when santa's sleighbells ring.



well friends, christmas came and went again. another year over. and it has gone by so dang fast i can't believe it.

 

my parent's have been out on their mission nearly 6 months, my sister-in-law gets HOME from her mission in a few weeks, i'm in my last semester of cosmetology school, i'm about to turn 23....life goes quickly when you grow up.

 

but i must say,this christmas did not disappoint. although it didn't feel quite like christmas for me until christmas eve when i woke up to this:

 

absolutely beautiful! i was definitely hoping for a white christmas and we barely got it :)

 

christmas eve was spent with family of course.

this year christmas eve was with my side of the family and we did our normal traditions:

 

first {bein my favorite}, we went to my uncle and grandma's graves and sung christmas carols {a tradition my grandma started when my uncle died...so once she passed away as well..we kept it going}.

then we went back to my aunt ray's house who had prepared a delicious lasagna dinner.

i wanted to get a picture with norman and he was being difficult {as usual when it comes to taking pictures}

 



once we got home we did our annual white christmas movie showing, and popped open a bottle of sparkling cider that our friend gave us.

 



so...i'm kind of a loser and forgot to take pictures christmas morning. but it was a lot of fun. Norman, myself, and my sister all slept out in the living room by the tree and woke up early to open presents. we all enjoyed ourselves very much and were so grateful for such a great christmas this year and great family to spend it with.

 

kelsey's kids were with their dad and were coming over at 10:30 for an hour or so to open presents with us.

in the mean time...norman and i headed to his parents to skype his sister on her mission one last time before she comes home.

she looks and sounds so good and i can't wait to see her!

 

the kids then came over, we had a quick little christmas and then they were off with their dad agian for the holiday.

 

Norman, kelsey, and i went over to norman's parents after that and had a yummy breakfast and then got ready to go stand in line for my most exciting part of my christmas day!

les miserables

{this is us in line}

everyone who knows me, and who reads my blog knows that i have been obsessive over this movie coming out. i seriously could not wait. and i had it hyped up to the max in my head. and most likely when that happens...the movie ends up disappointing you because you were expecting it to be spectacular and it happened to fall just short of that.

 

well let me tell you....les mis did nothing but fulfill every single expectation i had {and they were quite high}. oh my word...it better win every oscar it's nominated for because i have never seen such a beautiful film in all my life. i've seen the play, listened to the music my whole life, and the movie was absolutely spectacular. i can't say enough good things about it.

 

the singing and music coupled with the emotion protrayed was so breathtaking i was choking back tears for the entire film {and of course some of them tears spilled right over in more than a few parts}.

 

i could go on and on...but a shant {did i just say that?}

 

so anywho...after the movie we ran up to norman's grandparents to say hello and then home to bed.

 

the following day was spent being lazy, going to some stores around town to exchange some things, and then that evening, our annual Rhoades christmas present game.

 

this year was fabulous as every year is, although we did miss my parents and my sister linsey and her husband jarom {who live in florida}.

 

this year included "just dance" dance off's, peom writing competitions, jenga, opening presents with tweezers, knocking over cups with a bean bag banana that's attached to your waist, guessing movie quotes, etc. etc.

 

it was more than exciting and fun. :)

 



 

 

i ended up with a good loot of presents and happened to snag an itunes card and of course immediately when home and bought the soundtrack to les mis. so so good. {i'm planning on seeing it again asap}. :)

 

hope everyone else also had a fabulous christmas!