The Dean's: A December to Remember

December is always a time of family, stress (which sometimes go hand in hand), food, LOTS of food, and the most important the celebration of our Lord. This December started out very stressful for me. I stressed about how we were going to afford presents on one income, stressed with the fact that my car was minding its own business in my driveway and was hit by the neighbors runaway jeep and the fact that the neighbor is pretty much a douche bag, enough said there. Then there was the camera incident of 2011. Even with all the stress I was shown the true meaning of Christmas. This year was Morgan's year to see his family. We switch off each year and his family lives in Northern NM. It was hard being away from mine, but we had an awesome time in good old Espanola! We started our Christmas Eve off at the outlets in Santa Fe where my hubby surprised me with a trip to the Coach store. He told me he wanted me to have something nice and let me pick out whatever I wanted! The sales were so good that we left with not one, but two beautiful purses for less than we would have paid for one at Dillards! SCORE! Then we headed to his Dad and Stepmom's house. We ate, watched Tan open tons of presents, and had the best eggnog ever! One glass had me pretty tipsy! Then we went to Morgan's Aunt's house and spent the rest of the evening with cousins, aunts, uncles, and his grandma! Tanner thought he was a big boy and wanted to keep up with all the big kids!

Christmas day brought lots of Santa presents for Tanner. He was obviously a good boy! His favorite by far was his Green Bay Packers chair and the wrapping paper roll! We enjoyed, or tried to enjoy mass, but church with a one year old is hard. Tanner loves clocks, but can't quite say the word, so all through mass we screamed "cock"! I was about 10 shades of red, but all you can really do is laugh. Finally, it was my families turn. We had lunch with my familia at my aunts house. This year the adults decided to do a white elephant gift thingy and let me tell you I have not laughed that hard in so long! I think this may be a new traditions! I also got my baby fix, or should maybe caught the fever, because I met my brand new baby cousin Jaxon. He is a doll! We ended the night at my inlaws where we had a feast of tamales, beans and cookies. We enjoyed the football game and I got to see my Bears lose, again!

All in all our holidays were amazing. Seeing Christmas through Tanner's eyes was the most amazing thing. He was so excited and next year will be even better! Sometimes having such big families is hard, especially trying to fit everything in, but then again it is amazing to have so much love and support around us! The gifts were great, but honestly just being around those that I love was the best gift of all and the memories made will never be forgotten!

Here are a few pictures from the big day!