December Things

December 26th is always a little sad isn't it? I just feel like we wait all year for Christmas and all the anticipation of the holiday season and all the Christmas-y things we all love and then it's over in the blink of an eye. 24 hours of December 25th and then bam it's gone. If I were a calendar with cliche motivational quotes December 26th would probably say "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Super cliche but yolo, totally applicable.

My Christmas season was a good one; I feel like I crammed a lot into like a week-ish of November and four weeks of December. I bought all the Christmas-scented 3-wick candles from Bath and Body Works that my bank account would allow. I decorated my house, including I found a new way to display my Christmas cards and I love it so much I never want to take it down.

I baked Christmas goodies...but I have no pictures because my hands were probably covered in peanut butter and my head was inside of a baking dish licking all the chocolate out...or something. I looked at Christmas lights with my family. I got a Christmas tree.

...a real Christmas tree cause that's how the Townsends roll. Actually, it's mostly just how I roll - Nate hates it and thinks it's too much work.

Amaes Photography who also happens to be one of my BFFs, took Christmas pictures for us again this year and it might be my favorite yet.

We couldn't have planned for the snow even if we tried - it fell from the sky as we took pictures and it was the coolest thing ever. And also freaking cold. And windy. But definitely the coolest thing ever. Between the weather, the dogs, our inability to focus, and...the dogs, we're sort of high maintenance...

...but Jennica still manages to make us look good. Sorry, I know that was a lot of Christmas pictures; I get carried away when I look at them (*heart eyes emoji*).

Anyway, other December things we did include going to Sedona for the weekend to play in the snow and look at Christmas lights...neither of which happened because 1.) There was no snow left on the ground, and 2.) Sedona turns off their Christmas lights at 7pm. SEVEN PM. So we drank margaritas (*cough lots of them cough*) and played Heads Up in the hotel lobby instead.

We didn't get in trouble or a noise complaint all night, and considering the volume of margaritas we'd all had, that's a Christmas miracle in itself.

While we were up in Sedona we hiked West Fork Trail - one that's been on my list for a while! I was hoping for a magical snowy trail but alas, it just wasn't in the cards for this weekend. Still, it was as beautiful as I'd hoped and an afternoon well-spent.

We Christmas Eve'd at Nate's parents house, then Nate's grandmas house, then my parents house. We ate shrimp and I won $20 by unwrapping a big huge ball of Saran Wrap. I also won a bunch of candy bars for guessing Christmas carols that people were humming the fastest. You could say I cleaned house this Christmas Eve. 

We Christmas'd at home together and enjoyed a quiet relaxing day. We opened gifts in the morning, including the dogs who got to unwrap a gift for themselves. They in fact did unwrap it all themselves. Gunther is quite handsy and Maycee has dewclaws which are basically thumbs so they made it happen.

I think they liked it...

..and I think we liked our gifts too. 

We made breakfast burritos and a ham for dinner with a nap somewhere there in between. 

I'm always sad when Christmas is over, but at the same time I look forward to a new year and a fresh start! 2017 is just around the corner!