Christmas Break

Our Christmas break has been awesome! About 2 months ago, we found out I had gotten the job at the middle school in the Special Education room, which meant, I would have a Christmas break! (if I hadn't gotten the job, I would have been working crazy hours at Old Navy...which would stink) Anyways, as soon we heard the good news, Clay and I booked tickets to Utah so we could spend the break with our families (my parents had booked tickets to come down to visit us the 23rd-30th. We were super excited that they were able to come down so we wouldn't have to spend Christmas alone. When we told them the good news, they were able to change their flight to Utah so they could see us, my brother and his family, and my grandparents. Clay already had booked a ticket to Utah over break since his best friend was getting married on the 28th of December. Luckily, Clay was able to change his flight (for $100...but totally worth it!)

Clay's finals ended on December 16th which was so nice! He literally had been studying for a month straight. His finals were 2 weeks long, which meant there were 3 or 4 days in between each final. Every day he would wake up, get ready, go into the other room and study at his desk for 8 hours. I would get home from work, we would go to the gym, eat dinner, and then he would go back into the office and study for another 4 hours.

Since we were going to be in Utah for Christmas, we didn't want to bring all our gifts and since we already knew what we were getting, we decided to have Christmas on December 17th. We had planned on waiting until a couple days before we left, but we had slept in, made pancakes, eggs, and bacon; we both agreed it was a good morning to do it. Clay got Lord of the Rings extended edition on blu-ray, a new office chair, a new sweater, a new backpack, a Batman video game that he can play over his month long Christmas break, and some new headphone. I got some jewelry, a new pair of heels, and a BUNCH of new clothes.

I didn't get off work until the 22nd, so we flew out on the 23rd. We flew into the new Provo airport and landed at 9pm. We were able to see some of our friends that night, which was really fun. We stayed at Clay's parent's house in Orem. It was me and Clay, his parents and his little sister, Clay's brother Bryce, his wife Nancy, and their two kids (Derek and Gina) all in one house. It was so nice to see everyone for like a week and a half.

My mom and dad stayed at my grandma and grandpa's condo in Springville and we stayed with them Christmas eve to Christmas day. My aunt and uncle and all their kids came over Christmas Eve and we were able to see them and spend time together as a family.

Here are a couple pictures from our Christmas Eve:

Picture #1: My adorable nephew, Owen
Picture #2: Clay and me
Picture #3: The whole Fry family (minus my cousin who is in the MTC)

The next couple days we just spent time with our families. Living in Kansas, we don't get to see our families very much. We wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. On the 28th, we were able to go to our really good friend's wedding. Kevin and Clay have known each other for a couple years and lived together the 2 semesters before Clay and I got married. Natalie, the bride, is Clay's sister-in-law's sister (a little confusing). I was so excited to go to their wedding because it is the first, since our wedding, that I've been to. I was able to enjoy myself and not be jealous that "they met after us and are getting married before us". haha. That happened a lot the last 2 months Clay and I were engaged.

We were able to attend their sealing in the Mt. Timpanogos temple which was where Clay and I were married 6 months before. It was so nice sitting in the sealing room next to my best friend remembering our special day. After their sealing, we headed over to Tucanos for their luncheon. We were so happy to be eating there since we don't have one in Kansas. Their reception was at Bella Vista in Lindon, UT. It was such a great day and we are so happy for Kevin and Natalie!!!

It was so nice to travel over Christmas break to see our families. We joked that it wasn't really a vacation, but more of a business trip because things were so busy between both of our families, friends, and going to all the places that we've missed. I wouldn't have traded it for anything and we are so blessed to have been able to go.

We are back in Lawrence now and I start work again tomorrow. I am so glad to be back and get back to our normal routine. Clay doesn't go back to school until January 17th, but he will be busy looking for places to internship over the summer once he gets his grades back (hopefully within the next couple of days). We also will be enjoying our new Kindle and reading all the books we've been waiting to read for a while!! Clay is re-reading some Star Wars books and I'm re-reading The Hunger Games series before the movie comes out in a couple of months.