Happy Christmas

Ready for lots of pictures?! We enjoyed this Christmas tree during the month of December until we left to go to Utah for the Christmas break.  Matt's younger sister Heather came to Georgia to visit.  We had Chad, Hillery, their kids,  and Heather and her boyfriend Cory over before we went to Utah.  We had a great time eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate, and catching up on life.  

Our travel to Utah was somewhat adventurous, as our flight was cancelled due to bad weather and a tornado watch.  We had to get a new flight, ride MARTA back home, sleep a few hours, and then head back early in the morning for our rerouted flight.  Happily, we arrived a few hours before a family party with Matt's parents and siblings.  We had a delicious dinner, played games, opened presents, and just enjoyed being together. 

Matt's brother Chris bought his wife Madison this adorable little puppy for Christmas.  We got to meet it on Christmas Eve because it stayed with Matt's parents until Christmas morning.

We spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family. My parents and siblings were all together. Also, my Grandpa and Grandma Shumway were visiting from Arizona which was great.

We finally met the twins!  My brother David and his wife Jessica have two darling little ones, named Ethan and Jane.  Just look at these little cuties on Christmas Eve!!!

 We sang some Christmas hymns all together.  This is a picture of me and my brothers Layton, Jonathan, and Bryan singing together.

We had all of our stockings hung up. My Grandma Shumway made all of them!

On Christmas morning we woke up and got together to open presents when the babies were awake and ready.  

We had so much fun together.  We went to church and filled up more than an entire pew with just our family!  After church, Matt and I drove up to Layton, UT to visit his Grandpa and Grandma Harris, and extended family members who were also there for dinner.  Grandma Harris has an amazing collection of Christmas decorations and nutcrackers. 

 

We spent the next few days after Christmas with my family.  We took some family pictures and went to Brick Oven, which is a family tradition to eat there whenever Grandpa and Grandma Shumway come to visit.

Ethan is so cute!

 

Ethan loves watching videos of himself on David's iPhone.

I love this one of Ethan and Layton.  Such great smiles from both of them.

Over the next few days, we enjoyed playing games, hanging out, eating at Burger Supreme, going to a movie, and just hanging out.

We spent the next part of our trip with Matt's family.  We ate lots of good food, went to a movie, played games, and hung out.  We were able to get together with some of Matt's siblings separately. We visited Chris and Madi and ate Cafe Rio, and went bowling with Kim and Justin and their kids.


On New Year's Eve, we went to a BYU basketball game with my brother Jonathan.  It was good to see the Cougars in action.

Then we went to my Grandpa and Grandma Eliason's home for our traditional New Year's Eve Chinese food and game night.  We had some rousing games of Farkle and Nertz.

On New Year's Day we went to Matt's home for a family dinner.  We played some Farkle and Nertz, and even some Go Fish with the little ones.

Our last morning we were able to see Matt's sisters Heather and Tiffiny, who had been out of town.  She helped us finish a puzzle we'd been working on together.

It was such a great trip.  We love our families so much, and are so grateful for the time we were able to spend with them.