THE CALM AFTER THE HOLIDAY STORM.

We had a great Christmas with my family and Greg's family, however, I'd be lying if I said that it doesn't feel good to be home. It's crazy that the time of the year where you are supposed to be sitting back and relaxing with family and friends, simply just enjoying each other's company, turns into the most exhausting few days of the entire year.

The past couple of years we have a new tradition where my family, Greg, and I go to Snowbasin Ski Resort and watch Greg's parents in the Torch Light Parade, followed by fireworks, and then all join together for dinner and drinks at his parent's house. It's been a fun tradition so far and I'm really hoping that we continue it in the future. It's also a tradition with my family to open one present each on Christmas Eve, new pajamas.

My little brother (he's 3 years younger) always was the first one to wake up on Christmas. His entire life that is the one day of the year where he actually wakes up early. It used to be as early as 4 or 5 AM, luckily, at the age of 20, he's now no earlier than 8 o'clock! The older that we get, the slower that opening presents gets. I like taking our time and enjoying the morning together as a family. Not too shabby.

I got a bunch of new fun cooking tools and whatnot that I am super excited about. Now that we are back in Salt Lake, I have spent the last 5 hours reevaluating my kitchen and trying to find a place for all of these goodies. All the while, hinting around to Greg that we REALLY need to find a new place to live soon because this kitchen is too damn small.