Sami & Tyler: 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Bailey Christmas Party 2011

Holy Cow, I am so behind! Here is yet another attempt to catch up!

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Each year, the Bailey's throw an Ugly Sweater Christmas party, but we've never been to one, cause they lived in Arizona up until this past year! So I was way excited when Rachel told me she was continuing the tradition!

Preparation:

Immediately, I started my hunt for the perfect ugly sweater. Which, of course, means a few trips to the D.I.! [It's pretty much exactly like Goodwill]. They always have the best selection! [Provo's has a WAY bigger selection than American Fork's- for future reference].
So, it turned out I was much pickier than I thought I would be, also, it seemed everyone and their dog were going to an ugly sweater party, so, even though there were a ton of ugly sweaters, there weren't many Christmas-y ones left. So after much deliberation, I decided to go with a gross green zip up, and found Tyler a terribly misshaped and shrunken sweater with a little girl's powder-blue turtleneck underneath. He looked absolutely dashing.
To top off my outfit, I wore costume beads and tacky jingle-bell earrings that Erin and I found at Wal-Mart. ...To think some women wear those types of earrings for real...
Party time:
The usual- good food, cute decorations. The unusual- hideous outfits.
The best part of this party? The photo booth and the white elephant gift exchange! Rachel set up a little studio in her dining area with a Christmas wrapping paper backdrop and cheesy props [including some awesome glasses I got from DI]. And of course the white elephant gift exchange was hilarious! There were some random gifts! For example, a home drug test, a t-shirt that says "i pooped today," a terrible mantle clock with a picture of the Last Supper [we provided that one], and a massive back massager that everyone fought over.
Here are a few pics from the party

Corey's birthday

December 28th, was Corey's birthday, and what with him being one of our best friends, going out to dinner was a must!! We all agreed on PF Changs because he had never been there, and their lettuce wraps are amazing!
Corey and I have been good friends for around 6 years, so things worked out great when we discovered he and Tyler have a lot in common! We always have a good time when hanging out with Corey, and we DEFINITELY appreciate his humor and kindness. Thanks for being such a good friend, Corey, and making us laugh so much!

[The lighting in PF Changs was kinda crappy...]

Happy 23rd Birthday, Corey!

Family portrait

With the whole family being together for a holiday, we just HAD TO get a family picture in there somewhere. So here's the finished project! I think it's a really good one!!

Tyler & Sami - Christmas 2011

Christmas in Rapid City

I haven't had a Christmas with my family since 2008, so it was a big deal when Tyler and I were able to drive to South Dakota and spend it with my family.

The drive. Was. Awful. It was our plan to drive 6.5 hours to Laramie and stay with my cousin and her husband, Mary and Kevin, then drive the rest of the way to Rapid City the next morning.

We finally got on the road around 2pm, and it was dark by 4pm. Visibility was TERRIBLE! I'm not sure I'll ever have anxiety about driving in a snow storm again, because I don't think I will experience a storm worse than the one we drove through on I-80 that day. I can honestly say that there were multiple times where all I could do was say a prayer and trust that we were going to stay on the road.

So FINALLY, after 8.5 horrific hours, we made it to Laramie! We all (Tyler and I, Mary, Kevin, Alissa, Seth, Blake, and Robin) sat around and chatted for a bit before going to bed.

In the morning, I woke up and heard Tyler talking with Seth about how there were multiple highways closed due to snow, and immediately my anxiety sky-rocketed. (For those of you that don't know this about me, I have anxiety, though lucky for me, it's not something that affects my day-to-day life, only when stressful things are coming up. But when I do have anxiety, it tends to make me feel sick...like...about-to-throw-up sick.) After much vomiting, I received a blessing from Tyler and Kevin, which helped A LOT, and then we planned for the next drive. We finally hit the road again only after stopping at McDonald's for breakfast and by this time I was feeling much better about this leg of the trip with the sun up and shining bright. It took us probably about 7 hours to get to Rapid City, but it felt like 2 hours compared to the hellish drive from the night before.

Throughout the Christmas weekend, we played games, went shopping, watched home videos, cuddled and snuggled (mostly Maisy and I), teased Abby, ate some awesome meals that our mom made, laughed and goofed off. It was way fun!!

The morning we left for the long drive, we stopped at Tyler's parents to have Christmas with them before we left, and I LEFT my CAMERA there!! I was so mad, I cried when I realized it. We were already an hour and a half away, so we couldn't turn around.

With that being said- you'll understand why there are hardly any pictures from Christmas. (My mom let me use her camera, but it was huge and didn't have "auto" so I didn't take very many pictures.)

So, Christmas this past year was pretty awesome. We had such a great time and I can't wait for when the entire family can be together again for a holiday.

Love you guys!!

Our apartment!

My favorite season of all time is the Christmas season because I get to decorate the house and play Christmas music! This was mine and Tyler's first Christmas together in our own apartment, so we didn't have much to start with, but over the month of December I purchased decorations here and there to try and make our home less bare and more cheerful! (Personally, I don't care much for our apartment, but I liked it way more during Christmas)