The Thompson's: Happy Holidays!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did! We had lots of family parties, work parties and time with each other. We did things a little different this year. Landon I felt that we wanted to do something really special this year to help bring in the Christmas spirit. So, we decided to help out a family. We took the money that we would have spent on us and our parents and put that towards helping out a family in need. Our ward had a giving tree they made on a poster board. On the tree were paper ornaments that had what each person needed on the back of each of them. They kept it all anonymous, but they had color coordinated the families in different colored ornaments. We grabbed all the ornaments of one color and on the back of each of them asked for things like, "12 yr old shirt and pants, size XX" or "mens dress shoes size XX". After reading what each person needed it made us think of how sad it was that these people, without our donations, would not have Christmas presents. We loved shopping for all of them. It was a very spiritual experience for both of us. You can't help but have a good feeling in your heart when you are sacrificing things you want for things that others need. We gave each our sets of parents a card that told them the money that would have been spent on them for Xmas was spent on helping out a needy family. They felt that was a perfect gift. There's nothing else we would have wanted more this year. This was one of favorite Christmas experiences.

We have made it a tradition that we spend Xmas Eve with my dad, Xmas day with our moms and the day after Xmas with Landon's dad. My dad, his girlfriend Audre, and Korey all came over to our house on Xmas Eve. We ate pizza and played games. It was SO much fun! I love spending time with my dad and little brother. There isn't a time that we get together that we don't all end up laughing hysterically about something. I really like my dad's girlfriend Audre. She is very sweet and fits in just perfect! My dad and Audre ended up staying until midnight playing Texas Hold'em with us. Landon had never really understood how to play until that night when my dad explained it to him. Landon ended up winning. Beginners luck! ;-) lol

Xmas day wasn't as busy as it usually is for us. Since it was blizzard we decided to veto driving to Herriman to see my mom because we knew we'd see her at our family party on that Saturday. We ended up relaxing a little at our house then headed to Debbie's to open gifts. I always get excited to see what gifts Deb has because you really know that she puts time and effort into picking out each individual thing. She gave Landon a gift card to Checker to work on his truck, a beenie, and some cash for our Park City day. She gave me some super cute decor, a book, and money for Park city. After opening presents at Deb's we headed to Britt and Tom's for Christmas dinner. She had the table decorated so cute! She is so creative! It was me, Landon, Britt and Tom, Deb,Steve and Heather, and baby Jack. We ate a delicious ham dinner and played games. It was SO fun! Thanks Tom and Britt for hosting! ;-)

The day after Xmas we both had to work. Bummer! But, after we both got off we packed our bags and Mia and headed to Gregg and Nec's. Everyone was out there except Meg and Aaron. It was fun to have everyone together. You'll never guess what we got from Gregg and Nec for Xmas!!! A new OVEN!!!!!! I was so excited!! They came over a few days later and helped us install it. For all of you who don't know, our old oven was the biggest piece of crap. It never cooked things evenly, it was TINY inside and burned about 90% of the food I cooked in it. I love our our new oven! It has a light that works inside, it's big enough for my BIG cookie sheets, and it looks SOOOOO much better than the last one! I have cooked a few things in it already and I can't even begin to tell you how much better it works. Thank you SO much Gregg and Nec for this wonderful gift! While we were out at their place we all went out and did some skeet shooting. I think I only actually hit one of the skeets, but it was still a ton of fun.

The next day we headed to my Uncle Lane's for my mom's side Xmas party. I love getting to see that side of the family. Not many people can say they know their second and even third cousins. Landon always gets confused because I refer to my great aunts as my aunts and my second and third cousins just as my cousins. LOL

Overall we had a GREAT holiday season! There's wasn't one thing we didn't enjoy getting to do with all our families. We are so greatful to have such a big family that makes this time of year so enjoyable. We love you all very much and appreciate everything you did for us this Christmas season and continue to do for us! xoxo

Here are some pics to recap our Christmas. Enjoy!

Uncle Lane helpin' Landon become Santa

Santa Landon