Christmastime Catch Up

Here is a post with a lot of out of order photos from Christmas. I have been needing to do this for a while so here it is. We kicked off the Christmas season with a roommate Christmas dinner at our place. I had so much fun! I hope it becomes an annual tradition. I have the best girlfriends (their spouses/significant others are pretty great, too). We started the evening with some delicious appetizers of deviled eggs and baked brie on sliced apples.

What would a Christmas party dinner be without a nice toasty fire in the background provided by Netflix?

After a yummy dinner, (that may or may not have set off smoke alarms in my house during the making of) we played a version of Bunco with a Christmas/White Elephant twist. It is a Dew family tradition. It was really fun! Everyone got really in to it and had a great time!

After Bunco, we played Charades - the one with the three rounds. I can't quite remember, so I'm just going to claim that the girls won!

And of course we ended the night with a lovely group photo!

Can't have a photo shoot without a sexy surprise photo!

Then we had a great week spent with the Dynes family full of food, fun, and lots of activities. These photos are all out of order because Blogspot still confuses me. :) HEre we are at Temple Square looking at the lights.

We all went to the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake to go ice skating. We all had a great time.

Very cute picture of Scott and Angela! And the guy on the left cracks me up!

David showing off his sweet ice skating skills!

Don't worry - he caught himself before falling to the ground.

The boys eating at Wingers.

Me and Allie - she is seriously the most entertaining two year old!

Rachel sporting her awesome Christmas Eve gift - a Bumpit!

Traditional Dynes Family Goofy Christmas Eve Photo

Traditional Christmas Eve Dynes Family Photo

Me and David on Christmas Day

Christmas morning!

Seriously the best Christmas gift - Michalle made it for my parents. (We have a Polar Express Christmas Eve tradition we do every year.)

Now we can be Nook twins! (Thank you David!)

Christmas morning breakfast of sausage/egg burritos.

We ended Christmas Eve with a few rounds of Just Dance.

Christmas Eve scripture reading of the birth of Jesus.

Bradley is so adorable in his pajamas!

Uncle David playing with the nieces/nephews like always.

I was obsessed with Allie in her little skinny jeans! (I think they were a gift from Aunt Lori)

David started pillow fighting with the kids, which of course lead to children in tears. Declan is about to smash Allie in the face. hahaha

We went to a bounce house play place one day with all the nieces and nephews.

And to end, here is David being David.

It was a really great Christmas. We missed the Dynes members who could not come and had a really great time with those who could. I feel so grateful for the friends and family I have and that I was able to spend time with all of them over the holidays.

Company Holiday Trip to Vegas

Instead of doing a normal Christmas party, my work decided to take everyone and their spouses down to Las Vegas for three days in December. Really it was an excuse for my bosses to go to the National Finals Rodeo! We had about 16 couples go down in all. We drove down on a Tuesday. Sadly, David was up all night long Monday night throwing up my left over Pad Thai. He felt horrible. He ended up just sleeping in the back seat while I drove the whole way down. We got in to Vegas around 4:00 that day and got ready for the National Finals Rodeo (NFR). Here we are ready to go in with Natalie and Jordan.

The rodeo was actually really fun. They had the top people from all the states come to compete. The bull riding was the most exciting and the favorite event of the evening.

After the rodeo, we had dinner at the Bellagio Buffet. David felt really tired and still sick so we dropped him off at the hotel first. He missed out on the most amazing buffet I have ever had. I have never been to such a big buffet. They had ever possible dish you could imagine. This was my first plate of desserts. I basically took one of everything!

This was the second day in Vegas. We all were free to do whatever we wanted during the day. We walked around the forum shops with Natalie and Jordan. It was nice and sunny that day.

That night we had dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe in the Palazzo Venetian hotel. After dinner, we saw the Cirque Du Soleil Mystere show at Treasure Island. It was so good! They were amazing! I couldn't believe some of the tricks they did.

Then on Thursday we drove back to Utah just in time for our ward Christmas party that night. It was a really fun trip. I feel so lucky to work with such great people!

November Recap

Just a quick recap of our November:

We started off the month with a quick weekend get-a-way to Park City/Deer Valley. My boss had signed up for this corporate retreat thing, but he couldn't go for the last day/night. Since the hotel was already paid for, he let me and David go up and use it. We were so grateful! The hotel was amazing! It was up in Deer Valley above Park City. It was called the Deer Valley Montage Resort.

Each room had its own fireplace! You just had to push a button and it turned on! We enjoyed dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel that night. The restaurant even had a live band there playing John Mayer songs. It was a fun, quick trip.

Then that Saturday afternoon was Jessie Cook's bridal shower in Provo. Jessie lived in the dorms with me and then we were roommates after that before I got married. I was so excited to see her and to be with all the roommates again! It was a fun party with lots of yummy food!

Thanksgiving was pretty low-key this year compared to past years. We kept up the usual Dynes tradition and went to the movies that day. We saw Tower Heist with David's brother, sister, and mom. Then we went to David's grandparents house for dinner with his grandparents, David's family, and David's aunt Tiff and her three children. The cousins were nice enough to make awesome hats for us to all wear during dinner. It was a great Thanksgiving spent with family. We also got to talk with my little brother that day. He had just gotten off his two year mission for the LDS church. It was fun to talk with him and to get excited to see him in December.

Gotta love David's poses - America's Next Top Model quality!