Christmas

I love Christmas!

It was so much fun having my sister and her husband here.
My brother-in-law Nathan might have the best comedic timing I have ever encountered. He makes everything funny without being offensive, rude, or crude. It's quite a talent. We spent the last couple days laughing at/with him.

Christmas Eve we all opened one present, we ate way too many snacks, then went to Idaho Falls for some Chinese food. Sarah told us that Chinese food is one of Nathans family's Christmas Eve traditions, so we asked around to try and find where to go get some that was quality. We were told about a place and when everyone was hungry we drove down.

We walked in and I almost gagged because it smelled so bad of old seafood. Strike one. The boys seemed to not be bothered by it, though, so we allowed a hostess to take us to our table. We sit down and all order waters, then after a few minutes we realized we were at a buffet. Strike two. We all get up and go to get our food, everyone is looking unsure at the options and tentatively putting random choices on their plates.

We apologized to Nathan for bringing him here. We all ate the food. It was not gross, but it was not great. It was typical buffet food. Except Nathan came back and told us to be careful because there is an older lady walking around touching the food with her hands and licking her fingers. strike three.

Sorry we ruined your tradition.

In an effort to make me and Lucas feel less crappy about the -4 star Christmas Eve meal Sarah said,
"It's okay. One day we will be rich and we will look back at this from our super fancy sushi restaurant and say 'OH THE DAYYS..' and laugh!" She said it with a fake stuffy rich girl voice and it was so hilarious.

The rest of the time they were here we would randomly say, "Oh the days!" when we were noticing something low quality or feeling rich, or just needing to fill the silence with something funny.

That night we were all playing Monopoly Deal and we got a knock on the door and heard footsteps running quickly away from the door and down the stairs. Lucas went and opened the door and there was a bag on the step. We were given a wonderful meal and a generous christmas gift. The giver was anonymous and as soon as we got it I could not focus on our game anymore because I was all choked up. My eyes watered and I just sat there overwhelmed with gratitude.

We have experienced so many miracles this Christmas Season. People have reached out to us in ways we would never have thought possible, in ways they themselves could not afford, and in ways that will forever bring tears to my eyes. That was one of the moments where I have really felt the Christmas spirit. As people have helped us this season through our loneliness and gave us selfless Christlike love.

I love the holidays.

Christmas morning we all slept in pretty well. We woke up and made bacon and spinach quishe with orange juice, then we visited with Lucas' brother Brian via skype and they watched us open the nice present they got us. Afterwards we took turns and all opened up our presents and went through our stockings.

We were very blessed this years thanks to the generosity and thoughtfulness of our friends and family.!!

After we opened gifts and said thank you's and cried a little we went to church. There were some beautiful (and some sweet and beautiful because of genuine effort) musical numbers.  Sarah was weepy because she was enjoying the words of the Christmas songs we sing and enjoying the spiritual side of the season so much. It was great.

We played games that night, watched Moose chase the ZhuZhu pet we bought him and took it away when he ripped its face off and it was no longer safe for him to chew on haha.

That night Sarah helped me cook the ham, make a fancy salad, and cook veggies. We sat down to dinner and talked and laughed, of course. It was really great.
I ended the night reading from the book sarah got me all about Mother Eve. It is amazing. When I finish it I will do a review on it here, I think.

The next day was my sister's 23rd birthday! We slept in, had a breakfast smoothie from our new blender! (Woo hoo!!) hung out, played some Wii (it really does look good on our dresser btw) then got ready to go down to Idaho Falls to see Mission Impossible and shop around.

In Idaho Falls we walked around the dinky little mall and then quickly left as Sarah realized that Idaho is not the best place to come to buy clothing, and Lucas hit the shopping wall. (Nathan loves shopping, I think it's because he is a designer)

We got burgers at Red Robin for lunch, and did not have them sing Happy Birthday to Sarah because we are huge jerks. (Sorry Sarah! No matter what day it is, when we get together again we will go there just for the clapping and the songs)

We left the mall and went to the theater where seeing an action boy movie refueled Lucas. We chowed down on popcorn, and realized that it is apparent from so many Mission Impossible movies that their missions are in fact possible and we are no longer fooled. Also, that movie makes me hurt all over because Tom Cruise takes such a beating. And he is a really practiced movie-sprinter.

Back in Rexburg we put candles in Sarah's birthday ice cream, sang her a song, and ate some ice cream.
We visited for a minute with our wonderful neighbors, talked to my parents on the phone, played games and hung out.

It was a wonderful Christmas at the Taylor home!