To: Dad

Love: Ninnie Marie

One Christmas, when I was probably 6 or 7, I realized I hadn't gotten my dad anything for Christmas. I went into his closet, and found something I thought he would really want. A wooden shoe shining kit. I was so excited to give him that gift, and died of excitement when he opened it. Because the reaction was so great, I gave it to him again next year. And the next year, and the next...

Now, it's pretty much become a tradition. I've tried different things over the years, to camouflage it's identity.

A huge box filled with rocks and the shoe shining kit, etc. This year, to cover up the distinguishing legs, I taped flip flops to the bottom, you know, to make it flat.

I don't have pictures of the top, but to camouflage the slanted shoe shelf, I taped a glue stick at the end for height, and then taped a Cinnamon Toast Crunch snack bar across the top and the glue stick for flatness.

It was a brilliant job; dad had no idea by the exterior.

Also, I wore my favorite Christmas sweater, complete with bells. I love this sweater. I wore it every day pretty much since I stole it... uh, borrowed it... from my grandma's closet.

Love,

Brittney

Merry Christmas!

Things that made this Christmas great:

• The music and lights and snow (obviously prior to Saudi...)
• The parties and jolly mood.
• Christmas sweaters. Especially my favorite one, stolen from Grandma. There are no words for this particular sweater. Lets just say - it has bells. Honest.
• Having a bunch of Christmas' with friends and family, and their super wonderful gifts.
• Taylor had his Christmas presents shipped to me to take home for the family. Their contents were the highlight of, almost, my life. Which may at first sound a little sad - but seriously, they were awesome. Lets jut say they came from a company called something akin to: Adultswhostillwishtheywerekids.com

*   1 Leg lamp - just like in a Christmas Story

*   1 A puzzle alarm clock. Looks like a child's toy.

*   1 T-Shirt that has a digital display of the time across the chest.

*   1 A picnic bench condiments set

*   1 A sarcasm ball. Like a fortune ball, but it says mean things. Like: Yeah right you pathetic loser. Dream on.

*   1 A green bag that says, I use this environment friendly bag because my wife makes me

*   1 little plastic green finger puppet monster with a packing peanut carefully twisted and shoved in his toothy mouth. This particular item was NOT listed on the packing slip. My theory - someone was playing with this item, or it was on their desk, or SOMETHING, and somehow it found its way into our box. The whole how behind its mysterious existence makes me smile. Someone obviously took time to get that packing peanut in its mouth - which I highly doubt was intended for us. Especially since we didn't pay for it. 

• Getting to come home for Christmas.
• The way our home is decorated, all the familiar ornaments and decorations and the tree.
• Getting Christmas jammies, like every year. And getting matching ones with Bobbie.
• Watching Christmas movies, especially White Christmas. Which I found, even though Bob and Camree hid it from me. Haha, better luck next time ladies.
• Christmas Eve dinner - namely brisket and green bean casserole.
• Sleeping in one room, all of us kids together.
• Waking up to Bobbie jumping on me, yelling, "IT'S CHRISTMAS, NINNIE! IT'S CHRISTMAS!"
• Sitting in the hallways, staggered, like every year.
• Bobbie's plan to not go into the living room last this year. Her plan - we draw numbers out of a hat. Taylor drew 1, I drew 2, Mikail drew 3, and Camree drew - Duplicate. Which means she gets to go in with whoever she chooses. Naturally, she decided to duplicate Taylor. So what, you may ask did Bob draw? 5. Skipped 4 and went right to 5. Foiled by her own plan. What a special Christmas surprise.
• Walking in and seeing a brand new Mac Book Pro - 15" sitting on my pile of goodies. I had no idea! No seriously, I had no idea.
• All of my other goodies: boots, jewelry, clothes, movies, my leg lamp.
• Giving dad his shoe shining kit for the 20th time. And the way he totally had no idea what it was. And camouflaging it beforehand. 
• Having 7-layer dip
• Getting to go to Church and see all those people who I dearly love. Most everyone was gone, but I did get to see the Waites and Sis. Conner. I love seeing people I've known for forever. 
• The Christmas program. Getting to sing all those Christmas songs, and hear the Christmas story. It was a wonderful experience, on Christmas, to actually go and sing all the songs.
• Getting to snuggle with Bobbie the whole time. I miss sitting next to her at Church, and having her cuddle with me. So nice. 
• Getting a super awesome call from Becki and Jenni and Andrew. Best cousins in the history of the world. I swear.
• Sitting here alone, at midnight on Christmas, in my new comfy PJ's, in our cluttered messy living room. Filled with all the goodies of the day, and the tree and ornaments. At home. Typing on my new laptop, with the blue keyboard protecter. 

Love,

Brittney

I must have been super good this year...

I got quite a few Christmas' this year, lucky me. I'll just highlight some main gifts from some of the Christmas celebrations.

Gift #1

The first one was with Becki, since she couldn't wait to give me her gift. Although, I already knew what I was getting. She'd been telling me for months. She hates my wallet. She says it is "an insult to women everywhere."

I agree. It is old, grimy and falling apart. You know when people say, "I really need..... " and you think, no, you really don't. Well, I really did need a new wallet. It was falling apart so much that my cards would fall out. You know, my ID cards, debit cards, etc... and I'd have to retrace my steps and there the card would be, on the ground... Yet as bad as I needed a new wallet, I couldn't spend money on one. I either wanted to put the money towards a new car, or spend it on something I really WANT, not NEED, like new boots.

Here are some pictures of my old wallet... Can you see the grime? Gross, I know. Yeah, and it would barely shut and was lop sided.

I just want to say, that I've had this wallet for YEARS. I can barely remember a time before this wallet. And, also to clarify - it was NOT an insult to all women everywhere when I bought it. Also - it was a lovely shade of blue.

This is how Becki felt about this wallet... and our time spent looking for things that had fallen out of it.

This is the brand-spankin-new Christmas wallet Becki gave me.

Is it too obvious to just say that I love it? It is also a lovely shade of blue. But without the grime or fading spots. It holds much more stuff, while being waaaay skinnier. It also holds my keys and my cell phone, hence my pockets are much less bumpy these days. Also, notice the detail? So elegant. And it matches my beautiful new blue coat. I love Blue.

This is exactly how Becki feels about this new wallet of mine. Thanks, Bex, I LOVE IT!

Gift # 2

This gift was bestowed on me by my loving grandparents. I eagerly opened the box they presented me and found...

A LEOPARD PRINT SNUGGIE

I kid you not. You thought a Snuggie would be awesome enough, right? But a leopard print Snuggie? There are no words. Here is the box, folks. Just like advertised.

I felt the lady in the commercial did not show the proper enthusiasm such a purchase requires. I'm thinking of signing a contract to model for Snuggie.

I felt a little like Moses. Or Bam-Bam.

Gift #3

A 15 inch MacBook Pro! YEAH!!! Best present ever! And this may be lame - but my favorite part about it so far - it has 8 hours of battery. Yes, that's right. 8 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE.

I seriously got the cutest gifts ever. I would take pictures of each one, but that would be a little extensive. So these three highlights will have to suffice. So much thanks to my wonderful friends and family!

Love,

Brittney