Tis the Season

SO we went home for the holiday and had a blast hanging out with our FAMILY! Unfortunately our trip had to be cut short because Matt got a 'surprise' from work..they decided to schedule him the day after Xmas which meant that we had to leave for Chico on Christmas day when the plan was to come home on Thursday..bummer huh? There were lots of people that we wanted to see and hangout with but that will have to wait until next time we're in Bako..sorry! The important thing was being with our families for Christmas and thats what counts! :0) We stayed with Mom and Dad Gates and had so much fun hanging out with them, Andrew, Milly Dog and ALL of the kitties :0) We brought our cat Lu-Lu with us and she was shy at first but made some new furry friends by the time we left :0) It was so nice to relax and be around the people that we love and dont get to see as often as we'd like :0) Christmas Eve was alot of fun. Every year for as long as i can remember my family has gathered at my Grandma and Grandpa's house for good food, fun and Christmas tradition!

After we eat dinner and catch up with warm conversations, we all sit down and sing our favorite Christmas carols!

It was tradition that if we sang as loud as we could,Santa would hear it and would leave us a bag of presents by the front door. After one of our LOUD carols, my Grandpa would say "Did you hear that kids?!" and that was the cue for all of us to race to the front door and find Santa's famous bag of presents! Usually there would be at least 10 kids racing to the door and someone would end up getting hurt in the stampede but this year that wasn't the case. My two nieces were the only 'kids' there this year..

..i consider myself a kid so i ran for the bag too ;0)

Next we bring the bag to Grandpa and he will then read "The Santa Letter" Which my grandparents make every year that notes everything thats been going on with each family and kid. Its always neat to see the kids' amazement when they find that 'Santa' knows everything about them in the letters :0)I dont know where they find the time and energy to make that every year (considering the fact that my Grandpa is almost 91 years old and Grandmas not far behind) but that just makes it 10 times more special :0)

My Grandma makes her famous English Toffee every year and gives it as presents..i cant tell you how much i admire her cooking/baking skills!

We were exhausted by the time we got back to Mom and Dad Gates house and we all sleepily watched some cute Christmas shows together before bed and i made Matt read me The Night Before Christmas before we went to sleep :0) The next morning we woke up to the smell of sausage sizzlin' in the kitchen (dont you love that?!)and we rolled out of bed and wished everyone a Merry Christmas with hugs and kisses :0) We all opened our presents together and had so much fun with the 'finding the PICKLE in the tree' tradition :0) Do i even need to tell you who found the pickle? ;0) Anywho i think its safe to say that we got spoiled this year in the present category..thank you SOOO much! We went to my parents house and had fun opening presents and chit chatting with the fam :0) i got to show off the new fly rod and reel my awesome hubby gave me for Christmas..i think its safe to say that i made a couple people jealous ;0) jk

After saying our goodbyes we packed up all of our stuff and hit the road earlier than we wanted to...did i mention that my little nieces Andy and Paige gave me a PRESENT too?? They were both really sick and i left with a new sore throat and temperature! :0/ Oh well..its a good thing that they are stinkin CUTE! :0)


I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas full of fun memories, love and FAMILY.