Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

This year was FANTASTIC! Full of time with family and friends. Now I know why I go through so much stress and hard work lol. I love Christmas. I love spending time with my family and seeing the looks on their faces when they open presents. I love reading Luke and going to Christmas service and remembering what the season is truly about. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family, such great friends, and so many wonderful opportunites. This Christmas was amazing, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Out of focus, but too cute not to add. Christmas Eve dinner with the Jorgensons.

Bella & I, such a cute sweet little girl!

The tree on Chritmas Eve... so many presents!! :)

We always had a Santa present to greet us when we came downstairs on Christmas morning. I had no clue how to wrap Mr. Hippo here, so he was Bella's Santa present! :)

She looks so sleepy, but I promise she was enjoying herself!

She LOVED Mr. Hippo :)

And as always, she loves Betty haha.

After presents at Matt's parent's house. Ready for DESSERT! lol

Ms. Cutie-Pie here had her own chair... spoiled haha.

What? Another present for me??

Bella LOVES Matt's sister Jen, and she loved her!

Seriously... could this kid get any cuter?

Merry Christmas!!!

As you can tell... Matt and I had a WONDERFUL Christmas. I hope yours was just as Merry and Bright!! :)

On A Brighter Note..

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

I have always been a Daddy's girl. My father is the most amazing man I've ever met. (And although I don't like to admit it, I married someone just like him!) He has always been there for me, through thick and thin. When I was a little girl, I'll never forget Mom whispering to us, "Girls... do you know how wonderful your Daddy is? You should marry a man just like him." I remember sitting on the couch and holding a pillow in front of my face making gagging noises each night as he came in from work and kissed her 'hello'. He has been such a fabulous example to me. The last few years he's been a Mother of sorts as well. He held me with tears in his eyes the day I picked out my wedding gown. He listened to all of my girl drama during the years before I met Matt (and some after! lol) He sat in the American Eagle lobby for countless hours while I tried on 55 pairs of jeans. He went and met caterer's with me and made sure my shoes were dyed the right color to match my dress. He has cried with me, laughed with me, and been there for me when I needed it most.

As a little girl, I used to sing this song every night and act it out whenever Dad came home...

"I'm so glad when Daddy comes home, glad as I can be!

Clap my hands and shout for joy, then climb up on his knee,

Put my arms around his neck, hug him tight like this,

Pat his cheeks, then give him what? A GREAT BIG KISS!"

I can never express how grateful I am for such an amazing, wonderful father. Happy Birthday Daddy!!! Today I am celebrating you. Nothing could sum it up better than the song we danced to on my wedding day, (yes I know this is cheesy... bear with me.)

"For all those times you stood by me

For all the truth that you made me see

For all the joy you brought to my life

For all the wrong that you made right

For every dream you made come true

For all the love I found in you

I'll be forever thankful

You're the one who held me up

Never let me fall

You're the one who saw me through, through it all

You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldn't speak

You were my eyes when I couldn't see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldn't reach

You gave me faith 'cause you believed

I'm everything I am Because you loved me

You gave me wings and made me fly

You touched my hand I could touch the sky

I lost my faith, you gave it back to me

You said no star was out of reach

You stood by me and I stood tall

I had your love, I had it all

I'm grateful for each day you gave me

Maybe, I don't know that much

But I know this much is true

I was blessed because I was loved by you

You were my strength when I was weak

You were my voice when I couldn't speak

You were my eyes when I couldn't see

You saw the best there was in me

Lifted me up when I couldn't reach

You gave me faith 'cause you believed

I'm everything I am Because you loved me

You were always there for me, the tender wind that carried me

The light in the dark shining your love into my life

You've been my inspiration through the lies you were the truth

My world is a better place because of you."

I just wanted to take a moment to thank my dad. I couldn't have asked for a better father. Happy Birthday Daddy, I love you.

Who Knew??

