The life of a twenty something through photographs: Im Back!

Well, Hey There!

I am back! no more skipped days for this girl! Things just got super busy and I just couldn't find the time to write a blog post, But no worries, I'm back :) Lets see, where did i leave off? Oh right, our crazy shopping day...
So we woke up early in hopes that we would get all of our gift shopping done, so we could enjoy the time we had together during Christmas, and let me tell you, we not only got in done in one day we got it done in less then 3 hours! it was crazy out there, and Costco was a nightmare, but we did it :) and I'm pleased to say i think everyone enjoyed their gifts. I was a bit shocked to find out that wrapping the presents are pretty much just as expensive as buying the presents themselves, but at least i know now.
The Sunday before Christmas we all went to SeaWorld, and when i say all of us, i mean the entire Ball/Utley clan plus 2 more! All in all there was 16 of us, needless to say it was pretty hard to all walk together. But i got some much needed sister time, and i got to see turtles which always makes for a great day. After the hour drive home from SeaWorld i went a little nuts. I sat down to wrap one or two presents in the pile and ended up wrapping all 21 of them! I felt like i needed an award when it was finished. I would have put them under our tree, but i was positive one of my beasts( i say that with love) would have ripped them apart and I didn't feel like re-doing all my hard work, so i staged them nicely on my kitchen table for a few days before we loaded them into boxes and hauled them home.
Christmas started early for us, on Friday my parents, brother and Garrett and I went to see an entire street of Christmas lights. All the lights were strung from house to house, and each moved to a set of Christmas songs played so everyone could hear. Every year we go to the same house and see some pretty awesome lights, but this year we found out that the traditional house was no longer occupied by the same people, so we ended up doing something new, and other than the fact that i was freezing and that there was 549825 people, it was really nice.
Saturday continued with the holiday festivities. every year we have a Christmas eve gathering of all my family where we do a white elephant (Yankee swap for all my new-englanders) and have dinner together. Usually its at my Grandma's house, but this year we decided my Aunt would host it. It was so nice to see everyone again :) its always so funny to me that it takes a world wide holiday for people to stop and see each other, especially family. Anywho, this year was also a pot luck, and i made the most wonderful loaded potato casserole ever! After a very eventful Yankee swap, it was time to head home for all the little ones to get to sleep.
Christmas morning is always really fun. Garrett's family is a bunch of early risers when it comes to Christmas, and it works out because, my family is not. So opening presents always begins around 5 or 6 in the Ball house, and this year was no different. After a round of opening presents with his family we headed to my house to open presents with my family. We got some great stuff this year, but i think what i enjoyed them most was seeing how much everyone else enjoyed what we got them. I mean, that's what its all about right?
After all the cookies had been eaten and the presents had been unwrapped we decided to start our journey back home. Everything still isn't put away, but ill get around to it. I did however find time, yesterday, to take down all the holiday things inside our apartment ( the outside lights are staying up until after the 1st because i love them too much).I have no idea how many pictures are going to be in this post but I'm thinking A LOT! So now that Ive rambled on for a million paragraphs, I would like to say two things, 1. Thank you for reading (especially if you got this far) and 2. I hope you all had a very wonderful holiday and I hope you have a very blessed new year.

Now, Here is all of it...in pictures :)