There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

I love this time of year! It puts me in the best mood, even if I am away from my family and fiance'. (But not for much longer!) I had a pretty fun-filled weekend with Thanksgiving and my Miller family bridal shower. And lately I've found myself doing a lot of things that have to do with home, and I've just loved it! You'll see what I mean as you look at the pictures. These are pictures of the rest of the weekend and also the last couple of days down here in Utah. Enjoy!

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Tyson & I Decorating the House for Christmas

On Friday night Tyson and I decorated our house for Christmas. (It feels weird saying "our" house, so that was really hard for me just now!) I took a few pictures of all the decorating fun.

Before we started decorating we thought it would be fun to grab Papa Kelsey's sandwiches for dinner. My mom decided to give us one of our wedding presents a little early so we could use part of it during Christmas time. This included that yummy Mistletoe Yankee Candle, the champagne flutes, and the sparkling grape juice.

A close up of all the goodies

Our Christmas tree
This tree has a cute pine cone garland, white lights, red and green balls, and the ornaments Tyson has received from his grandma over the years. I love it! And it was so fun decorating it together.

We decided to start our own tradition of ornament exchange, and these are the two we got for each other. Tyson gave me the Willowtree Holy Family ornament on the left, and I gave him the "Our Family 2008" ornament with our family picture in it. So fun!

A close up of the tree and the ornament Tyson gave me

Our living room

Dustin and Erika gave us this cute ornament/magnet as an engagement present to have for our first Christmas. So cute! We put it on the fridge.

Mom also provided us with some decorations she wasn't using this year. One of them was this cute little wooden snowman.

Kohl's was having a sale on Christmas stuff and I found this really cute Christmas pillow for the couch. And I love the holiday M&M's in the bowl on the table! Delicious, and one of my favorite treats for the holidays.

Tyson putting up the wreath on the front door

Our stockings
Can you guess which one is mine and which one is Tyson's?

Our new s'more mugs
When Mom, Amber, and I went to Tai Pan a couple weeks ago we found these really cute s'more mugs for $.97 a piece! I love them!

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Decorating at the O'Connor's
Amy and I were able to help Mom put up the decorations and tree at Mom and Dad's and it turned out great as always. My mom does an awesome job at decorating for Christmas.

The Christmas tree
Can you see our two cats, Snoopy and Cubby, underneath it?

If not, here's a close up!

Amy with Amber and Che's cat, Sunni
I wanted to add this picture to the mix because we discovered that Amy and Sunni have the same color of hair ha ha.
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Gingerbread Houses at the Murri's
For family home evening on Monday we decorated gingerbread houses for an activity. It was so much fun! Penney had bought to gingerbread houses from CostCo. so Nathan and Ashleigh could make one together. Kayleigh, Bob, and I made the other while Penney finished decorating the Christmas tree.

Bob, Kayleigh, and I came up with this masterpiece. We had a blast, and we couldn't stop putting more and more treats on it!

This is the back of our creation.

And I had to get a shot of the roof, it was beautiful!
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Reunion with a Friend
My old roommate, Katie, recently moved from Arizona to Taylorsville, Utah, and we were able to get together on Tuesday night. It was so fun seeing her! We watched the Jazz game and ate dinner with her boyfriend and a few of his friends.

I love December! This month feels like one big family get together the entire time and it makes me so happy. I can't wait to be home with my family in Idaho to continue celebrating Christmas. But I have really enjoyed being in Utah and having fun with family and friends here as well. I hope you're all enjoying spending time with your family at home for the holidays!