Christmas festivities

On December 23rd, all the adults in the Lindner family (plus Carson!) got together at the White Stag for a nice dinner. Their food is so good! I ended up having fillet mignon, and it was amazing. We had our gift exchange, as well as our white elephant gift exchange, and it was so fun. I ended up getting an arm knitted scarf from Hiedi in the white elephant. ...That's right, arm knitting. Google it - it's so cool! And then from Macie, I got a bunch of peppermint lotion and body wash. She knows me so well...I'm still crazy-obsessed with anything peppermint/candy cane scented or flavored. It was a new thing this year to have a get-together with just the adults, but it was really fun! 

For Christmas eve, Alex, Carson, and I went over to John and Terri's for a delicious prime rib dinner. It was absolutely delicious! And it was so nice being able to spend the evening with John, Terri, Jake, Kaleb, Abby, Owen, and Symon. I'm so grateful for the wonderful family I've been blessed with. :)

I'm also so grateful that Carson is finally starting to adapt to our massive family. When the whole family - or at least a big group of it - would get together, Carson used to get wayyy overstimulated. He's used to just being home with me where it's quiet all day, so get-togethers were sometimes kind of stressful just because Carson didn't handle it too well. But he's gotten so much better! He's much more content and mellow when the Lindner clan gets together now, which makes it a lot more fun. :)

We spent Christmas morning just the three of us at our place. It was so special to have that time with my little family. It was the start of family Christmas traditions, and it was full of laughter - and even a bunch of smiles from this little guy..

Gifts can't really compare to how much I love his smile. And it was so fun because Carson was just awake and content for most the morning! Alex was so sweet and surprised me with an awesome ipod, and I got him tickets to a Clippers game later this month. And of course I filled our stockings with some peppermint goodies. :)

Later that evening, we spent some more time over at John and Terri's. I just love them all so much. I also had the chance to talk to my parents, and man, do I ever miss them. I'm so grateful to have the mom and dad that I have. I only wish they lived here. That, or I wish we all had massive amounts of money so we could fly back and forth to visit each other all the time.

At one point during the Christmas break, a bunch of us got together to see the new Hobbit movie. Impressively, Carson slept through the whole 2 hour and 40 minute long movie! He's just such a good baby! That, and he must love the LOTR movies! ;)

So the Christmas season was awesome. I'm so grateful for family, my sweet baby boy, and my Savior. I'm so thankful for His birth and the life He led as an example to me of the person I want to become.