I know this is way out of order, but I just realized I hadn't done a post about Christmas and New Years this year. Nate and I flew to Arizona to be with my family for Christmas and then drove a rental car to San Diego to be with his family for New Years. Then we flew back to Portland from there. It was a nice long break and so fun to see both of our families!

Before we left for AZ, we made a huge gingerbread house with some friends, it only took about 3 hours..! Then the night before I left, we went on a date to one of our favorite restaurants here, Beaches. It is right next to the Columbia River and has the prettiest view. During December, people decorate their ships with lights and have a parade down the river. It was so fun to see all of the different ships while we had dinner.

I flew to Arizona a couple of days early so I could have some extra time with my family. It was so fun to go Christmas shopping with my mom and sisters! Then Nate came a couple days later and got to do all of the fun Flake family traditions we have, and we have a LOT!!!! We all love Christmas so much and start counting down months in advance! (: It was so much fun to be together with everyone for Christmas. Brittany and I both got married over the summer, so our family is getting bigger now and it just makes everything even more fun!


Of course, we had to go to In'n'Out!


On Brittany's birthday, we woke up early to go shopping at Last Chance. The guys were not too excited to get up so early just to shop, but we had fun and all got a lot of good stuff! Then we went to Oregano's for Britt's birthday lunch. They have the best pizza, salads, and pizzookies,mmmm!

Outside of Last Chance, waiting for the chaos to begin!

For some reason, this is the only picture I have from Oreganos.

Hiking at Thunderbird Mountain


Making homemade donuts

Britt's birthday cake!!!

The cutest little Mary in our Christmas Eve program!

We always get matching pajamas on Christmas Eve. This year, the guys got some nice velvet elf and santa ones... Nate and Matt were the only ones that would wear them for a picture for some reason!!

Christmas Day!!! (I can never sleep on any holidays and I woke Nate up at around 4 and couldn't go back to sleep after that, poor guy!)

This is Jenna with my favorite doll when I was little (named Mayonnaise, I don't know why because I don't even like Mayonnaise, but I remember thinking it was the prettiest name! My other favorite doll was named Silverware and I took those two dolls everywhere!!)

We always play tennis on Christmas day. We had the perfect number to play with the girls on one court and the guys on one court. It was so much fun! We were laughing and joking the whole time while the guys were much more focused and serious! (:

We had a big dinner at Brooke's house and played minute to win it games!

It was such a fun Christmas and so nice to be there with everyone and to be with Nate this Christmas! I love the Christmas season, it is so wonderful to be with family and to be able to think of Christ, his birth, and to be thankful for all He has done for us. My favorite part of Christmas is always on Christmas Eve when we do our nativity program and sing Christmas hymns. I am so thankful for my wonderful family and so thankful for Christ.

For New Years, we went to San Diego to be with Nate's family. It felt so nice to be back in San Diego. It was so sunny and warm and soooo nice to be so close to the ocean again! I got spoiled living in Hawaii for so long and then San Diego, now I miss the ocean so much whenever I'm not close to it! In Vancouver, we are about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from the coast so we still go, but I miss seeing the waves every day. It felt a little strange being back there and being married because it is the spot that we met and dated so it felt like we were back to our dating days again (:

Nate's family is so nice and they had a little second Christmas with us. We had a big breakfast with ham, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and hot chocolate and then opened presents around the Christmas tree. It was so much fun and they gave us the sweetest gifts. We spent the rest of our time there relaxing, watching movies, going on runs and bike rides around the lake, going to the beach, surfing, eating mexican food, in'n'out, and con pane, taking family pictures, going on a beach and cinepolis movie date, going to the park and dinner with the most awesome family that I nannied for, and visiting with family. We felt so lucky to have such a long break and be able to see both of our families!!!

Surfing in Encinitas!

Walking to the lake

Looking at the lights on Christmas Card Lane (something we did when we were dating!)

Date at Cinepolis, a theatre where you have huge, fully reclining chairs, and can order really good food and drinks. The family I nannied for gave us a gift card there and it was sooo much fun! We got lots of food and dessert and saw "Saving Mr. Banks".

At the park with Kristine and Matthew! They are the cutest kids and looove Nate!! It was so fun taking them to the park. They wanted us to go down the slide with them the whole time and kept laughing sooo hard when we would come down! I forgot to get a picture at dinner with Steve and Clare though!!

We took some family pictures in La Jolla (I need to get some of the ones with everyone in them!) and stopped to see the seals!!