Merry Christmas, everyone! Yes, that was a few days ago, I know. I can't believe that Austin and I have been married five months! It seems both like we just got married and that we've been together for a long time. We have so much fun together-I love it.
Right now we are in the land of Katy, Texas, where Austin's family lives. They actually lived here for several years, then moved to Oklahoma (at the same time as my family, actually) and moved back to Katy just this summer. We were here for a week right before school starts, and let me say, the temperatures are much better in December. While everyone else is having blizzards, we barely need jackets.
I am having a lot of fun with the Miller family during this holiday break. We have watched a lot of movies together in the media room, played video games and board games, gone shopping, and had lots of fun. Right when we got into town, we went to Cici's Pizza. Austin's family has been eating there for every Saturday for more than ten years; it has a lot of meaning for them. My favorite pizza there is the one the family special orders-alfredo with pepperoni and pineapple. It sounds gross, but it is really really good. It is fun to be included in this family tradition of eating too much pizza and then looking at all the video games there.
After that was my new brother Darrik's birthday. We got him a book on Zombies (brothers are so fun). Can you guess what his other presents were?
Christmas week a lot of the other family members went shopping, though Austin and I had already gotten our presents for everyone so we spent a lot of time at home. With original mario and DDR, anime, no school and lots of yummy food here, I can't say that I minded at all.
One of the Miller family traditions (aside from watching tons of Christmas movies) is filming the opening of Christmas presents that morning, and also watching the highlights of all the previous' years' videos on Christmas eve. It is really funny watching the four miller boys opening presents each year, and watching them grow up. Austin asked what is was like for Christmas morning with girls, and I said it was basically the same but with less bodily function humor and more Barbies.
On Christmas, Santa gave me a sweet new laptop, which I am writing this blog post on. This was way nice as my old computer died at the beginning of last semester, and while I was using an old computer of the Millers, it is nice to actually be able to open documents from my professors (and have a bigger screen for watching Rurouni Kenshin). It was a very fun and enjoyable. Growing up, my family drove around a lot on Christmas (visiting three different families) and even though I loved it and miss my extended family, having a slower pace is rather fun.
For the last few weeks I have been working like crazy to finish Austin's surprise Christmas gift-BYU recently acquired a machine that prints and binds your own books, so I compiled all of mine and Austin's emails, all the way from freshman year until right before we got married. We emailed a lot, so it took a lot of time, but it was worth it. I hope we will enjoy reading it for many years to come.
My birthday is tomorrow, and Austin has some kind of surprise for me. I can't wait to find out what it is!!! 
This is me wearing my new flannel shirt from Austin (yes, I really wanted a flannel shirt for Christmas) and my new headband from accessories shopping with my mother-in-law and Rachel. I know they don't exactly go together, but I love them both. Austin is just there to look cute :)
Everyone has trials, but my life is better for this wonderful person that I am married to. I am excited for this new year to share with him!
-Katie
For those of you who have been to BYU, this is Austin's interpretation of the Karl G. Maeser statue :)
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