Merry Christmas and PJs

I will admit it folks, I struggled with the Christmas spirit this season. A lot of it had to do with being stuck in broke student status and not being able to get people gifts like I wanted. The other half is that I really felt uncomfortable, pretty much since black friday, about how consumer driven holidays have become. This fantastic beautiful intelligent chick Alycia at the Crowley Project nailed the Christmas sentiment on the head! The days leading up to the 25th were spent reading scriptures and watching documentaries on the Christmas story.

My family is in the bay area so my mom and I made the seasonal trek west. My mom has also never seen the Oakland LDS temple lights so I made sure we had time to check it out. It being Christmas eve the grounds were bustling. The Oakland temple is especially beautiful at this time of year and is packed with people from all walks of life to marvel. Some of those folks happened to be my best friend Kristen and her family. Small small world it is.

When we got to my Babas I got to open presents! We didn't want to truck a bunch of stuff to my aunts where we have dinner. Somehow I acquired a collection of awesome pj sets which is exactly what I wanted!

Mikey ceremoniously cutting the prime rib

My aunts Gullivars Corn. The best in the land!!

My aunt and uncles Hawaii themed tree. So cute!

Christmas was really great. I got to spend quality time with family and particularly my cousin Mikey and eat some great food! There are some things I'd do different next year. All in all I'm glad its over and we can get on with normal life. I'm just going to try and ignore that valentines day stuff is going up in stores. Sheesh!