Ugly

It's so strange that Christmas has already come and gone.  Is 2013 really tomorrow already?  I am a little delayed in sharing some Christmas photos, but I'm finally getting around to it!  Ryan and I had five Christmases this year, not too shabby.  Unfortunately, I did not take my camera out for all of them...but I definitely did not miss out on the opportunity to snap some pictures at my dad's side of the family's Ugly Christmas Sweater party :)

We had a lot of fun, but I don't think my sweater was ugly enough...I'll be on the hunt for a new one for next year!

In the following days, we had Christmas with our immediate families.  We scored some excellent gifts, ate some delicious food, and went to a wonderful Church service on Christmas Eve.  But before Church, we took our traditional family photos.

On Christmas day, we went up to Dubuque to celebrate with my mom's side of the family.  We enjoyed more good food (I was ready for that part to be over) and the whole family (minus Brad) was there, so that's always awesome!  A couple of my cousins and I sang Christmas carols and then we opened gifts.  Everyone is always so generous.  Later that evening, Ryan and I went to his Grandpa's house to visit with his Grandpa and his aunt and uncle.  All in all, it was a blessed Christmas day.

Our Christmas celebrations ended the day after Christmas when we had lunch with Andy, Ashley, and Tom at Thunder Bay Grill.  I love friend time...but alas, no pictures were taken.  We exchanged gifts and Ryan got some delicious beer and Ashley got me the Raygun shirt that they are no longer allowed to print that depicts a basketball player, intended to be Fred Hoiberg, with some other Iowa State-ish items and I love it! :)

I hope you all had wonderful Christmas celebrations and that you enjoyed time with family and friends.

Happy New Year!