, here is a picture of my cute street:

P.S.  If there has been a theme to the past week, it would have to be: Heavenly Father answers prayers, no matter how big or how small.  From tumors down to lost mail keys/cell phones.  I love it.