Rewind: December

Since my camera died, I don't really have anything exciting to post as far as pictures, but here's how December went:

Finals

Drove to CA Christmas Eve

Christmas

Bridal Shower (take 1)

Bridal Shower (take 2)

Disneyland/Meet the Southern Side

Temple Day

New Year's Eve!!!

Whew. Seriously. I can't even go into more details than that, the thought is tiring....okay, maybe since you asked so nicely...

The drive to CA wasn't that bad. We traded off, and hrs later arrived in CA at 3am in our footie pajamas. :D

Christmas was way fun! We loved being with family and getting to watch the little ones open presents was my favorite part! We all got teary when I opened up a shoebox containing my set of Christmas tree rings...*Each year we cut a slice off the bottom of our tree for everyone in the family, one for my parents, one for my sister and one for me. In the package was a slice from every Christmas tree we had from 1990 to 2009, since this was my last Christmas as a Southworth girl, yeah we all got a little teary...* Although, beforehand I had never told Blake about the tradition so he was thoroughly confused at why a box of wood was making everyone cry! There were many highlights and all I remember is being so happy to be with my family!

Speaking of highlights...the next day Blake and I went to get our hair done. He got a trim, I got a weave. It was way fun. Then I headed off to a bridal shower for the church ladies which was beautiful and everyone had a good time!

Monday, I had another bridal shower, with some school friends. We played games and ate delicious food, and also had a complete blast! Tuesday we went to Disneyland with Todd, Muffy, Spencer, Sean, Jenn, Ethan and Cassie. Boy was that an adventure! Blake and I left partway through the day because his family had finally arrived in CA after their 3-day trek from LA. This was my first time meeting them in person, so I was a little (kay, maybe a little more than a little) nervous, but we got along well. (At least I thought so, ;) Wednesday was beautiful; I went through the Los Angeles Temple to take out my endowments and SO many of my family members were there as well as Blake's. Although I have to admit, one of the highlights was seeing Ryan run in the room at the absolute LAST second before the session started. He had flown in from PA and literally arrived at the temple seconds before the session was due to start, he requested they wait and they did, but I had no way of knowing if he was going to make it or not. I looked at my other brothers and felt a little sad he missed it and then he came running in the last minute...it was definitely a miracle and priceless. New Year's Eve was spent decorating and running around doing things for the wedding, and then that night we all had a big party at my house although some copped out early, there were a good number of people who were with us to ring in 2010! And then we all went to bed exhausted for the day to come! (Yep, exhausted for the day to come...like pre-exhausted). That was my December!