Christmas and Family Fun!

Miguel and I just got back from California for a fun-filled Christmas vacation!

The week started out with my parents driving here to Phoenix, surprising me by bringing my little brother Pablo and his puppy Mitch. I can't even say how excited we were to see him. The dogs got along really well, although there were some problems with Ava getting jealous of Mitch and Austin playing so much. The cats pretty much stayed in our room the entire time to stay out of Mitch's way. Basically, we ate, drank, and played hours and hours of rockband. It was SO MUCH FUN!!

On Christmas Eve, Miguel and I left for the bay area around 6pm and got to California at 7. We went straight to my brother-in-law Fernando's house to spend time with Miguel's parents, Fernando, and his fiance Lauren. We had some FANTASTIC salsa and just spent some good time talking and drinking some beer and wine. After that we left to our cousin Perla's house to say hi to Tia Chuy and Crystal before they left for their Christmas in Paris!! When we got there they were watching the Twilight movie. Seeing as watching this movie will be a huge event for me (after reading all 4 books in only 4 days and becoming completely obsessed in the process) I refused to watch the movie until I was here at home with Amanda. We went back to Miguel's parents house and completely crashed until 11 the next day. We spent the next couple of days celebrating the holidays Chavez style with the cousins and the rest of the family. We had a fantastic trip! For Christmas, Miguel's parents are going to give us our plane ticket to Europe for our graduation trip!!!! When we opened the envelope with the voucher we pretty much tackled Miguel's mom! We are so grateful for this help and are so excited for our trip to Europe! We plan on leaving May 18 and flying into Paris. After that, we will fly into Rome for a couple of days and then head up to Venice to board our cruise ship. On the cruise, we will visit Turkey, Croatia and Greece! We're hoping to fly out of Venice to return home May 31st. We couldn't be more excited for this trip!!! Lauren also gave me a nursing student's survival pack as my Christmas present. The pack contained chapstick (OF COURSE!) and a cute kitty cosmetic bag with a mirror. She also gave me the nurse's pro pack, an organizer that carries all of our various scissors, tape, alcohol wipes, safety pins, and my pin light. I couldn't be more excited to show off my gift at clinicals this semester!! Thanks Lauren!!

So now we're back in Scottsdale and Miguel is getting ready for work tomorrow. My in-laws and Tia Sandi and cousins are going to be coming here to Phoenix for the next week, so it will be another fun week of family time. Hopefully we can go see the zoo lights and other fun stuff around the area. We plan on spending New Year's with one of my best friends Debora and friends. I don't feel that well, so I will also be trying to rest as much as I can and then finally get back into my Bikram yoga routine.

Miguel and I are also getting really excited about the fact that we're coming up on our 2 year wedding anniversary on February 10. We will have been together for 4 years. Time flies when you're having so much fun being married and in love!

More posts to come now that I have time off from school!