Christmas Eve

So I still owe you all the Mel trip highlights but I thought tonight I would give you a recap of our first Christmas Eve together.

For the first time in a while, I didn't go to the mall or buy ANY presents this Christmas Eve! I was ALL done which is remarkable considering I dropped the holiday ball with the Christmas cards. Thus I will do the most impersonal thing ever and post what would be our holiday card to share with all of you. If Mom and LJ ever make it (later in post), maybe they will turn into real cards and get sent for New Years! I need my crafty elves to help execute!

We started the day by me "working" in my pjs. Ok so I actually did check email and such I just might have also concurrently watched Sports Center with Brent. (Don't worry no one at work knows I write this blog and you can't even find it on google AND I have never used the name of my company so there will not be any hits- I'm from the tech savvy generation :) At noon we walked down to the grocery store in all of the snow we got and picked up some great meals for the next two days. We really treated ourselves and it was pretty fun to pick out what we would eat for our holidays. Can you say feliz navidad? You can take the girl out of Texas but you cant take the enchilada love out of her heart. After trudging back up the hill in the snow, we ate pizza and then worked out (should always be partnered if you want to fit in your Christmas Eve outfit). OOhhh how could I forget? During the pizza making we made Christmas cookies. I have these "Year Round" cookie cutters from Crate and Barrel and I was desperate to make the holiday shapes. Please note the before and after.

Brent cutting out cookies

Making cookies before working out (and makeup)

The suppliesBefore: (please notice the snowflakes, trees, stars, and hearts perfectly cut)
After. Lovely blobs. At least they taste good. We still haven't frosted them because I basically quit about 1/2 way through baking anything. Not a huge fan of baking clearly. Supporting exhibit A: look at the snowflake blobs. They had no shot.

Let's see how the cake goes tomorrow... eek!

The workout room was SUPER full and frankly, I DONT run outside when there is snow on the ground. Walking was enough effort and required lots of focus. Since all of the eliptials and machines were full, we decided to do Exercise TV on demand yoga. Brent was awesome since he is so strong however I really excelled at the "child's pose." Look it up if you dont know. I think it says something about my strength...

Then we decided that since the weather was starting to get nasty (still pretty but the wind was howling outside) we would go to church WAY earlier than the usual 11pm service. I was thinking we would go into Denver because there is a church there I have been wanting to go to but we didn't want to risk the weather so we went to the Broomfield United Methodist Church. The service was good but I have not been to a "child friendly" Christmas Eve service in a long time and it was REALLY distracting. Also, can't lie, I LOVE the 3 standard songs you sing every Christmas: Come all ye Faithful, Silent Night, and Joy to the World. I also look forward to the choral/solo rendition of Oh Holy Night ever year. I have to say I miss southern churches with their robes and beautiful music. This one wasn't up to par. When we got home we decided to turn on Pandora and find Josh Grobin's rendition of Oh Holy Night. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Our background music:

Here are some fun Christmas pics. Mattie was NOT happy. I think he knows Santa will give him his stocking stuffers no matter what because she is a pushover when it comes to the cat so he pouted through all of the pics.

Please also observe that initially he was just TOO hungry to take photos. He had to eat nuggies in this photo:

*pics not edited or anything. They have red eyes and blur marks from the book I set it on to turn on the timer but I want to hang with Brent this Christmas Eve and not edit photos so just imagine them beautiful and perfect! Thanks!

Just look at those eyes...

Next Brent made a scrumptious dinner of garlic shrimp, mushrooms, and parsley. I added my touch with my stuffed mushrooms and some bread. It was delicious. Here is our table And our dinner:Brent's spot with his beer:

And mine with my cosmo:


We fit our reindeer plates, no?

We are going to finish up the night with a good ole holiday tradition we are starting: football watching! Are any of you really surprised? Brent asked me if we wanted to get in bed and read when we were coming home from church and I said that sounded nice. Then he mentioned he might like to catch part of the Hawaii bowl and I easily agreed. I told him today and tomorrow are the only two days I feel bad expressing that Football is one of the two religions we follow so why not merge the two? Go SMU!

Lastly tonight I found out that the *&^@ snow storm has snowed in my parents and they might not (ok probably but I prayed AND asked Santa so I'm hoping the two guys come through for me) make it tomorrow. I just want them to get here safe so if that takes an extra day oh well. Merry Christmas to you all. Enjoy the day with your loved ones and know we love you all!