Christmas 2015.

I think this is the best Christmas I've had, at least as an adult. It just felt extra special and I think a lot of that has to do with the gratitude I have for this healthy, growing baby inside of me and a lot of it has to do with the amount of family and love we are surrounded with.

Last Christmas, we were alone in Oregon. And both Landon and I will be the first to tell you, it was pretty much the worst Christmas we have ever had. Ha! It just didn't feel right to be alone just the two of us. We missed being around family and we were ready to be done living in Oregon. This Christmas was the complete opposite! We are surrounded by SO much family and it really was the best.

Daren, Liliana, and MJ came to stay with us from Texas and Landon's brother Dawsen came from Texas too, but he stayed with Suzette :) From Landon's side we were just missing Tanner and then from my side The Caputos (in Hawaii) and the Nick Millers (in Spain). I wish we could've had everyone with us! Maybe next year!

We did a few things that I took zero pictures of, so I'll start there :) We saw Star Wars at 10pm on Christmas Eve Eve. This is a Richins family tradition to see a movie really late and then go to Ihop afterwards. I wasn't super thrilled, because 10pm is my bed time, but luckily I snuck a nap in earlier that day and I actually stayed awake for the whole movie. (It was really good by the way!) We got to Ihop at 1am and there was a twenty minute wait! Can you believe it? It was just so random that Ihop was so busy, but it was really fun!

On Christmas Eve we had a very relaxing day, because we were SO tired from staying up until 3 the night before. Later that day we went to see my dad's Christmas bells concert, which is one of my favorite Christmas traditions! They play at this really old chapel by the capitol downtown. It really sets a good tone for Christmas singing and hearing songs about the real reason for Christmas, the birth of our Savior.

After the bells concert we went to look at the lights on Temple Square. Gosh, I've missed Utah!! It's seriously SO beautiful.

We came home and watched It's a Wonderful Life, but I accidentally fell asleep and missed the end of the movie. Bummer!

Christmas morning we woke up and went to my parents house for my favorite Christmas tradition--Christmas breakfast complete with sugary cereal, Christmas crowns, and Christmas crackers.

After breakfast we went back home and had Landon's family over for Christmas dinner and presents. Yep, we didn't open presents until AFTER dinner around 4:30 haha. It's kind of fun to do it that way because if you open presents first thing, Christmas kind of feels "over" so this way we had the anticipation all day. :)

I got Landon some wireless earbuds, a Star Wars lego set, a weather station, and a car lift. He got me a new coat and AN IPHONE!!!!! Oh my gosh, I can't even tell you how HAPPY I am to have a new phone! My old phone pretty much is the worst thing ever. It's like the original Samsung Galaxy... and it just had a lot of problems. So Landon and I had an agreement that if I could go a month without dropping my phone, I could get a new one. The problem is, I really am just such a klutz and dropped my phone at least 3 times in that month. My other phones had died due to being dropped in a bathtub, being run over by a car, etc. etc. etc. so basically, I shouldn't own nice things... So when I opened the iPhone I was scared to even take it out of the box. Everyone was telling me that I just needed an OtterBox. Well, those are kind of ugly so I said, well maybe if it's pink I could have an OtterBox... well the next present I opened was a PINK OtterBox haha! Landon knows me so well! I'm so glad it wasn't an ugly black one or I would've felt really bad for what I had just said :)

We also were spoiled rotten by all of our parents and got clothes, the new cold play CD, a homemade blanket, shoes, candy, jeans... and baby boy even got some clothes!

One of the highlights of our day was watching Henry's reaction to presents. We just don't really have dog toys so we decided to get him some and Suzette (Nini) got some too. He LOVES his new toys and it really is the cutest thing EVER to watch him play with them! Suzette got him these tiny balls and they're the perfect size for him. He just looks like a real dog chasing his ball and carrying it in his mouth... we can't handle it! Oh, and for the record the toys are technically for Oliver too, but he could care less :)

He's obsessed with "squirrels" so we call these toys squirrels and he goes NUTS!

Anyway, this year Christmas was really special. We feel so loved and SO grateful for all of our family. We are also so grateful for our little baby boy--who by the way, went CRAZY on Christmas Eve when I was trying to go to sleep. I told Landon he could sense the Christmas excitement :) I can't believe that next year he'll be with us... I know that will probably be our best Christmas yet!!