Natalie and Nathan Marden: 2010

For Christmas Eve, Nathan and I went to his mom's house in North Ogden. I bought some of this magical chapstick called, Kisstixx. It comes in a variety of flavors. Each box comes with 2 compatible flavors which are: Strawberry and Chocolate, Peaches and Cream, Fire and Ice, Raspberry and Lemonade, Sweet and Sour, Strawberry Daquari and Pina Colada. Each partner wears one flavor and when they combine it's like TA-DA!!! Magical goodness upon your lips! I gave Each of Nathan's siblings and their significant others one pair and we all had a kiss-fest. Nathan's mom, Linda took lots of pictures of all her children making out on Christmas Eve! It was fun!

Jordan & Ashley (Sweet and Sour), Jemay and Jason (Strawberry Daquari and Pina Colada), Jared and Kristy (Raspberry and Lemonade) and Nat and Nathan (Fire and Ice)

Jordan, Ashley, Jemay, Jason, Kristy, Jared, Natalie, Nathan

After the Kiss-fest was over, we all sat down to a delicious turkey dinner!

Nathan, Natalie, Jemay and Jason

Once dinner was completed, we all gathered together for a Christmas program. Jemay sang "What Child Is This" Which was amazing!! Then Doug shared a spiritual thought about Christ and remembering him. It was really good!! Linda gave each of the couples a Nativity scene as a reminder to keep Christ in Christmas.

Grandma (Beth), Nathan and Natalie

After the program, we all got a Christmas Eve gift: Pajamas!!

Once we all tried them on and modeled them, we colored these t-shirts that Linda bought for us:

Nathan and I geeked ours out.. which isn't hard to do, because we are both big Nerds! It was covered in Rainbows and owls so Nathan drew a Stargate (yes, like the show... I told you we were nerds!) He also drew 2 stick figures, representing us going through the stargate into a planet with a bunch of gay owls. It was an adventure!

Jared and Kristy

Jordan and Ashley

Kristy, Nat and Jemay

We hung out, watched movies, and then went to sleep and bright and early at 4 am, Nathan came and woke everyone up with manheim steemroller's Carol of the Bells blasting from his phone.. It was great!! Here is a picture showing our delight:

Jemay's face says, you woke me up at what time? I should be sleeping!!

We all lined up on the stairs according to age, and waited for the go from Doug and Linda and we ran into the living room to find....


The Gang, Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed! That we were all very good girls and boys!!

Santa was very good to us this year! Thanks Doug and Linda!!

The gifts were passed out one by one and we all watched each person open their gift before we moved onto the next one. I made most of my gifts this year. I got Doug and Linda a framed photo of the temple that I took. I got Jason and Jemay and Kristy and Jared Wood signs that say, "Christ is the Center of our home" and Nathan and I got Jordan and Ashley movie tickets. I got Nathan an Ipod and a nursing book that he wanted. :) Doug and Linda spoiled me rotten!! They bought me a coat, a few shirts, some jewelry, and a picture frame/album with a bunch of pictures of me and Nathan in it. Jason and Jemay bought me a nerf gun, Jordan and Ashley got me some smelly lotion (smelly as in smell good, not ewe gross, smelly.) and Kristy and Jared got me 27 Dresses the movie. Nathan got me 2 gifts. He bought me a tripod for my camera, which I desperately needed!! It's wonderful!! The other one of Nathan's gifts was a peom he wrote me that went along with a bunch of odd gifts... Here's how it went:

wow, I wrote you a poem it's so amazing you may need these

I'm puzzled a little

about my crazy luck

you're dating this old bird

despite all my muck (it rhymes with luck)

I'm stuck to you like glue

I wouldn't erase 1 minute with you

my dark days became brighter and nights did too.

I love that you're wacky

and a little enchanting too.

I love you and I hope you know this is true

Merry Christmas my love, Merry Christmas to you!

I'm such a lucky girl!! Isn't he just so amazing?! I just love him to pieces!! After we opened up presents, the men made breakfast: French Toast, sausage and O.J. It was tasty!! Then we all went back to bed for a much needed Christmas nap. Jason, Jemay, Nathan and I all crawled into the same bed and watched Star Wars while we napped. It was great fun!!

Once we all woke up, we headed over to Rick and Wendy's house (Nathan's Dad and Step-mom). We all exhanged gifts there with his little brother, Austin. They got me a cookbook: 101 things to do with chocolate!! Oh yumminess!!

Rick, Wendy, Jason and Austin

After that, we headed over to my momma's house for a while. We got her an Angel Tree figurine, some hand-crafted jewelry, and a temple picture. She got me garments, perfume, and some decorations from Tai Pan! She got Nathan a nursing book, I-tunes gift card and a batman lunchbox. She also gave us both hockey tickets!! Needless to say, we were both very spoiled!!
We spent the rest of the day eating and hanging out with family and then later that night, Nathan had to go to work. It was a very fun and memorable Christmas!!

December was a great month!! Nathan and I mastered the art of Gingerbread house making! My artist abilities combined with his creativeness and architectural abilities made out for some great houses! Too bad they are centers for ants, or Gingerbread men, because I would live in them!!

The first one we built was with his family: