christmas comes but once a year...

and when it comes... we give a cheer!!! our first christmas as a married couple... even though last year we felt married... we were indeed not! for the last couple months chris and i have been saving 75 dollars every month to put towards a tv.  i have a fairly nice tv but it is big and boxy and heavy and with all the moving we are going to do the next 6 years we decided it was time to buy a flat panel tv like everyone else.  the week of christmas we headed over to sams club to buy one.  we had our budget (which had to include tax) and started looking at tvs.  we knew going in we could probably afford a 42" which is pretty huge for our little apartment so we went straight to that isle so we wouldn't even be tempted to go beyond our budget.  we sat there debating for at least an hour trying to figure out which was a better deal and what all the numbers and things meant.  the discussion included a couple of phone calls to my brother jack to is tech savy (as we are not) and finally we came to a decision... we bought a vizio 42" lcd that had apps... so it had wifi and whatnot so we could watch netflix right from our tv and pandora... etc.  we brought the box home and i told chris he couldn't open it till christmas since it was a christmas present. he didn't like that so i put a blanket over it like it was wrapped so it wouldn't stare him in the face for the next 2 days.

we also decided that since we bought a tv we shouldn't really buy anything else for each other... but in the end decided we wanted to open something christmas morning so we set the budget of 25 each to buy little stuff for each other.... man it was tough! we mostly bought silly food items and candy but chris did buy me a new daily calendar. this one has medical weirdness for each day.  i bought him a tiny pool table... that was originally 40 bucks but after being half off and having a 10 off coupon i was able to get it with in my budget!

the 2 weeks leading up to christmas were super busy!!! we had a million different parties and what not. first was the dental school christmas party where we had some pretty good food... got dressed up and talked with a couple friends from school.  the next night was the ward party where i was in charge of the music program and had to sing.  then sunday was the stake choir festival and i was asked to sing a solo piece for that as well. tuesday night was a girls night out with the dental wives in chris' class.  we all made cookies and brought a bunch to exchange and make plates to take to visiting teachies... which was nice to get that done too!  thursday i had a brunch with my visiting teachers which is really fun with bagels and other things to eat and lots of talking and hanging out.  friday was another christmas party put on by one of chris' class mates and mostly consisted of the mormon married couples... way fun night with lots of food and white elephant and other hilarious christmas games... and pregnant women.  i think 6 of us at the party were expecting. ha! the next monday was our "anniversary" and then on tuesday night was the relief society christmas party where my mom and i were in charge of the music and i brought the table decorations... way hilarious fun night! wednesday we had a dinner over at my brother sam's for my dad where we ate and opened a few presents.

thursday night was the party at my moms where we have dinner and then do a white elephant.... its always crazy!  the hotest items this year were the crap my grandpa brought from his house.  one he called a "safari kit" it had an orange and a bottle of diet coke and some other random stuff... but it included this little barrel coin bank that he has had on his dresser as long as i can remember and as kids we would always play with it.  his other present was a bag of what he called junk... he basically emptied out a drawer full of watches and what nots... but it ended up being the coolest bag of junk! it had this neat money clip that had a tiny watch on it... and it had all these neat antique watches and all sorts of stuff.  i ended up with the bag of stuff and sam got the bank.... but he really wanted the bag and i wanted the bank so we traded.

friday night we had off and needless to say i didn't want to do anything! so we just hung out at my moms... real low key.  saturday night was the christensen family christmas eve hoopla.  sam did magic tricks and we all sang along to his karoke christmas music.  my mom asked me to sing and impromptu "have yourself a merry little christmas" and then santa came and we passed out little gifts to the little kids.  it was a really fun night!

christmas morning chris jumped right out of bed and ripped the blanket off the tv.  we opened the rest of our presents and then got ready for church.  we got ready fast enough that chris opened the tv and started setting it up.  after church we had turkey lunch at my moms and then made a stop over at my grandma slades house to see my grandparents and my dad.  we then headed home and jack came over to help us set up the tv and figure some things out.

it was a really great day and a perfect first christmas as a married couple.  we are now enjoying the rest of chris's break from school buy getting a bunch of baby errands done including registering for baby gifts and registering at the hospital and a visit to the doctor... we are also working on organizing a few more things around the house and painting a rocking chair my mom gave me.  more on that once its finished!  merry christmas!!