A Woodinville Christmas

^^Jared in his Christmas Eve pajamas. The boys got superhero fleece onesies and it was HILARIOUS. The best was when Jared zoomed around the house in his like he was an actual superhero/4-year-old.

^^Had to include this picture because Steven in his Batman onesie. Haha.

^^The girls all got adorable pink pjs with tiny reindeer on them, plus a matching eye-mask that was a lifesaver for me on our redeye flight back to Grenada. Also, isn't that just the cutest little baby stance going on there?? And please take note of all the trees outside of those windows. Washington is stunning.

Christmas was so fun this year. Jared's whole family was there, and it was especially fun to have our niece Mae around. Marie, Steven, and Mae moved from Arizona up to Washington while we were there, and they and their parents are thrilled to now be living within half an hour of each other. They had a little housewarming party in their new apartment, and Jared and I got sooo giddy about it! It wasn't an especially fancy apartment, but it had carpet and their nice comfy couch and a fireplace and a good kitchen and bathtubs and all of their own furniture and belongings in it. All things you wouldn't see in a Grenada apartment. And all things we'll likely have in our apartment when we move back to the States later this year! Don't get me wrong, I really love our Grenada apartment, but I'm excited to live somewhere that feels cozy again.

That was a big tangent. This post is supposed to be all things Christmas. On Christmas Eve we had a delicious dinner in the dining room and Roy and Imogene came over. Jingle the elf brought us each a present, and we played the bells. We had a little Christmas program with songs and scriptures, and then we opened and put on our Christmas pjs. We broke to play some intense games (including Christmas Bingo--something my family does as well) with prizes of candy, toys, and gift cards. Everyone was way into it, and we all got some sweet loot. As a side note, Jared and I were in charge of buying the Jingle gifts, and Jared got himself and all the boys this "digging for gold" kit. Basically it's a bag filled with dirt and some tiny gold flakes you can pan for. He got them on the off chance that he'd find a gold nugget in one of them. That's my little gambler. He did have fun panning for his gold that night though...in his Captain America onesie.

On Christmas morning, Jared's 11-year-old brother Will woke us up and we filed into the family room to a heap of presents (really, a heap--Jared was in charge of arranging them and he placed them all in front of and on top of the huge ottoman so it looked like a ridiculously massive pile. our future kids are going to be constantly entertained by that guy). We each looked through our stockings and opened our big "Santa gift." I got a queen-sized sleeping bag that I'm SO excited to use this summer, and Jared got some Bose noise-canceling headphones that he is thrilled about for studying. He pretty much only asked for school-related gifts, and he was genuinely thrilled when he opened each of them. He's on the perfect life path for himself. Med school may be a variety of crazy that I don't fully understand, but he truly does love it. We then opened the rest of our presents and spent the rest of the day playing. Jared got a mini drone that he is obsessed with, and much of the day was spent flying it around in the backyard. I was able to Skype my parents when they received a phone call from my brother Peter, who's serving an LDS mission in California. We couldn't have dreamed up a better Christmas.