Our First Married Christmas!

Alright it's time to give a recount of our Christmas break! Austin and I had such a fun time. It is hard knowing that Austin now has to go back to studying and I have to go back to work... oh the joys of growing up.

Our break started last Wednesday when we caught a late night flight to the DFW! I took a picture of the airport because I don't know if this was coincidence or not, but they had our gate decorated like a western Christmas, and seeing that we were going to Texas it was fitting.

After a bumpy flight we made it safely to Texas. Thursday we traveled over to the Dallas Arboretum. My dad received free tickets from his work and while looking at flowers in the winter isn't the most exciting thing, we made it fun :)

Inside this old house they had on the grounds. It was all decorated for Christmas. 

 So my family is a little obsessed with birds. Especially blue jays and red cardinals, so naturally they needed a picture of this blue jay :) 

 I told you my family was obsessed with birds.... so obsessed that they try to be the birds haha

After that fun family outing we went home to make gingerbread houses and sugar cookies! 

Even though I spent the entire night making sugar cookies we weren't able to decorate them until Friday because we didn't have the right ingredients to make the frosting. 

As a side note I had to take a picture with my dog Abby because we were matching Thursday :) She got red jingle bell bows put on her ears haha 

Friday was spent lounging around the house, finally decorating our sugar cookies and then doing the traditional Christmas eve program. Except this year we changed it up and added singing to the program. I'm not sure Austin was too thrilled about that, but he was a good sport and helped out my dad with the bass part :D After the Christmas program we opened sibling gifts, another one of our family traditions. 

 This was the favorite out of all the decorated cookies. Way to go Jessica! 

Austin with his doctor dish. You are officially initiated into the family once Jessica makes you something from art class. This year it was a dish with Austin's name and snake around it representing medicine. 

 I made my sisters some of those fabric flower headbands

Austin and me in our new pajamas that the sisters got us! 

 Being rough and tough :) 

Saturday was of course none other than... Christmas!! We had such a good Christmas this year. We definitely got spoiled :) 

Another great tradition... taking a picture of everyone waiting on the stairs. Thanks to Jessica this picture was at 7:15 in the morning

 So this was one of Austin's favorite Christmas presents, a little pocket knife/plier/lots of other things. Note to self, next year don't spend money on a huge new TV, just get Austin some little tools haha 

 Yes my family has gone gun crazy... hahah 

 Please excuse all these horrible Christmas morning face pictures 

 Wearing the scarves I got my sisters and mom

 Austin and I had a hard time thinking of what to get my dad, the man who has everything, and then it hit us... get him some stuff from Trader Joe's! He is obsessed with that place and they don't have one in Texas, but they do in Arizona!! Needless to say, he loved it :) 

 An "Our First Christmas" ornament! 

And a couple more presents my parents had sent to our house before Christmas. I am pretty excited to learn how to use the sewing machine!! 

Christmas morning was great, and the day continued to get even better! My dad made an awesome dinner that followed with a dessert party at some family friend's house. 

Working hard in the kitchen...

 While everyone else chills on the couch :D haha 

 Sisters!! 

Lexi was pretty excited about dinner haha 

 Let's eat!! 

As I said before we had an awesome Christmas day :) Sunday was a typical Sunday, just went to church and hung out around the house. 

Monday was the day my family took us to the shooting range. Yes you read that correctly, a shooting range! haha My family is really into guns now, my parents even have their concealed hand weapon license-- so watch out! lol and Austin and I are lifetime members of the shooting range. I am not gonna lie, when I got in there I was so scared. I did not want to shoot one of those guns! But I got over my fear and had a great time trying them all out. 

 Bond...James Bond

After the shooting range we got all cleaned up and went out to Texas de Brazil that night. I had been talking this place up for years to Austin so I was excited that he was finally going to get to try it. Austin told me after dinner that it lived up to everything I said :D 

Tuesday we spent shopping, hanging out and we also went to see the movie True Grit. Unfortunately our trip came to an end early Wednesday morning. We had such a fun time in Texas with family and friends. Plus I wasn't too sad to leave my family because my parents will be out here in a week! So that was our Christmas break and we enjoyed every minute of it!