giving back for christmas time

i have the two best friends ever :) a while ago, while looking for white elephant gifts for the girls party Alle and I came across these beauties...

so.... while i was doing my family stuff (details below) alle and sare went back and bought the abbey road mirror for me, and the pink floyd one for alle. they are pretty sweet.. on mine, wherever you can see the sky it is really a mirror and alle's is really cool because just the words and outline are mirrors. very awesome and i can't wait until we have them all hung up!

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something my dad has always taken pride in when it comes to christmas is my family participating in one, two, three, or maybe even more charity events. this year we decided to raid our entire house for old coats and blankets. i was pretty shocked to see how much we had. the entire floor in our living room was covered and they were bulging out of the back of my mom's aviator (which is by no means a small car). it was a good feeling to know that at least 50 people will now be a bit warmer for the holidays.

our next endeavor was arranged through my dad's work. along with the rest of his contract team we went to the utah food bank and picked up a ton of food. loaded it all in to the back of a few different SUVs and we were off to a low income apartment complex for the elderly. being there was so crazy... we delivered food for the holidays to over 4o different apartments. there was one lady, stella, who invited us in, sat us down and started crying about how much it means to her that we come and worry about someone like her without even knowing she existed. just seeing the joy on her face as she was going through the box and seeing different types of food was amazing. better than a little kid on christmas morning. i am very happy i got to be a part of it!

after we were done delivering we went to wander around gateway for a bit. my dad handed me his debit card and let me go crazy in buckle stocking my mom up with some pretty sweet new jeans, a few shirts, and some awesome shoes. she is one spoiled woman!

then off to dinner at buca di beppo. i am not a fan of italian food, call me crazy... but this dinner was really really good. all 20+ of us shared a bunch of different dishes and some desserts. my dad got a really cool award for outstanding achievement in the contracts division. pretty sweet, and way proud of him. he rocks.

the last stop of the night was to a christmas carol at hale center theater. up until this point my day was great! but as soon as we reached the theater i felt soooo sick so i ended up leaving at intermission. not to mention, i'm not a big fan of plays. i don't know why but i have never enjoyed them. if any of you have ever been there you must agree with me. the chairs are soooooo uncomfortable. i'm really short and i was still struggling to keep my knees comfortable without hitting the chair in front of me. i can only imagine someone of a normal size.

all in all this christmas has been great. i'm so thankful for anyone who can push us to go out of our way to help others. after all, that is what christmas is all about.