first christmas.

I'm ashamed. Truly ashamed! I haven't written in like 3 months and I feel so bad. But to justify... nothing extraordinary has happened in those months. So I guess in reality I don't feel THAT bad. So the year is pretty much over.. what a year! It went by SOOO fast. I feel like yesterday was January 27th and I had just gotten engaged. Now AJ is in Saudi Arabia (yeah totally crazy) and I'm home with my family for a couple more days. After I've had my fill of Utah (hahaha I don't think that will ever happen) my sweet mom and I will head back to the Bay Area and she'll help me finish up my house! So for those of you who have been patiently waiting for the house updates... January! January is the magic month when it will all be done! FINALLY!!!!

So this was our first Christmas together... it was so wonderful! AJ's family doesn't do a whole lot of celebrations around the holiday season, which is different from what I grew up doing. We have family parties every weekend, we have Santa come on Christmas Eve, we play tons of games and we exchange gifts. I've been blessed to grow up in a truly magical family! So I wanted AJ to be able to experience that and frankly I was a little worried that it would overwhelm him.

The extended family parties were a little overwhelming for him... but when we were at home just with my family, he was having a ball! I'm so grateful for parents who are caring and thoughtful and aware of the people around them. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with my moms side of the family...

AJ was sweet enough to ask Santa for a mini pony (he knows that I want one)! Unfortunately Santa couldn't swing that request this year... maybe next:)

Who knew someone could be so excited about the fundamentals of econometrics...

A new lego set... he's never been so happy!

This is the BEST hat EVER! I'm actually wearing it right now... I will never take it off;)

 

I think AJ was most excited about his travel pillow.. such a simple man! Actually it's a funny story. AJ already had a travel pillow that he got at a party, but he left it on the floor for like days. So I just thought he didn't want it and I wrapped it up for a white elephant party gift. Well when someone opened up the gift and AJ saw it was the pillow.. boy did we have a little meltdown. HAHAHA so I if course I had to replace it. Now he's comfortably flying across the world with his nice new travel pillow:)