Christmas Reminiscing.

Started off the season right by going to Westwood's Canticle concert.

Isn't my brother just the cutest?



Helped decorate the house, hang the lights, and decorate the tree.

I can say, it is one of our better trees.

One of my very favorite parts of Christmas is seeing the glow of the tree every time I walk past the living room and smelling that amazing fresh pine scent.

For the past couple years I've got to watch my two cousins dance in the Nutcracker, and this year they did such a good job as a Tin Soldier and a Russian Dancer. Makes me wish I was a ballerina!

Also with Christmastime come the Institute Christmas dance. Just another great excuse to dress up all fancy, score some free food, and dance like crazy with friends. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Confused? I don't blame you. You are basking in the gloriousness of a Goodwill handcrafted masterpiece, given to one lucky recipient on a random evening. 

On Christmas Eve, I had to go into work for a little while so my sister came with to keep me company. Mostly she just entertained herself...

It's been the tradition over the years to go out to dinner on Christmas Eve, which we always look forward to, and this year Mom & Dad treated us to AH-SO, a delicious Japanese restaurant where they cook the food right in front of you. Highlight of the night? When our chef started doing the Gangnam Style dance.

And Christmas isn't Christmas without some Christmas jammies. 

Christmas Day was just too good to us. We woke up at the crack of dawn to open presents, had homemade cinnamon rolls and eggnog for breakfast ( on a sugar high all day because of said breakfast ), and hung out and played with our gifts in our jammies all morning. For some reason I have no pictures from any of those moments, but I assure you they were wonderful. And the day continued with more wonderful moments such as.....

...getting to go over to the Zazuetas's and talk to a certain Elder Z. I was certainly so lucky to be able to go over and to hear his crazy stories and see his face. That kid makes me laugh so hard.

I returned home to a Christmas feast. On everyone's plate were their OWN little cornish game hens. Fancy shmancy. I couldn't help but think that we were as cool as the Dunphy's on the Modern Family Express Christmas episode. 

And to top it all off, that night we took the whole family to see Les Miserables, a movie that I had anxiously been waiting to see for too long. 

How was it? UNBELIEVABLE. It blew all my expectations out of the water. The emotion was uh-mazing. I was a little worried that they weren't going to be able to capture all of awesomeness of Les Mis into one movie, but I got to hand it to them. They pulled it off. And as a result I've now seen it 3 times. What can I say? Who doesn't love a movie where Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russel Crowe and this guy (who makes me literally swoon. No shame) sing to some of the most incredible music? Crazy people that's who.