Christmas with The Perry's

Merry Christmas!! We had a great Christmas this year. It was our first ever alone since we've been married. Weird to be without all our family but kind of fun and nice to just do our own thing. This is a little glimpse of Christmas at the Perry House.

Sherri got bored waiting for Shayne to come home on Christmas Eve so she took the puppies to Petland (they were doing free pics with Santa for your pets) this is Zoey she was so good and just cozied right up for her close up with Santa! Belle on the other hand was bit more difficult. As you can see she just kept wanting to eat Santa's hair and beard. We all had a good laugh she was too cute! Sherri loves decorating for holidays. This is what our house has looked like for the month of December. We had more lights than this but it was just too hard to get a good pic - this is our front porch! The tree and Sherri's simulation of snow on the windows, since we don't get hardly any of the real stuff. Notice the whole bottom half of the tree not decorated? It's like we have kids - the dogs love playing with the tree. We were lucky to escape the season with only one ruined ornament - we thought they were all out of reach but those dogs can be tricky! Gotta have the Christmas Garland! More Christmas Decor! The infamous treat table! This is a very unhealthy tradition we have adopted from Sherri's parents, but.... it is way too fun not to carry on. Every Christmas morning there is a table or area designated for treats. All these dishes get filled with goodies and then it stays up and filled until New Years Day! Christmas morning pancake breakfast. It was fun to sleep in on Christmas since we are used to waking up at the crack of dawn when we are home with family. We were both kind of sick so sleeping in was great and then we had a nice breakfast before opening presents. Bear with us through these early morning pics we realize we both don't look our best but we were willing to take one for the team so we could share our Christmas with you! Santa was good to us this year - we are so blessed! This is our presents for each other and the ones Sherri's family sent home for us - thanks guys you were too generous. We had fun taking our time and opening them! Another fun tradition - Santa always brings popcorn and drinks with our stockings! The dogs had fun helping us open the presents, they couldn't get enough! Oooo what could it be?

Yep the girlys even got there own gifts - this is Belle trying to open her stocking from Santa!

The dogs loved all their new fun toys! Zoey's favorite was this little one from Grandma Adams - thanks!

Of course we couldn't be the only ones to have a treat table. The girls couldn't have a whole table but they got extra treats and were in doggy heaven. I am sure they were wondering why we were being so extra nice today of all days - oh well they don't have to understand it's still fun!

We were all tuckered out later in the afternoon, despite the fact that we had slept in. We took a long nap and then watched a double feature. What fun times - we just love Christmas and spending time together!! Hope you all had a great one too!!

Home For the Holidays

We were fortunate to be able to go home to Utah and visit for awhile. By the time Sherri got her holiday schedule at work flights home over Christmas were a little too pricey so we opted for the cheaper route and went home the week before. Sherri was there for a week and Shayne was able to stay a few days more (he isn't working and still out of school, so why not) and made it home today just in time to spend Christmas with Sherri. It definitely wasn't long enough but it was sure fun to see all our family and friends.

Sherri's youngest brother, Darren turned the big 16 the week before we went to visit. He waited for us to get there so we could celebrate with him, thanks!! We are sure glad he did that cake was yummy! This card game called Bang was our gift to Darren, it has become a favorite among our close friends and family.

This was the yummy birthday cake Sherri's mom made. We had to post this pic because we realized in all our fun and chaos this is the only pic we took with Sherri's mom in it - she was usually the one snapping the pics. Also, the one pulling the cute face is Sherri's favorite and only sister Christie. Darren got to pick his favorite meal for his birthday. We loved it - BBQ spare ribs! Sherri's mom was the master chef and made a great meal along with the amazing birthday cake - thanks mom! This is Sherri's fam, minus her mom who is taking the pic and then her older brother Steve (he is in Missouri and will not be coming out until closer to Christmas - we will miss seeing them this year, it's not the same when we aren't all together)

It wouldn't be Christmas without a picture with Santa, this is us with Shayne's parents.

A really really big gingerbread house - put ours to shame!!We were able to attend one of Darren's junior jazz games. He is getting quite good and he was fun to watch. Sherri had to post this close up because she just can't get over his muscles (look at those arms) her little brother is growing up it is so weird to see!! We opened presents early with Shayne's parents (Sherri's wanted us to wait until Christmas so we would have more to open since we would be alone) It was fun having presents early and we got spoiled, thanks guys you shouldn't have given us so much! This is Sherri with her kitchen aid mixer she's been wanting! Shayne's parents gave him a play station 3. He has never been big on video games but it might be a nice thing to do when taking a study break. He was more excited about the fact that it can play the new blu-ray dvds! We went to Cabelas (an outdoors/sporting goods/hunting store) with Sherri's parents, it's her Dad's favorite place in the world. We had never been and it was pretty fun to see all the displays. Sherri had to take a picture of one of them. However, this doesn't do it justice you will just have to go see for yourself sometime. We were able to go to dinner with some of the rest of Shayne's fam one night. His 9 nieces and nephews gave us this awesome blanket they made. You can't see it in the pic but they engraved our names in the middle and then wrote Ohio State on one side and U of U on the other (the other side of the blanket is solid red) we absolutely love it - thanks guys! Sherri was able to spend a day with her fam skiing. They had a blast despite the fact that she lost her poles off the chair lift the first run of the day. Always an adventure with us, luckily they were able to recover them and Sherri didn't have to feel like 2 year old skiing down the mountain the whole time with no poles. This is Sherri's 2 brothers and sister and her crazy cousin Bryant (the flourescent one). Shayne opted to stay home because he was supposed to go snowboarding in a few days. It ended up snowing really hard and they closed the canyons so he never got to go, he was pretty bummed but oh well- next time! Just couldn't resist this beautiful picture from the top of one mountain to another. We really do love the snow - it just rains all the time in Columbus. We were fortunate to visit with a lot of friends. We are sad we didn't get pics with most of them but that's ok, we have the memories. This is our favorite little guy - Preston. He is too cute for words. He is the son to some of our good friends - the Kings, guess we forgot to add them in the pic. The Carter's in town from North Carolina The Lujan's in town from Oregon.