That one little piece of glass could wreak such havoc on my life?! Wednesday night at work, Kathy (the big boss) dropped a big glass vase on tile at the front of Yankee and glass went EVERYWHERE! I offered to help her clean it up, but she wanted to do it. An hour or two later I was fixing a shelf near the 'drop site'. I thought she'd gotten all of the glass. No suck luck :( I went to pick up a candle and got a piece of glass lodged in my right ring finger! Ouch!!! It started bleeding so I went to her an got a band-aid and told her what happened. When I went home, I couldn't get it out to save my life. I got suggestions all day on Thursday... soak it in Epsom salt, put ice on it, dig it out (um, ew)... ouch ouch ouch!! So I soaked it, I used ice... I made the mistake of giving Matt a pair of tweezers and telling him to go at it. OUCH! I know I seem whiny, but I really do have a decent pain tolerance. But every time I tried to dig it out, it went further in. Finally around 8:30 when my finger was starting to swell up and I couldn't really use it... I decided it was time to go to the doctor. I called Yankee first to make sure they were going to pay for it. Yay for worker's comp haha. On to the ER.
I was actually surprised, we left the house at 8:30 and we were home by 10:45. (The hospital's 10 minutes away.) We really made decent time. I got there, checked in and gave them my ridiculously long list of drug allergies. (They had to give me 2 bracelets with my allergies haha.) Then the waiting... we brought books and Matt snuggled with me on the bed haha. The doc finally came in and said "This isn't a hotel guys" lol :). She was really nice. Until she pulled out the mini-forceps! Apparently the idea was to NOT numb me, so that I would be able to tell when the glass was all out. After about 15 minutes of digging, scraping, pulling, prodding, you name it... Matt had a few finger-shaped bruises popping up on his arm, she FINALLY decided to numb me!! Woo Hoo! Who knew that one tiny piece of glass could cause that much freaking pain. She said she wasn't trying to torture me, but I think she was slightly annoyed that she was missing Grey's lol. So they numbed me... it's pretty ironic that the process of numbing hurts so much haha. But after a big needle poke and lots of burning... it was NUMB!!! And it was fantastic!! :) She dug and dug some more then finally decided to make a little cut and get the glass out. (We could have done that 25 minutes before, but whatever.) Glass was gone!!!! Then they soaked my finger in who-knows-what for 10 minutes to prevent infection, lots of neosporin, butterfly bandage and good to go. No stitches, thank goodness!! :) Meanwhile Matt's talking to the Doc's assistant about all of the grisly things they see in the emergency room. Just FYI, while having your finger picked apart and trying not to scream... I don't want to hear about some guy who cut his nose off with chainsaw. Barf.
Anyway... a little over 2 hours later, my hand was free of foreign objects and we were good to go. While I was registering... the nurse mentioned that they 'have the diagnosis of foreign object in everything BUT THE FINGER'. So Matt preceeded to ask about what people have come in with lodged somewhere in their body. I won't go into details, it was gross.
All in all it was a pretty interesting evening haha. Never a dull moment in the Alt household!!

Winter Fun!

Whew... what a BUSY weekend! Friday night we went to Barnes & Noble and Gift Wrapped for CCI. They weren't super busy, so we basically played with the puppies and read books all night. Saturday I had to open at Yankee Candle. Which meant being there at 7:30 AM!!! Whoever had the bright idea that anyone wants to do their Christmas shopping at 7am on a Saturday is beyond me. Luckily I got off at 11 and we got to head up to DC for the day!!

Dad, Matt & I headed up to the Temple and on our way stopped at Potomac Mills (a HUGE outlet mall in Northern VA). It was SLAMMED! Big surprise... haha. It took FOREVER to find a parking spot. But we walked around for a while and I got Rita's!! It's an amazing Italien Ice and Custard place that I'm obsessed with. They're usually outdoors and only open during the summer but the mall has one. Yum! I got peppermint chip with chocolate custard. Pure Heaven. I got an adorable baby shower gift at Carter's and can't wait for my dear friend Amy to get it this coming Saturday! :)

Then we went to the Temple. It was amazing. I havne't been to see the lights in a few years, but it was absolutely stunning. The pictures hardly do it justice. (I seriously need a new camera lol.) We got to the Temple and ran inside to see if the Joseph Smith movie was playing, and SURPRISE!! Our ward was in the theater!! Someone had mentioned that our Youth were going that night, but it was so neat to get to watch the movie with our Bishopric and other friends. If you haven't seen it, I would definitely recommend it. It's so powerful. After the movie we walked around the visitor's center, which is beautifully decorated for this time of year. Matt even looked into his family history and found information on his Pawpaw. It was his first Temple Trip, and I couldn't have asked for a better night.

On the way home we found a tiny Jewish Deli that had AMAZING sandwiches. And then we totally got lost and ended up driving right through DC and past ALL of the monuments around midnight. It was such a fun trip.

Sunday was fairly nice and relaxing. We went to church, then came home and wrapped presents and cleaned up a little bit. We had Dad over for dinner and made pizza, yum! I can't wait to make Christmas Cookies tonight!!! :)

My favorite picture from Saturday.

It was FREEZING!!

It wasn't live this year, haha.

I love to see the temple...

Christmas Memories

It would be impossible for me to go through the Christmas season without thinking of my amazing mother. She always made Christmas wonderful, my favorite time of the year. I'll never forget baking and decorating Christmas cookies with her, or giggling while I helped wrap Catie and Daddy's presents.

