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Merry Christmas!

This was a pretty good one for me. A week or two before this, I was expecting it to be not so great, but in the end it has been great.

Spending a few days (even if they were do to car troubles) in the mountains with my brother, his friend, and his family worked to set the mood for the holiday. Snowboarding, jacuzzi-ing to help ease muscles after the falling that took place during said snowboarding, eating a holiday meal, watching King Arthur, and being with THE BEST family you could possibly hope to spend a spontaneous few days with. They were seriously awesome, I mean I was asleep on their couch thursday morning after the whole car fiasco, and they had never seen or heard of me, and they treated me like I was their long lost daughter. So yes, I was there until Christmas Eve.

We got back about mid-afternoon on the 24th, and we were going to church(es) that evening. First we went to our church which was fun, I got to hang out with Jason and Bryon. When that service was over we went to this other hispanic church in another city for their Christmas Eve dealy. It was real good, I got to see some cousins and old friends, and the service was real special.

Christmas morning. We did not open presents until noonish because we all slept in– not a bad idea! Nathaniel came over after that and we exchanged gifts and spent a little while together. We were both so happy, I do not think I could have been happier!

At around 5 we went out to eat dinner, where we met up with an Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins. It’s kind of sad, we do not spend hardly any time with our extended family. I look at Nate’s family where some of his closest friends are his cousins, and then I look at mine, where the cousins I saw today I haven’t seen since I was little, even though they live in Pasadena. Anyway, it was great to have dinner, and then we came to our house for dessert and to spend more time together. After they left, my parents and I watched The Sound of Music!

Seriously, it might sound very simple, but I enjoyed it so much! I do not want to get overly cheesy, but it’s cool to know the true meaning of Christmas, and to be able to take it further and spend time with those you love. I was so happy, I did not even care what I was recieving!

But on that note…

Since I take bad pictures and there is no way you can really figure out what all is in there, here we go:

(these are done in order of who I recieved gifts from first, not order of favorites or anything like that)

From the parents I got two tank tops (I wear these kinds of ‘camis’ so much!), pajamas, cute skirt, three scarves, $350 for new york, some unmentionables from victoria’s secret (haha, no those aren’t included in the picture, and no I didn’t unwrap them in front of my dad and my brother… that would have been a bit akward), and they are going to reimburse me for the luggage I bought and a jacket I bought for my trip. It was so much more than I expected from them, it was so overwhelming!

From the brother I got some gap courderoy pants that I have desperately been NEEDING for work (seriously, up to now my choices have been some shorts that don’t work in cold weather, pants that are way too tight and hurt to wear lol, or pants that are too loose and manage to hike themselves down at the wrong moments), and some incredibly awesome shoes. Awesome awesome awesome! They’re black flats but ah! They’re awesome!

From the boyfriend I got this cool tote from urban outfitters, I had been looking for a bigger purse/tote type bag, so it works perfectly! I also got this cute black gap skirt (should go real good with the shoes from my bro!), a really pretty teal/greyish gap skirt, and the best skirt ever made (also from the gap)! It’s this brown… suede (? I think it’s made from suede) skirt, I have been eyeing it for a while, and now I have it! muahahahahha. Nateley is awesome! Ahhhh, the gap is your friend. sometimes. When it comes to skirts and pants it definitely is! Nate also got me these travel-sized shampoo and conditioners from victoria’s secret, so I can keep my hair looking, feeling, and smelling “so sexy,” as their scent is called =)

and From the relatives I got $20. Pretty nice considering I hadn’t talked to them in ages! Oh, and they brought over some journals from my great grandfather! Pretty neat stuff, there are newspaper clippings from 1907 and they’re filled with pretty handwriting. And they payed for dinner.

So I am pretty happy, but it’s not even because of all this stuff. I feel lucky because this is so much more than I would have expected, but I am happy because of everything else that made Christmas great.