Christmas Time Is Here

The day before Christmas Eve, I had to work until 6pm but as soon as I got off, Eriks and I headed to the city.  We got some Tai food and just walked around.  The main event of our evening was by far Macy's.  I have always loved going to Macy's during the holidays because of all the decorations.  Well... this was 6 stories of holiday goodness.  It is so beautiful! It was a really wonderful evening.  After we had had our fill, we headed home.  Santa informed us that he was coming a day early because we were going to spend Christmas Eve night and Christmas at Lauma's.
Christmas Eve morning, we woke up and sure enough Santa had come.  So... we opened some stockings.  Eriks got lots of candy, boxers, tools, a Christmas CD and more, I got candy, a Taylor Swift CD, a snow globe and more.  For Christmas Eriks got a sweater, two shirts, a jacket, Jenga, and A Christmas Story with a matching ordainment.  For Christmas, I got a Star Wars Family Guy movie and The Harry Potter Film Wizardry book that I am absolutely in love with.  Eriks also got me a really big present, but I had to wait and open it in front of the family.  After eating breakfast, Eriks and I prepared our part of the Christmas Eve dinner.  Eriks made sauerkraut and I made yams.  At about 5:30pm we headed up to the big house.  After some last minute food preparation, we were all ready to eat.

The turkey came out beautifully

Aivars had the privilege of carving the turkey

We are all ready for Christmas Eve dinner

After Christmas Eve Dinner, we all headed to the Stanford Church for the Christmas Eve Service.  The service was really lovely.  The sermon was great and it was so much fun singing Christmas Songs with so many people.  At the end of the service, they turned out all of the lights and everyone had a candle and we all sang Silent Night. It was beautiful!

When we all got home, it was time for the entertainment.  I was the first one to go, I did a craft.  We all made snowman magnets.  I think they turned out really well. 

(From Left to Right) Aivars, Lauma, Eriks, Ron, me and Indra

After the craft, Indra read a Christmas story

After the story, Lauma read a beautiful short story in Latvian and then translated it into English.  Then, Ron read a poem.  Last but not least, Aivars.  Aivars lead us all in a very festive rendition of Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer.

Aivars Leading the song

Okay, this picture is very burly but I think you can tell how much fun we were having!

After the entertainment was time for presents!  So many presents!

Handing out all of the presents

There was lots and lots of presents, but this is a small high light of the major presents.

Aivars gift from us.... A Ladder!

Aivars and Eriks got matching "Nerd Layer Brothers" sweatshirts from Indra.  They are awesome!

Eriks (and Aivars) got a really cool keyboard thingy for gaming
I think it is safe to say that he was a little excited

Eriks and I got both Indra and Ron Snuggies
"Raise the Roof"

And last but not least my BIG present.  Eriks was sooo excited for me to open this one.
It is a Dress Form!  I have wanted one of these for so long!
I love it!

We were up past 2:30am open presents and hanging out.  We became exhausted and decided it was time for bed.  Before we knew it, it was already Christmas morning.  After we were all awake, it was time to open some stockings.

After stockings, Ron and Indra left to go spend Christmas with Ron's Family.  Aivars Eriks Lauma and I had a breakfast of left overs and then took a really long nap. After our nap, we all got ready and went to the theatre and watched True Git (which as amazing btw).

Overall my Christmas was wonderful.  I really missed my family a lot, but even without them, I had a very enjoyable Christmas!

Cookie Decoration

All of us kids (plus john) all got together at Lauma's house to bake and decorate Christmas cookies.  We baked some piparkukas which are Latvian cookies.  After baking, it was time to decorate!  We had so much fun although it was super hard not to eat all of the cookies we were decorating.

John... Enough Said

Zach and Marissa's Christmas Party

Our neighbors Zach and Marissa held there annual Christmas Party.  Aivars, Eriks, Larissa and I all went together.  It was really nice.  This party however really was more of a Google party so we didn't stay too long.  We did get to enjoy some great food and this amazing cake:

The four of us found a table right next to fire.  We had a really nice time talking and enjoying the atmosphere.

Before we left, we all decorated a cookie at the cookie decorating station.

Me decorating my cookie

My Cookie

Eriks' Cookie

Aivars' Cookie (half of it is in his mouth tehe)

Larissa's Cookie

Lauma's Christmas Party

On the 12th of December, Lauma had her annual Christmas Party.  So many people came and there was so much food.  We didn't really do much, just ate and chatted.  It was a really fun time though!

Amazing Food

Yummy Dessert

Lots and Lots of Amazing People

 

A Christmas Carol

In the first weekend in December, Lauma got tickets for us to all go and see A Christmas Carol at ACT located in San Francisco.  It was really fun and really well done.

In the theatre, before they came and told me not to take anymore pictures :0

After the show, we had some time before our dinner reservations so we decided to walk around downtown.  San Francisco is so beautifully decorated at Christmas time.  I love it!

My favorite part was by far Macy's.  It was so beautiful!

After walking around downtown and enjoying all of the decorations, we headed to dinner.  We went to a really nice restaurant and all had a four course dinner.  It was so amazing.  It was a very special night, especially that we could all go and experience it together.

Getting Ready For Christmas!

This year, Eriks and I decided to cut down our own Christmas tree!  I was so excited!  Every year his family goes up to this tree farm up on Skyline to get their Christmas tree.  We originally decided that we would just help cut the family tree and then just stop and pick one up for ourselves on the way home.  When the day came though be both decided to just go for it and cut one down ourselves.  (I think we have created a new tradition)

Looking for the Family Tree

We found it!

Ron and Eriks cutting it down

We officially have a tree!

Carrying it to the car

Making it perfect

Trying to get the tree on top of the car

We got it!  Yay!  Go us!

Off to find our tree!

We found it!

Cutting it down

We are AWESOME!  (If I do say so myself)

We put it in Indra's car.  Poor Ron didn't have much room :)

After paying for the trees, we all headed to Lauma's house to put up the family Christmas tree and to decorate the house for Christmas.  We all had so much fun.  We ate treats and drank hot cocoa while we feastivated (yes that is a new word that I just made up).

Indra getting the hot cocoa ready

Getting the tree up

Aivars and Eriks putting the star on top

Decorating the house

Beautiful!

After the big house was all done, Eriks and I took our tree home to decorate our home. We didn't take any pictures while decorating, because we were having too much fun, but here is the final result.