Tick Tock on the clock but the party don't stop...

New Years Eve! We decided to break from tradition and go somewhere this year. Our friend Nicole had a date and they were going to go to a masquerade ball. Sounds awesome right? Two words-Single Adult.

Now I don't have anything against single adults, I was just worried that it would be weird to go to a single adult dance as a married couple. In the end, I decided that the fun of dressing up and doing something different outweighed the weirdness.

The dance was up in Layton, so we planned on stopping for dinner before we went. Well, one thing led to another and we actually ended up picking up Olive Garden and then eating it in the car. It was mostly my fault-I haven't really had to "get ready" for much in a while, so it took longer than I thought.

We got to the dance about the same time as Nicole and her date. When we walked in I had an immediate flashback to the stake dances of my youth. Some people were dancing, but many were just standing on the sides of the room. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I saw. I'm not going to go into detail for fear of completely putting my foot in my mouth, but let's just say-anyone who is thinking about getting divorced because they think they are missing out on "the single life" needs to come to one of these dances. Now I am looking at it from an LDS perspective, so maybe being over 30 and single is much more fabulous if you're not LDS. Who knows!

Overall, we did have a great time dancing. We stayed until about 1am and then drove back home and had Nicole and her date over for ice cream. Jason and I both had a fun night and would definitely do it again next year. (Lyrics from "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha)

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Yes, I do know that it's April. I'm just trying to create a mood! See, I have been holding off from sharing my awesome thoughts because I felt like I needed to finish up last year before I started anything new. Sooo, pretend it is the end of December, it's snowing lightly and you are warm and cozy and snuggled up to your computer. Aaahhh.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was great-lot's of tradition and not too much stress. Some years I have felt overwhelmed by all of the things I felt like I had to do but this year seemed to go much smoother. I wish I knew why! We had our annual Christmas Eve party with Jason's family. Now that I have been attending for the last 16 years, I guess I could call it my family party also. It's always fun to see all of the cousins every year and see the new babies and how everyone has grown. Santa Claus is the main event of the night and everybody gets a chance to sit on his lap. Aren't we cute!

After the Price party, we usually go to either Jason's parent's house or one of his brother or sister's homes to exchange gifts with the immediate family. The cousins all draw names and have a fun time getting gifts for each other. I could describe it best as contained chaos. I mean, what else would you expect with a stack of presents, 18 kids, their parents, their grandparents and their great grandma? I look forward to it every year. After we left Jen and Drew's house, we went home and got the kids in bed, waited until they fell asleep and then wrapped presents. Note to self, "please be kind to yourself and wrap the presents ahead of time!" I think we rolled into bed somewhere after 2am.

Christmas morning we managed to sleep until about 7:30. Everyone was delighted with their presents and we enjoyed a yummy breakfast together. Our usual tradition is to take a picture of each of the kids with their presents. Unfortunately, Jason and I opted for a nap and then forgot about the pictures. Oh well. Nicole and Brynna came over around 4 for dinner. We had our usual mexican feast and then played games until we were too tired to sit up. The kids watched their new movies and played with their toys. It was a wonderful day!