This time of year brings back such fond memories of my childhood. I will never forget the year my parents stayed up until 5:30 in the morning putting together my Barbie Dream House (I was 7). They were so excited, and completely exhausted, as I opened it and shrieked with delight a half hour later. Mom and her sister Wanda then proceeded to prank call all of their brothers with the talking Barbie that went with the house.

I remember curling up in her lap every year, even when I was waaaay too big, and reading our pop-up version of "T'was The Night Before Christmas" and then listening in awe as she and Dad read Luke 2 and we put baby Jesus in the manger. Even the years she was sick, she still spent months shopping for the perfect gifts for us, and always got up early to cook. I am so glad that as I got a little older I got out of bed a little early and helped her make Christmas Breakfast. Those memories are some of the many that I will always cherish. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mother.

I am so grateful for this time of year. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to spend the season focusing on Christ. Through Him, I can be with my mother again.

"What all of us long for in our hearts, at Christmastime and always, is to feel bound together in love with the sweet assurance that it can last forever. This is the promise of eternal life, which God has called His greatest gift to His children. That is made possible by the gifts to us of His Beloved Son: the Savior’s birth, Atonement, and Resurrection. It is through the Savior’s life and mission that we have the assurance that we can be together in love and live forever in families.

Even in this life we can have an assurance of the coming of that day and feel some of the joys we will know when at last we arrive home. The celebration of the Savior’s birth at Christmas gives us special opportunities to experience those joys in this life."

-Elder Henry B. Eyring
"Home For Christmas, Liahona Dec. 2009"

"Home For Christmas" was taken from the First Presidency Message in the Liahona Magazine for December 2009. For more information on this article or on the Latter-Day Saint faith, please visit www.lds.org.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

What a loooong week!! It's always hard going back to work for a full week after time off. Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had so much fun with family. Everything ended up going pretty well. Only a few moments that made me think I was going to scream :). All in all it was a great weekend. On Wednesday after work (Matt was off from school and I didn't have to go to Yankee) we went over to Dad's and started to cook! I'm proud to say that my sweet hubby made the pumpkin pie filling all by himself! And it turned out fantastic! What a sweetheart.

Mmmm doesn't it look yummy? I made the homeade apple, and Matt's Mom made the Chocolate Pecan. Yum! Dang, now I want pie.

Bella with Matt's Mom

Such a Cutie Pie!

Somewhere in the process of cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for 8 people, I managed to give this cute little one a bath and she was so cooperative for the adorable little pig tails!

Table setting, before the candles were lit and our plates were piled high!

Matt and his Dad!

After dinner we all watched the Santa Claus :) and then had pie! We had to wait about two hours becuase we were all so stuffed that we couldn't move lol. All in all it was a great Thanksigiving! As usual I super-stressed over something that wasn't so bad! haha.

Friday Matt and I both had to work. I didn't have to go to the office, but I had to be at Yankee from 10-4. So I got up at the butt crack of dawn (4:30 AM!) and went SHOPPING!!! It was so much fun. Although I did miss having my shopping buddy with me. Matt and I went together the last two years and he stands in the looooong lines and holds my stuff. How wonderful is he?! I got Isabelle, my Dad, Jake, and my sister done! Matt's almost done too. Whew... I love the feeling of getting the shopping done. I went to Kohl's, Target (where I almost got attacked in the parking lot!), Michael's, Five Below, and I managed to brave Best Buy (although I didn't buy anything). By then it was about 7:30am. So I went home, got ready for work, and was at the mall by 8! Haha. I shopped for another hour and a half before I had to go to work. Lots and lots of great deals! When I got off, we went to have dinner with our friends the Cowne's. (I forgot the camera, oops!) They made us Thanksgiving all over again! It was fantastic. They are both amazing cooks. My dad and the missionaries came and we had a blast. Needless to say, by Friday night I was totally tuckered out!

Saturday I was hoping to relax! No such luck haha. I told Matt about all of the great deals I found on Friday, so he wanted to go shopping! We went out and got a bunch more stuff. Woo Hoo for Christmas Shopping!! :) Then I had to close Saturday night at Yankee.

Finally, we got to relax on Sunday. I adore Sundays. The family, the friends, the worship, relaxation and a good meal. Doesn't get much better than that! After church we put up the tree and played Guitar Hero.

Our Tree!! I'm starting to get more ornaments for it so it doesn't look so bare! haha

Our sweet Betty. I know, I dote on her like a child. She's our sweet baby.

Our stockings! And yes, there is one for Betty!! The cute paw-print stocking holder is one of my Black Friday finds!!

I love getting ready for Christmas!! Mmmm I am definitely gearing up for some Turkey Day leftovers tonight! :)