Christmas Eve in Olympia

My family celebrates on Christmas Eve every year, so Tyler and I decided we would make it work to spend Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with his. We spent the 22-24 with my family. My parents, my brother, Tyler, myself, Oma, Opa, Jacky, Greg and Ryan were all together at Oma and Opa's (grandparents) for Christmas.

Was great to spend time with my family and Tyler's family. We both are very lucky to have the families we do, they are wonderful and we love them sooo much! My family always does the traditional German (according to my Grandparents- Oma and Opa) Christmas dinner.

This means we have the big soft pretzels, sourcrat, potatoe salad, green salad and different kinds of "hot dogs" as my cousin calls them. It is yummy, but if you are used to the "usual American Christmas dinner," you will not see it on this table.

Olympia Christmas Party

My brother, Anthony and I decided we wanted to have a party while school was out and lots of our friends would be home from college, well my friends. He is still in high school, so his are usually always around. At one point there were 27 people at my parents' house for this party. I believe the final count for all the people who came that night was 31, so it was a wonderful turn out. We loved to see all our friends again and I was glad many of my old friends were able to come hang out and meet Tyler. They think he is great, which I totally agree with! Here are a few pictures from the event! :)

Rexburg -> Spokane -> Ellensburg ->Santa Train

We left Rexburg on Friday December 18th to head to Washington. Tyler drove and I was his co-pilot. We were lucky and we did not have to deal with any bad roads. There was a little rain, but not much. On Friday night we stayed in Spokane with Tyler's brother and his family Friday night and then went on to Ellensburg on Saturday morning.

We got to Ellensburg around noon. At 1pm we had to leave to go to North Bend, so we could go on the "Santa Train." It was Tyler, me (Brittany), Emily, Nathan, Ethan, Amie and Aubree. It was a lot of fun to be with them for the day. :)

FINALS are HERE

Tyler and I both have all our finals on Thursday.

THE GOOD NEWS:
- we love each other, no matter what, even if we are stressed and less patient
- it will all be over soon
- we can leave for Washington on Friday morning
- only one day of difficulty instead of 5
- we will probably be able to go with Amie and Ethan on Saturday
- we get to see family SOONER

THE BAD NEWS:
- supposed to go to a ward activity tonight
- lots to study
- stressful
- need to find time to eat and sleep
- have to study for all of them, instead of having them stagered throughout the week
- less patience when this busy and stressed

It will be a rough day tomorrow, but I know that we can do it! I am confident Tyler and I will do well. We have put in the time and effort to do great! Plus, Tyler is my amazing husband who is very intelligent and I have all the faith in the world in him! <3

GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU DOING FINALS!

Gingerbread House!

We decided to make some gingerbread houses! Bryce, one of Tyler's friends from Ellensburg and his girlfriend Andrea came and made them with us, it was lots of fun! We have enjoyed spending time and hanging out with them. As you can see from the pictures... GOOD TIMES! :)