A month of discoveries....

Well, we started off the month discovering something so fun, you just can't help but touch it

EVERY TIME you see the open door:

The infamous toilet paper roll.

Chris and I then discovered that we may be a doctor and doctors wife, but we have NO IDEA how to dress and act like one. We were invited to the surgery holiday party and we knew as soon as we saw people getting out of their cars dressed in suits and short/sequenced dresses that our nice jeans and sweaters were NOT going to cut it for the proper attire. We went inside the country club to discuss our options and decided to high tail it out of there. Just as we were turning to leave, we ran into one of the attending physicians that Chris works with. After discussing with he and his wife how embarrassed we were for how we were dressed, the woman replied, "oh well, you live and learn".

We had plenty of time to mull that comment over as we stood at a table sipping our sprites for the entire cocktail hour.

At least we got a fancy dinner and ornament out of it.

We also discovered that a stay-cation is awesome! Chris had the week off and were were able to just hang out. I am pretty sure Samantha was more sad to see him go back to work than I was. They were such little pals all week long. We hiked at Sabino Canyon, went to the zoo, and went up to Mesa to go to the Temple. We found out that there was a hotel in Phoenix that was displaying Who-Ville.

Soon after coming home, we were inspired to do some building of our own. Chris had started drawing out gingerbread templates like a week before until I dashed his dreams and told him we were going to use one I found online. We baked some real gingerbread the night before and had a hard time getting it un-stuck from the counter after rolling it out which resulted in many pieces that were not the same size as the wall it countered.

It wasn't until we began assembling the houses that we discovered that you need to have exact dimensions and that your roof should not weigh more than the house. We knew things were not looking good when the blow dryer came out and we were threatening to use a glue gun.

This was taken moments before the entire thing came crashing down.

Dave and Megan had a great strategy in the beginning, and I thought for sure theirs would pull though, but soon enough theirs came crumbling down too. Hopefully next time goes more smoothly.

Most families have a tradition of fancy dinners on Christmas Eve, I grew up roasting hot dogs in my grandparents fireplace. In honor of that tradition, we decided to use one of our Christmas presents early, a fire pit. We grilled some burgers and then roasted marshmallows, made smores and listened to Christmas music under the stars.

Samantha discovered that the glow of a fire is memorizing....

She also discovered that Ute pjs bottoms are awesome. She looks like she is crying but it was just a super sized smile going on here!

Thanks to my mom, we discovered that snow from a can is the way to go. No shoveling or salting, just pure snowmen building fun.

Our final discovery came during bath time

Now isn't that a great way to end Christmas Day?!