Tolton Christmas

This year Andy and I spent Christmas with his family. It was a little bit strange this year... we had no little kids running around! Tory's wife and 2 little boys were spending their Thanksgiving and Christmas time down in New Zealand and Heidi and her family were staying up in Alaska. So it was just us 6 adults (Mom, Dad, Tory, CJ, Andy and me!) So that was kind of weird. But we spent Christmas Eve over at Mom and Dad's house. We ate some yummy food and played games. Then we read/listened to Burl Ives Christmas Story. This is an ancient tradition that Andy's family does every Christmas Eve. These songs are so old-school and it's kind of hard not to laugh during it. But Louise has a book that follows along with the tape (yes, tape!). And it's a mixture of Burl Ives reading and singing...pretty great!

After that, we watched the Nativity dvd that the Church had put out a few years back. It's always so nice to watch the Nativity story and remember what Christmas is really about.
So then we had to rush through presents so that Tory could go pick up his wife and kids from the airport. So that was kind of strange, as well. I got a Belgian Waffle maker and some gift cards and I think Andy got a bunch of gift cards also (I know, we are pretty lame when it comes to saying what we want for presents).

Christmas day came around and we know we had church at 12:00, so we woke up, made some breakfast and opened the rest of our presents. Andy and I had decided that we weren't going to give each other presents this year since we were getting Chocky, but I was sneaky and got Andy a present anyway! I bought him a remote-control helicopter. His brother and dad got one last year and he was a little jealous, so when I found this one, I couldn't resist! He was so surprised and even cried a little. And he got an awesome Lego set from the Chatterton kids.

And now, don't laugh...I look terrible in these pictures, but I want to show off my new personalized Trifle dish that I got from Heidi for Christmas. Can't wait to make something yummy in it.

And the next day, sweet Andy felt so bad that he didn't get me a present and I got him one that he bought me a new shell jacket that I've been wanting FOREVER! It's the perfect jacket when it's warm outside, but raining. You definitely need one if you are going to live in Seattle. So overall, it was a nice, but very very quiet and different Christmas this year.

Some of you know that we had to find a new home for our precious little Chocky. We had him for 3 days and it just wasn't working out... he was a sweet little guy that I just fell in LOVE with immediately. He was so sweet and was already catching on to potty training and sleeping in his kennel. But we know we made the right decision and he will probably be happier with his new family where he can play and run all day long, instead of being cooped up in a kennel for 4 hours at a time. But I wanted to share a few pictures of him, he is a sweet little spirit that we were so blessed to have for such a short time.
This was him when we first picked him out:

And here a few of when we picked him up, 4 weeks later. He'd gotten so big. The minute the vet handed him to Andy, he instantly peed on Andy! Haha! He was so good on the car ride home, and immediately loved his little bed and toys once we got home.

We love you Baby Chocky and will always remember you! Hopefully we can meet up again one day and have a little play-date with your new family. :)
Man... I'm a dork... haha!