Christmas 2011

This year was my turn for Christmas. (YES!)  Brandon had to work so I left right after the Christmas Concert on Sunday Dec. 18th with Hillary and Karla for home. Brandon flew in on the 23rd so that's why I have no pictures of him till then. We had a great Christmas. Nothing is better than enjoying the holiday's with those you love most and getting to be home. Washington gets more and more beautiful! And so does my awesome family! We even got to visit Colville for New Years (even though there was no snow for the FIRST time ever). This year was new again though because I have now experienced Christmas at Brandon's house and part of me did miss his family too! Merry Christmas everyone! Thank you to my family for having us! We love and miss all of you!

Ice Skating: My sisters and mom dragged me ice skating....I fell really hard when I was in elementary school and have had this irrational fear of it since then. My exact words as I was lacing up to my mom were..."I'd rather pick up five year old's puke than do this." The Maughan family came with us and brought their little Emma for her first time. I started out hanging onto the wall for dear life. Then Tylor came over and was amazing enough to help me around. By the end I was doing really well and do I dare say? I actually LOVED IT! We had a blast! Thank you Tylor for stepping in when my hubby wasn't able to be there!

Hanna and Hillary

The Fabulous Hillary

My gorgeous Mom!

Hillary and Corey

Christmas Eve: For days my dad had been raving about King high tides and Brandon had been wanting to go fishing. So my dad took B out in his boat and they went fishing together that day. It was getting late and I called Brandon to see if they got anything. He said no. Then to our surprise (though I've been married to him long enough now I should know not to be so surprised!) Dad and Brandon brought up a huge King salmon and crabs to the back porch. They had a GREAT day. We even had crab and salmon with our ham for Christmas dinner. That's a first too. 

Catches of the day

The crab

Decorating sugar cookies

Hanna...didn't feel like smiling

We even had the Maughan's dog Tucker while they were in Utah.

A 1st for my family: decorating paper plates like B's family does

Our matching pj's

They boys and their matching pj's

The girls

Dad loving his girls

The please don't take my picture face

Christmas

At the tree before church

Taking the sheet off

Then we went to church... sacrament at 9AM

For absolute best faces in pictures always grab your sister's behind...

I think she still loves me...

Family picture

Mom and Dad

Sisters

Brandon made a cute bow that Megan (old roomate) taught him to make. How sweet!

All my presents

Brandon finishing his unwrapping

My AWESOME nativity! I love it!

Hanna, Mom and Dad

City Grandpa and Grandma got to spend the day with us. 

Hanna and her presents

Hillary and her presents

Mom opening her presents

Dinner!

Enjoying crab, salmon and ham

Brandon and I got all the kids Nerf guns for Christmas...purse sized ones. We were shooting each other for days. Notice the bulge in Hanna and my back pockets? haha

Gum Wall:

Brandon's family does "Make a memory" for us when we're not at his house for Christmas. We tried to eat in the Space Needle but didn't know you had to have reservations so we bought a really cool metal Space Needle for our living room and went around Pike's for a while. It was definitely an adventure. I almost ran over a ton of pedestrians because I didn't see a light...good thing we have Utah plates to blame that on! lol We also managed to FINALLY find the gum wall...but they were doing constructions so excuse the fence. 

Happy Holidays! Love,

Brandon and Gayle Dye