Yay! I finally got this posted! I'm back out at school now and it's finally the weekend so I can catch up on everything I've been meaning to do! Enjoy :)
12/26/10- “Merry Christmas yesterday! Gosh, I can't wait to write all about it! I woke up very early and called my Brita and my incredible family! That made me happier than words can describe!!! :) Only 1 more phone call before home! I opened my extremely special boxes and I'm gonna write about what I got! Here we go: A new Scripture case (it's such a cool one! I love it! My Scriptures are now safely inside and fit perfectly :), a new 2011 calendar (I was totally hoping for one!! :), Ticket to Ride (So fun! I'll write about that later), a new digital picture frame (yes!! I was hoping for this too!!! It's an awesome one! I set it up and it works and looks so great! Thank you! Great choice!), 2 new missionary books (they look like really good ones! I look forward to reading them more!), a Christmas “Little People” set (perfect and so cute for our collection! So thoughtful!!), a Christmas present tie (love it! I wore it to Christmas dinner! Festive!), 4 new soundtracks (Prince of Persia, Clash of the Titans, a Christmas Carol and Last Airbender! I love new music scores since I can't see them! I was lookin forward to those! Thank you! Getting CDs on Christmas is classic to me :), Sweaters from Gap for under my suits (!! I've actually wanted those lately so it's perfect that I got some cozy ones! Thank you!) , a waffle shirt from AE/ new Hollister button up flannel hoodie (I love these! I wore them for Christmas during the day! Great job at picking those out! :), a red flannel hoodie jacket from Hollister (So festive and I love it! I tried it on right away! :) Thank you!!), a new quote picture framed for use on my desk (it's so pretty!! It's a beautiful ocean sunset picture that is so me!! It's on my desk right now in front of me so I'm always lookin at the water! Such a nice surprise and good idea! :), an audio book “Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith” (perfect! Rice and I will love that! He just recently asked me if I had any audio books/talks and I didn't but now I do! We like those! Rice is really excited too! Thank you!), some missionary books for reference (already had these but I'll look forward to giving them as a gift to someone else! Thank you so much for the thought though!), some Christmas oreos (also I found later some hidden goodies in there! Thank you! I found a NV Mission keychain and some “future missionary” stickers for kids! Thank you! So cool!!), print offs of lots of amazing stuff waiting for me at home ( SW stuff, DVDs, and Toy Story!!! Oh man! I was sooooo excited to see all those things!!! Thank you!!!! I've looked through them a whole bunch of times because it's so exciting! :) and then gifts from my siblings! I got SW pancake molds and a Darth Vader spatula from Meg and James (such a classic idea! I can picture my son someday having a SW birthday party and making him a SW pancake breakfast in the morning! Hmmm! These will be fun to use sometime!), a SW Christmas Yoda figure from Rob and Laurie (so classic too! I actually don't have this one! It's from years ago but I never ended up getting it! Thank you!! :), SW character cards from Katie and Chad (These are awesome! I had a lot of fun looking through them! Lol I just noticed all my sibling gifts were something SW! They rock and know me so well!) and homemade treats from Jenny and Darin (Sooo tasty! Thank you!! So festive too! Classic :)! I absolutely loved all their Christmas cards too!! Genius this year! They're all hanging on my bulletin board! I think that's all for my incredible package from mom, dad and my family!! I can't thank you enough! After that I opened my awesome, very special package from my sweet darling Brita!! I got: the “Inception” soundtrack (I had wanted that so perfect!! Thank you!! I've listened to almost all the soundtracks I got already and they're all great!), a very nice shirt from Hollister (!! Hmmm! I love it! Thank you! Great choice! :), chocolate chex (I had some this morning! As delicious as always! Thank you!), new socks from Gap (I wore them last night! So cozy! Thank you! They looks so cute!), Peppermint body wash (soo good! I used it this morning! So festive and yummy! Another great choice!), new vanilla car fresheners ( also so yummy smelling! One is hanging in the car right now making it smell delicious! Perfect timing too because ours was out! :), Christmas notepad paper (Perfect! I'm gonna write my thank you notes on it! Thanks babe! :), Nutella (so yummy! Good idea Brita... you know I love that!), a Christmas Cookie candle (you know I love that one too! It's such a classic one! I'll light it when I get home!), new hand cream (thanks!! I'll look forward to trying it out! Thank you so much for caring for me babe!), Vanilla Bean Noel foaming hand soap (awesome!! It's downstairs on my sink now and smells sooo good! Perfect timing! I was almost out of my other soap! Great idea honey!), a Starbucks gift card (note from Brita- I was sooo happy to find out that there is one just right around the corner from them :) Now Dan can get a hot chocolate or something yummy!) and a perfect Christmas card! Hmmm! That's it! :) How could I even dream up a more perfect family and girlfriend!? I couldn't. Thank you everyone!! After I opened, I got ready and we went to Steve and Ineka's. They gave us stockings full of candy which was nice of them. They also gave me a pen that says “Taylor” on it which is awesome! We visited Gina and Suzanne and the kids and they gave us a present too! A S'mores kit! That was super nice and thoughtful! :) We spent some time there and then went to Stephanie's because she just got back home. We hung out there and came home for lunch. I continued to look through all my fun things and had an absolute blast having time to appreciate it all. At 1pm, we went to a member's to Skype. I talked on the phone with my fam and Brita while Rice did that. Sooo amazing!! :) Oh man... I forgot something in my stash! The hot air balloon tin mobile! Thank you! I still can't believe that tradition lives on! I love it! Thank you!! :) Just like old times. We can back here at 3pm and chilled until 4:30. I opened/set up my frame and had fun with all my other things :) We got into whites (with my Christmas tie of course :) and went to dinner. It was pretty good! We ate with an older couple and they were quite nice... and long winded lol. We had turket, cranberry sauce, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy and it was good stuff. I stuffed myself way too much as always! We had pumpkin pie for dessert and we were off. We came home, got right back into my new Pjs, organized my stuff, talked to mom and Katie more (which made me sooo happy) and played Ticket to Ride! We finally figured out how to play and I thought it was sooo fun! That will be fun to play with my fam someday :). After we were done with that it was 10:15 so I got ready and headed right to bed after only getting 2 hours of sleep. Well, that was my 2nd and last Christmas ever away from home and boy was it a great one thanks to my family and perfect girlfriend! I love you all!!!! That's all the scoop I got so... until next week, peace out! XOXOXOX"