It was so fun to visit and see you all, we had a blast and only wish we could have stayed longer. There were still many of you we didn't even get to see, we will catch you next time.

Thanks for the fun times and memories we will see you again soon!

Christmas Lights in Columbus!!

When we lived in Utah we would go every year to see the lights on temple square as I am sure many of you do. We were really bummed that we weren't going to see them this year. So...when we heard the Columbus Zoo puts up lights we decided to go check them out with a bunch of our friends. The lights were awesome they put up over 3 million, it felt like it was raining lights (actually beats the amount at temple square by a long shot). Every tree was covered and then they must have had every kind of animal lights as well. To top it all off it was so warm no one really needed coats (we are just wearing them in pics because we got sick of carrying them but it was actually hot with them on). We are having fun discovering all the great stuff Columbus has to offer, enjoy!

Christmas Goodies

What a fun weekend filled with lots of yummy treats. Friday night we got together with friends and made Gingerbread houses. We were going to make them from scratch but once we figured it out we decided it was way too much effort and we settled for the pre assembled kits. The boys were more interested in basketball and eating the candy we were decorating with but it was fun

The girls - Raquel, Molly and Sherri.

Shayne posing like he helped!

Doesn't it look scrumptious!

Our little gingerbread village!

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Saturday I helped Raquel make cookies for her ward party. They were so cute and festive (we frosted some with mint icing and crushed oreos and the others with cream cheese frosting and crushed candy canes) it was so fun and they turned out great. There were even enough to take some home and share with Shayne, thanks Raquel!

Don't they just make your mouth water looking at them!

Close up of the delicious goodness!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We had our first snow storm yesterday and I was so thrilled. It was nothing like the snow storms we are used to in Utah (only about 4 inches, which apparently is a lot for Ohio) but, I figure if it's going to be cold, cloudy and brown all the time we might as well have snow to brighten it up a bit. It finally made it feel more Christmasy too. However, there was one downfall........Ohioans do not know how to drive in the snow!!! You would think they had never seen snow before. I can say this aloud because anyone that is from here will be the first to admit it. I know they don't get snow all the time but they get it often enough you'd think they would learn. Let me just paint a picture for you when I say they don't know how to drive: A normal 15min drive to work for me took 2 hours, why? I don't know. I think part of the problem is they don't plow the streets well at all, but still it was only 4 inches, c'mon! Anyway, I am done venting regardless of the awful driving I still love the snow. 

The best part of the day was watching the dogs in the snow, they were so cute. Belle apparently loves the snow, she kept going out and playing in it, then coming in to get warm and wanting to go right back out. This is weird for Belle because she normally hates going outside no matter what the weather. Zoey on the other hand who usually wants to go outside any chance she can get was not so thrilled, she played for a minute but it was too cold for her. She came right back in whining and shaking and wouldn't go back out. Funny how opposite they are.

He's Back!

I officially have a husband again, only for a month but who's going to complain? Shayne just finished finals yesterday, good job babe! He studied so hard (I never saw him) he didn't even have time for the "little things" like shaving, his hair, clean clothes etc. I started calling him" homie" short for homeless! I kept telling him he looked like a homeless man with his unshaven face, scraggly hair and same baggy hoodies. Then on top of all that he was studying so much and not getting much sleep so he just looked tired all the time. Unfortunately I was not able to snag a picture of this, which I'm sure he will be glad for.  I actually felt so bad for him, I don't think I could be that motivated to study that much. All in all I am so proud of him and happy to have him all to myself for this fun Christmas Season.

It's Christmas Time!

Yea, It's Dec 1st - the lights are on, the christmas songs are going and the decorations are up and I couldn't be happier it's officially CHRISTMAS TIME!!! I love this season of the year, everyone is a little more happy and a little more giving, it's the best! My favorite is all the fun stuff to do: lots of lights, hot chocolate and cider, warm soup, shopping, santa everywhere, fun cookies and candy, gingerbread houses, and the best....Christmas movies. From Mr. Kruegers Christmas, Scrooged and the Christmas Story to The Grinch, Christmas Vacation and Elf etc. I just can't get enough. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and even through all this fun stuff remember the real reason for the season! I feel like Will Ferrell when he reacts about Santa in this clip when I think about Christmas and the whole holiday season!