Christmas Break

Shelby's Christmas Break is officially over since school started this past week. It went fast but I think that we were both ready to get back to our normal schedule. For our first Christmas as a married couple, I ended up having to work...such is life as a nurse. Thank goodness Shelby's parents live close by so he didn't have to spend the day alone and we were still able to do some fun things since I had Christmas Eve off!

As soon as we got back from our Thanksgiving trip to San Diego we unpacked and immediately pulled out the Christmas decorations and got our apartment all decked out for the holidays!

As we were decorating we realized that we didn't really have any stockings that we could use for Santa to fill. A few weeks later we made it to the store and picked out some stockings and decorated them...they turned out pretty good if we say so ourselves!

We had a fun double date with Amy and Jesse and the little baby that will hopefully come out to meet us next month! :) We went to our favorite Panda Express and then decorated gingerbread houses together. It was super fun and we ate enough sugar to last us for a while...although Shelby says that he could have eaten a lot more sugar and still have room for more. :)

Here is our completed gingerbread house!

On Christmas Eve we had breakfast casserole since we wouldn't be able to have a nice breakfast together on Christmas. I experimented with my crockpot and cooked breakfast casserole in it overnight. Our house smelled yummy when we woke up and I think it is definitely a tradition we will continue! We were going to go to the Planetarium that afternoon but we decided the prices weren't the best so we ended up picking a random movie to go to. We picked Frozen, which neither of us had really heard about-we loved it and decided to buy it when it comes out. Turns out a week or so after we saw it, it has become this huge trend...whatever though we still like it even though we hate feeling like we're following the crowd... Christmas Eve night we went to Wayne and Christie's for dinner along with Grandma Ricks. It was fun to spend some time with them. We also opened our presents from them. Among the gifts were our favorites Studio C and Nutella. We've spent at least three hours over the break watching Studio C while I worked on craft projects!

After spending time with Shelby's parents we came home and read Luke 2 and sang a few Christmas songs around our little keyboard.

The next morning bright and early, I headed to work. I was determined to have a good attitude about working on Christmas and tried my best to remember that I was doing what Jesus Christ spent his life doing-serving others and healing the sick. Hopefully I was able to make a difference in the lives of my patients-especially since they didn't necessarily want to spend Christmas Day at the hospital either. While I was at work Shelby made Christmas dinner so we were able to have a nice Christmas dinner that evening. Since we hadn't opened our gifts to each other yet, we ran upstairs, change into our pajamas, and went back downstairs and opened presents-so it kind of seemed like Christmas morning since we were in our pajamas. :)

These are the bloomers our Christmas tree got for Christmas!

Thanks to Santa, we have lots of nerf gun wars at our house now. :)

I had a few days off in a row shortly after Christmas so we were able to go spend some time with my family. We went to Pine Top for a few days for some sledding and snow mobiling. It was fun to see cousins that we don't get to see very often. That Sunday also was conveniently Curtis's long awaited homecoming! He was supposed to be home at the beginning of December but due to government issues in the Philippines he didn't make it home until a few days before Christmas. We were so glad to see him healthy and safe at home...with a cute accent! We also spent lots of time that weekend with the Price's looking at Christmas lights and visiting. We were really sad that we couldn't stay for the New Year's celebrations also, but we I had to return to work on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

For those of you who watch Studio C-we found Lobster Bisque at Jakers! Shelby was so excited to try it and it didn't taste bad-very similar to Clam Chowder.

You can tell that school is in full swing now as evidenced by ice cream being in our freezer now-it's Shelby's coping mechanism. We're grateful for breaks and getting to spend time with each other! Here's to another semester full of lots of ice cream and good grades!

Thanksgiving in San Diego

For Thanksgiving this year we went to sunny California! We are so grateful to Shelby's parent's for taking us along! It was nice to get out of cold Idaho for a the week. Our first stop in California was Palm Springs at Wendell's house. We soaked in the hot tubs and ate lots at a few buffets there. We had an adventure getting ID'd at a breakfast buffet! After stopping in Palm Springs we drove on to San Diego where we spent lots of time with Shana and Rowdy and Travis and Katy and their kiddos. We ventured to Coronado Island on Monday and got our toes wet in the water and played on the beach for a while before going to Travis and Katy's for dinner. We thought that the water would be cold but it wasn't too bad!

On Tuesday we went to SeaWorld. It was so pretty with Christmas trees and lights since it was the beginning of the holiday season. The shows were so fun to watch and we even got soaked watching the Shamu show since the nieces and nephews decided the splash zone would be a great place to sit! :) This picture shows how close we were.

Wednesday was an adventure with squeezing in Knott's Berry Farms and The Lion King on broadway. I loved the Lion King and wish we had the chance to go to musicals like this more often. It was super fun!

On Thanksgiving we ate dinner at Travis and Katy's then went to Coronado Island where Shana and Rowdy had rented a beach house. We played in the ocean, roasted smores, and hung out on the beach.

Here we are after sitting in the soak zone at SeaWorld. Who knew we would get that wet!

We loved California and the fun we had there! It was nice to spend time with family that we don't get to see very often!