December.

I am admittedly fairly far behind with my monthly updates. (Shocker). The next few will likely be abbreviated, text-wise, as I lost the past year and a half of notes saved on my phone due to a weird e-mail linking...situation. All the sighs. Also, no one cares if I'm writing much or not right? Presumably I'm the only one even looking at these.

Moving on!

My dad flew in from a work trip so we got to pick him up from the airport and my mom came up for lunch. It was a short meet-up, but as per usual, Norah was thrilled to see her grandparents.

Janiece was in the country and we got to see her! (The first time in a whole year!) We met up at temple square and then she was able to hang out for a couple more hours at our apartment. I can't wait till she's stateside again.

We had a December Friendsgiving. I think we did last year too? With everyone's family/travel schedules it's tricky to get things lined up for November. Brian and I were in charge of the turkey this year, and with some guidance from Kay (Brian's sister) our first major poultry experience was successful!


We had our traditional Christmas Eve of getting hot chocolate or chai, driving around to look at lights, and having Christmas tacos for dinner. (They have red and green peppers for festiveness.) We did all this on Christmas Eve Eve since we were headed to Idaho for the actual holiday. Norah was amazed by the music/light displays. It was so fun to see her reaction to things this year instead of her sleeping through it.

We celebrated Christmas in Malad and Norah got super spoiled and seemed to really enjoy it. We got to do the classic parent thing of fumbling through putting together toys on Christmas Eve. I loved it.

My parents had requested another hangout with Norah, so we headed back to Salt Lake and she stayed two more nights with them. While we were alone we saw Spotlight, went to breakfast at Finns, and got some projects done around the old apartment.

I had two weeks off from work for the holiday, which was great and sort of strange, since I've literally never had that long off for Christmas. Norah and I got a lot of hang out time in and I gained even more respect for SAHMS, cause holy crap, there were no breaks to be had.

These cuties.

I'm pretty sure this hairstyle isn't cool anymore, but try and get me to care.

Zoning out to Adele.

Taking selfies while Brian chops down a tree branch...

to hold our stockings!

Norah and Wallace were equally captivated by the tree.

I hate that snow is pretty.

She was so happy that she figured out how to sit in the drawer.

That time when Norah was getting 5 teeth in at once.

Happy to see all the lights.

Reunited and it feels so goooooood.

Look at those fresh faces. You'd never know we were 10 (and 11) years out from highschool.

The point where Norah was done with photos.

Both cats were equally amused by their holiday outfits.

Norah's love affair with this dinner roll...

I was pretty enchanted with our tree this year.

Having a Christmas celebration with friends. Norah dressed up for the occasion.

During a game that quickly turned PG-13, and before we busted out the guitar and ukulele for Christmas carols.

Role model.

Norah quickly went to work in her new kitchen Christmas morning.

It seemed like she was bottle feeding her bellybutton.

Making some lunch.

Christmas with a one year old was preeeetty great. I recommend it.