A Lot Like Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope you’ve had a great holiday season. Here are just 25 things (in no  particular order) that have made this December “feel like Christmas:”

Red nails and green accessories. I already loved my cute red nails. When my friend gave me green earrings it seemed like the perfect combo.

Sugar Plum herbal tea. When you open this it smells heavenly.

Rereading the new testament. Once upon a Christmas my parents gave my sister and I each a little pink new testament that we could carry with us and read during the Christmas season. This year I decided to do it on my own.

The SLC film society’s Sound of Music Sing Along. Now Sound of Music isn’t a “Christmas” movie per say, but seeing everyone so happy and all those little girls running around dressed as Gretel just put me in the festive mood. Plus it’s fun to get to sing along to the songs and use all the props they give you in your goody bag.

Christmas music. My go to music girl Caity and my roommate Courtney both made excellent Christmas playlists. I am particularly obsessed with the cover of Christmas Wrapping Caity introduced me to:

Plus this video has been making the rounds:

A mini December marathon of Christmas movies. This included Elf, I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, Santa Clause, Love Actually, and I’ll be Home for Christmas (starring the one and only JTT, haha).

Ugly Sweaters.

This particular gem managed to snag me the “tacky” prize at the company Christmas luncheon. It was on loan from my sister.

White elephant loot. This year I scored fuzzy Christmas themed house slippers, smores kits, and play doh. My contributions were some rain boots I grabbed from the DI box and a goldfish (this one through some people for a loop).

Lovely gifts from friends. I’m lucky to have some pretty thoughtful and generous people in my life.

Skype. We got to Skype with your cousins in Arizona and it was so great to have them here for a little, even if it was via computer screen.

Christmas Lights; whether they are at Temple Square ( I went once with my family right after Thanksgiving and once with my ward), the Houston Zoo lights, or on my tiny Christmas tree.

Some of the lights. They created a path and had Christmas music. The animals were mostly asleep, but the Lion did come out :)

More zoo lights.

Learning how to keep poinsettias alive. We bought a few poinsettias for our office and it has been way more of a challenge then we thought. It turns out they need waaay more water then we were giving them. Luckily they mostly seemed to recover ok.

Yuca, congri, and flan. We always get together with my Dad’s family on Christmas eve. We have lots of yummy Cuban food and have a good time catching up with everyone. For some of my family members it’s the one tie a year I get to to see them so I always look forward to it.

Decorating a Gingerbread House and tree.

I had a lot of fun decorating this little house.

Helping my sister move. Going to Provo brought back that end of semester feeling. I also did “Christmas shopping” at the same time by reclaiming all my clothes that somehow wandered into her closet over the semester.

Wrapping presents for refugee families. I went with my company to wrap gifts for the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City.

For work we decided to help sort and wrap gifts people have donated to the IRC in order to help refugee families have a great Christmas. Some of us also helped sponsor a couple. I couldn’t find the other pictures, but here’s one of the wrapping stations.

Cousin time. We always spend Christmas day with my Mom’s family. It’s always wonderful to see all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. This year we’ll all be at my Aunt Shelly’s house in the Woodlands.

Cinnamon and nutmeg on my hot cider at the Salt Lake Roasting company. There were so many yummy options here; I need to come back.

Hot cider and a delish quiche.

Early morning airport drives. This year my flight was so early I was in the airport before any of the shops opened, creating a severe, incurable bagel craving.

Relaying a s’more bar recipe to a frantic holiday shopper in the baking aisle at Krogers. I wish I had a way of knowing how her bars come out! I hope things go well for her; judging by the overflowing cart she was pushing she is expecting a large group for the holidays.

Church Christmas party and program. My Church catered a dinner for us and then on Sunday we had a lovely musical program (many people travel during the holidays so we had ours a bit earlier than most). Then I came to Texas and got to have another Christmas Sunday :)

Dickens Christmas festival. It was a blast to see everyone dressed up and in the holiday spirit. I even bought an adorable Christmas star. I forgot to take pictures, but luckily Courtney picked up the slack so I snagged these from her.

Me in the stocks at the Dickens festival. They also had lots of vendor booths and fun snacks. Everyone was dressed up and using British accents.

One of the people dressed up. We also saw a bunch of “Oliver” orphans running around.

Hugs from my family and playing with my puppy, Bella. I love seeing all my Texas family and friends. I’m always happy to have a “green” Christmas in Sugar Land. Plus it’s my last bit of sister time before Gabby takes her big trip (so excited for her!!)!

Christmas wrapping and ribbon. I’m a sucker for pretty packages.

Seeing old friends. There are just some people who help make home feel like home. I loved seeing many of my friends at Church, in fact I got to hear many of their beautiful voices during our Christmas program. I was also very excited to see my friend Kimberly and meet baby Emma.

Me and Kimberly :)

Baby Emma! I also saw Leslie (who just turned 3!) but I forgot to snap a pic.

Well that’s it for now. I’m off enjoying the fam. Hope you’re having some good Christmas times.

Currently: Watching one of my Mom’s Christmas presents, Sense and Sensibility (And no, I haven’t been blogging all Christmas; I’m just putting the finishing touches on this while we all eat Christmas sweets and root for Miss. Dashwood!).