Merry Christmas

Since we spent Thanksgiving in Las Vegas, Carson and I stayed in Utah with his family for Christmas. But as we all know, Christmas is about the season, not just the day. 

Let's start with treats.

I made so many holiday treats I decided to write a 12 ingredients of Christmas song (you know...based off the 12 days of Christmas).

12 goodie bags

11 cups of butter (yeah...gross)

10 huge bars of chocolate

9 cups of sugar

8 cups of almonds

7 cups of powdered sugar

6 bags of kisses

5 shapes of sugar cookies

4 batches of toffee

3 rounds of pretzel treats

2 bags of m&ms

 and a giant batch of delicious buckeyes 

Let's just say I was busy...but I love baking, so this was all fun for me.

 The recipe for these pretzel treats can be found here...at my aunts' cooking blog. I love them because they are really easy and you can customize them for any holiday. 

 These are my MIL's famous buckeyes. Well...my version using her recipe. I didn't make them as amazing as she does, but I have been told that it will take me many, many years to master and these were pretty darn good for my first try. I was quite proud of myself. 

 Since they are Carson's favorite, I surprised him with a tower of them when he came home (at 10 pm on a Friday night) from his last final.

Oh toffee...

To me, Christmas isn't truly here until I taste some of my mom's toffee. She always makes this for neighbors and friends so I decided to continue the tradition here in Utah. 

Sugar cookies are another thing my mom always makes for Christmas. I made these to give as a little treat to our primary children...and to enjoy ourselves of course. 

 In the end, this was what our counter looked like. 

Bags of treats for primary kids and friends, two containers of toffee, two containers of buckeyes, and three containers of sugar cookies. Diet, what?

Okay, this one isn't really Christmas but our anniversary is exactly one week before Christmas. We decided to keep it simple since Christmas is so close (and we have a budget to keep!) but I surprised Carson with one of his favorite breakfasts...quiche.

And then he surprised me with a romantic dinner at Chef's Table and a movie. It was a great, simple way to celebrate our first year together. 

[Unfortunately we are terrible at taking pictures when we are together but insert cute, happy couple picture at Chefs Table here.] 

Next up...gingerbread houses. 

One of the favorite traditions in the Flake household is to make gingerbread houses. Now, I'm not talking about the kind that you make from a kit you found in the grocery store. Nope. I'm talking about homemade gingerbread, homemade icing, and a wide variety of candies. 

This year I helped my MIL make the gingerbread so one day, when we don't live so conveniently close, Carson and I will be able to continue this tradition. 

 It turned out pretty well for my first time.

 Carson got in on the decorating and was actually really good at it. 

 He also really took command when it was time to assemble the house. I guess that is the engineer in him. 

The front/side view of our candy cottage. 

 And the back view. 

And now for decor. 

As you know from previous blogs, we like to decorate around here. But, if you have ever been a student newlywed, you also know the word budget. So, we did what we could with stuff we had, bought a few little things, and made a little splurge on the tree. After it was all put together I loved it. 

 Our table centerpiece. Oh look...more candy. Just what we needed. 

 Stockings and a mini-nutcracker.

The tree and presents (kind of squished, but there). 

Now, Carson grew up in a family that always used colored lights. I grew up in a family that always used white lights. Problem. This year we compromised and used a single color light on the tree - red (it all matched very nicely). You can't tell from this picture of the tree, but its true. Around our windows we had lights too. It made for a very Christmasy feel.

And finally to end this marathon of a blog post, Christmas day!

We spent Christmas (and a few days before and after) with Carson's parents, his brother Ryan and wife Jess, and sister Audrey, her husband Tyler, and their two kids. 

On Christmas eve I got the chance to video chat with my brother whose is serving an LDS mission in Russia. I wish I would have taken a picture of the set-up because it was quite amazing. I was video chatting on my laptop with my mom on her phone. My mom (and the rest of the family) was video chatting with my brother on her computer. She held the phone up to the computer so I could see him and he could see me. Oh how I love technology. I'm glad to report that my brother is doing fabulously and is being well taken care of during this holiday season.

Right after I finished talking to my brother we all got a great Christmas surprise. Another one of Carson's brothers (Dallan) showed up with his wife and three kids to spend Christmas with us...without telling anyone. It was a lot of fun to have more family join in the celebration.

 Two of the surprise kiddos. 

The scene on Christmas eve. 

We had an amazing dinner on Christmas eve, followed by a touching family program. Then it was time for bed!

The kids set out cookies and milk for Santa, carrots for the reindeer, and cheese for the Christmas mouse. It's so fun having kids around at Christmas time.

Then it was Christmas morning.

 Merry Christmas!