Christmas with the Clarks

This year Matt and I stayed here in Laramie to spend Christmas with his family. It was my first Christmas being away from my family so it was different but very fun. On Christmas Eve we spent most of the day at his parent's house and then ate a shrimp dinner, which is a tradition for them. I'm not all too fond of shrimp, but it wasn't too bad and I ended up eating 11 of the little creatures (everyone else ate more... even 9 year old Brad). :) Then we read Luke chapters 1 and 2 then had a little music program where we all sang and played the piano and stuff. After that we played cards until about 11:30 and we stayed the night there even though we only live a few minutes away.
Christmas morning was different from my family, too. Normally we wake my parents up at like 6:00am then we all gather in their room to read from Luke 2 before we can open our presents. Well with Matt's family we didn't wake up until around 8:00 and Brad, Mary, (Matt's 9 and 11 year old sibblings) Matt, and I had to drag his brothers (ages 17 and 22) out of bed and we didn't read scriptures because we had done it the night before. Then Matt's dad calls everyone upstairs when he declares that it's time, and the opening of presents is pretty much the same. Then we had breakfast, talked to Matt's missionary brother Lane who is serving in Russia, played some games, then ate dinner, played some more games, and Matt and I went home at about midnight.
I didn't take hardly any pictures but here are a couple. We're headed over to Lyman next week to spend the New Year with my family and watch my little brother play varsity basketball so we'll get to open some more presents then. Merry Christmas (a little late) to everyone!

Out little Christmas tree. I posted a pic of it when we cut it down, but here it is all decorated.


Matt and his siblings, Nate, Brad, and Mary playing the new playstation trivia game. (we played that game ALL day). :)

Handsome Matthew wearing his new sweater getting ready to open another present.

And Link resting on my lap. This is the Clark family dog and I adore him. I think the feelings are mutual because he comes to me no matter who else is calling him and he spent literally the entire Christmas Eve and day on my lap. The only times I can remember him moving are when we were eating. Brad and Mary bought him a new vest, they didn't think he would like it but he got mad when they tried to take it off. :)

Oh and I forgot to mention the present that I most appreciated from Matt's parents: they're paying for me to go to the eye doctor and to get new contacts. That meant a lot to me because it's something that I deseperately need! I'm very thankful for my amazing inlaws.