Chris and Kerri Bell: Our First Christmas

It was so fun decorating our own little apartment for our first Christmas together. Nicholas and Courtney were so nice to give us their fake tree so that we wouldn't have to worry about buying one! I got lots of tree decorations from the dollar store since we don't have a good collection of our own yet. I also bought lighted garland and a few other decorations from Bed, Bath, and Beyond with gift cards from our wedding. It will be a sad day when those run out! At the beginning of December we had an office party with all of the other Nutrition TA's that I work with at our apartment. That was good motivation to get everything organized and decorated and ended up being a great success! It was fun being able to finally show off all of my hard work decorating our apartment and sharing the excitement with girls who actually care about that kind of thing. What wasn't fun was doing dishes the entire next week from the office party and when we made Christmas plates for all of our neighbors. I hated walking into the kitchen because of the huge pile of dirty dishes that ran down the counter. Oh the joys of not having a dishwasher.

*Our First Tree*

(I don't know why the pictures are so fuzzy)

*Cute Countdown Blocks My Sister-In-Law Natalie Gave Us at Thanksgiving*

*Nutrition TA Office Party/Birthday Party for Melanie and Elizabeth*

*Christmas Plates! Mmmm*

We spent our first Christmas together in Tulare, California at the Bell's house. It was my first Christmas away from home and surprisingly I didn't miss home as much as I thought I would. It was such a relief for Chris and I to finally have a real break after such an intense semester, getting married, and settling into our new lives and apartment together.

It rained the whole time and we were worried about their pool overflowing but luckily it didn't. Not having any snow was definitely a weird thing for me. We had a great time all together and I loved spending time with Chris's family. They are incredibly fun to be with and so generous to us. Christmas Eve we got together with all of the Bell's family friends and went to the Chronicles of Narnia movie and got lunch at Chili's afterwards. That was alot of fun and that night we read the Christmas story and attempted to watch the full-length Nativity movie--not our favorite. Afterwards we opened family presents and had a nerf gun fight with the guns everyone got. Christmas morning we opened up "santa presents". I missed my mom putting on Percy Faith's Christmas Album and "Joy To The World" blaring as we all ran into the living room. It just added to the excitement of the moment. That is a Christmas memory I'll never forget.

*Family Volleyball Game Against the Floras--Chris dressed up in his 14 year-0ld sister's clothes...*

*Christmas Eve Tree*

*Matching Pajamas! Loved the Girls Leopard Print!*

*Nerf Gun Agent Chris*

*Christmas Eve Games*

Some of our favorite Christmas gifts this were the washer and dryer my parents gave us, the dvd players for our cars from Chris's parents, my Nordstrom gift card from Chris's parents, and I loved the new clothes Chris got from the outlets :). Some of the gifts I gave to Chris included: Warhammer board game (this was a hard one to buy, I don't like playing it), a black peacoat, a watch, a book with funny stories about J. Golden Kimball , a BYU sweatshirt, a plaid button-up shirt, and some other random things. Chris gave me a bunch of clothes (I bought them at Thanksgiving then gave them to him to wrap), a gold sparkly shirt for our cruise, silver high heels, really cute black gloves, studded flats, and a fly swatter :). After opening presents, Chris and I had to drive 45 minutes to Bakersfield to pick up my passport from the airport (wait for that story later), then we went straight to the Flora's house for dinner and played games. Chris and I were especially looking forward to leaving on our cruise the next day!

*Christmas Morning Tree*