This was our first Christmas together in Utah. I have never been away from my family for the holiday, but with baby girl coming soon we decided it was best not to fly or drive to California this year. Luckily we do have wonderful family here to spend the holidays with. Plus Mark and I both got sick and really needed the down time to just relax and enjoy our last Christmas just the two of us.
This picture sums up our break! My big belly and Mark snuggling with me. We really took advantage of our days off and tried to just relax. We know our days of relaxing and sleeping are quickly coming to an end.
If Mark had his way we would have a pre lit tree, but I just can't give up the live tree just yet. We searched for a tall, beautiful, green tree, but couldn't find one. We found this adorable little tree though and decided it was perfect for us this year. My favorite part was that it fit in the back seat of our little Honda!
Date Night
Every year my family chooses an ornament that represents their year. It is a tradition that I really wanted to keep going with Mark and I. When we were dating I gave Mark the Love ornament as part of his Christmas gift. That year my ornament was the key because I bought my house. Last year we got our first Christmas ornament. This year Mark chose the Brooklyn ornament because she has been the very best thing to happen to us this year.
I wasn't in the mood to do too many activities this year, but we both agree that going to see the lights on Temple Square is a must! No matter how many times I see the lights, I still am in aw of how beautiful the temple grounds really are.
The last 3 years of kissing at the lights pictures!
One night Mark drove me around so we could see some fun Christmas lights. We stayed in the car and enjoyed the Christmas music and sparkling lights.
The last two years we missed the Pratt family Christmas party. We were very excited to make it this year! It was an ugly sweater party! Mark and I have been planning this since before Thanksgiving! We found these amazing blazers and decorated them ourselves. We had a blast putting them together and enjoyed showing off our hard work.
My mother in law realized that their fireplace looked a little sad with just the Mom and Dad stockings. She found these cute little initial stockings for all the grandchildren. I love that she already had one up for Brooklyn!
Christmas Morning!!!
I was very anxious to open presents! In my family we do all our gifts on Christmas Eve and then Santa Christmas morning. It was very hard for me to wait. I actually forced Mark to open one present on Christmas Eve because I couldn't wait any longer. This is the belly and I waiting and waiting for Mark to wake up so we could open our presents.
Brooklyn is already an amazing shopper and picked out this beautiful necklace with her birthstone on it for me. Thank goodness she didn't come early and will really be a January birthday!
Mark's birthday is New Year's Eve! He had to work so I picked him up for lunch so we could celebrate early. We had a nice dinner later with family and played games until Midnight!
We decided to go small on birthday gifts this year so I had this cookie shop make these AWESOME RUSH cookies for Mark. He was so excited and doesn't want to eat them because they look so cool. He was for sure surprised!
A couple months ago, Mark got his real birthday gift...a new snake. Macky joined the family!
We really had a great Christmas and loved spending so much time together. We are VERY excited for next Christmas when baby girl is with us to celebrate.
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