Christmas Festivities

I love doing Christmas-y things every year..... and really, who doesn't? This year was no exception. One of my favorite things to do around this time of year is look at all of the Christmas lights. Well, there aren't very many houses in our neighborhood, and as a result, not a lot of Christmas lights. However, Michael's school is SO festive and has some of the prettiest lights I've ever seen on a school campus. He surprised me by taking me there to look around.

Then we came home and made a gingerbread house. It's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. I made it all from scratch. (Ha, yeah right. Thank you, Wal-mart, for selling gingerbread house kits! They are very handy!) This is the finished product, which made a cute decoration. And Michael made the tree on the back of the house, which he was very proud of. :-)

Growing up, we always had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, so after Michael got off work on Christmas Eve we had a yummy feast including ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, and crescents.

Christmas was fun too. We woke up early, opened our presents, emptied our stockings, talked to family, and saw the third Chronicles of Narnia movie. We also had a white Christmas- brr!!

Showing off my presents.

Michael showing off his presents.

I love our matching PJ's. Thanks mom!

I really needed a new earring holder, so I'm glad I got one. Michael thinks I have too many earrings. Is that even possible?!

Anyway, the reason we stayed in Nashville for Christmas is because we're going home to LA for a few days next month for my little brother's homecoming. Yay! The whole family will be there, so we're very excited!!!

Winter Woes

I hate the cold. Like, I really, really hate it. Being too hot is uncomfortable, but being too cold is just miserable. Ever since moving away from California I can't even enjoy the fall season properly because I know that in just a few short months the worst season of all will rear its ugly head. I absolutely love Christmas, but Irving Berlin (he wrote "White Christmas") had it all wrong. Nothing is more magical than sunshine and flip flops. Yes, even on Christmas.

Growing up, my family always traveled in the summer, so it was a long time before I ever experienced snow and freezing weather. When I went to BYU, I was actually excited for it to snow because I thought that it would be this amazingly cool thing. The first time it snowed, I admit that I was excited. I grabbed my roommate and my camera and took this picture:


This is pretty much the only picture that exists of me being in the cold and enjoying it. :-) After experiencing frozen limbs and some seriously nasty falls, it didn't take me long to make my Facebook status something like, "Carly hates fluffy show, wet snow, slushy snow, icy snow, powdery snow, slippery snow, muddy snow, white snow, and yellow snow."

I thought that leaving Utah and coming to Nashville would mean warmer winters. I am very sad to say that it's not any warmer. If anything, it's even colder!!! I don't know if it's the humidity or the wind chill or what, but it has suddenly gotten ridiculously cold here. Obviously it's not the coldest place in the country, but I was just hoping for it to be slightly warmer. And it's not even officially winter yet! I told Michael that as soon as he's done with school, we have to live somewhere warm. I am way too wimpy and whiny for cold weather.

I know, I know- just call me Mr. Scrooge. At least there is a lot making me smile despite the weather, like this:

Merry Christmas from Michael and Carly!