Christmas Part II

My dad, such a clown!

These two brothers, always joking and scheming it up.

Every year since I can remember our family gets together with
my dads extended family on Christmas night for a party.

My aunt makes an elaborate & delicious meal, we play games,
watch movies, talk about everything under the sun,
and end the evening with a Christmas exchange.

We Santamaria's look forward to it every year
and it finishes off Christmas on the right foot--
an abundant amount of fun had by all!

Christmas Part I

We started our Christmas festivities with our traditional Christmas Eve dinner,

followed by treats and movies, then the next morning opening gifts and our huge 

breakfast...gluttony at its finest!

It'd been several years since my entire family was together for Christmas,
so to say the least we were excited this year.

Especially with all the little ones gathered together, I think that is one of the
many reasons Christmas is so exciting; seeing the excitement through the eyes
of little children.

My nieces face of sheer excitement...she gets it from my dad as seen below.

Temple Square Tradition

Never quite feels completely like Christmas until
we do our annual tradition of seeing the lights
at Temple Square.

Christmas spirit is in full swing over here.

Holiday Health

Maybe I'm the only one that finds that 

my weight slowly or sometimes not so slowly

creeps up around the time the snow hits the ground

and the holiday's begin.

Although in talking with many of my girlfriends, 

I know I'm not the only one who gains a bit of my

own personal winter coat.  This year I've been determined

to not let that happen.  I've been trying {trying being the key word} to be conscious of

when I'm no longer hungry and having moderation with the sweets.

Another thing that is so so difficult for me is wanting to get up

early in the mornings to go workout, especially on a day like today 

where it was snowing.  So I've been getting creative with my workouts.

If I haven't made it to the gym I've done a workout like the one below at home, 

or I make sure to take snow boots to work and go walk for about half an hour

on my lunch break or I run up and down the stairs wherever I can. This ensures me some

calorie burning even if I don't make it to the gym

and from my experience it's the little things that add up to make big differences.

Decking the Halls

Since my parents live close by, I don't usually buy my own tree.
I always head over to their place and we all get in on the action.

This weekend we got together and put the tree up,
let the little ones put some ornaments on and got the
house all glittered and glammed up for
the Christmas season.

I think our efforts paid off when we lit the tree and
the front room was glowing with that warm inviting light.

Success!