CHRISTMAS VACATION

I am finally getting caught up and wanted to share some of the 403 (yes that's right) pictures that I snapped over the holidays. We braved the airports with gifts and snow-clothes to boot to be with extended family out of state. Although it was a lot, o.k. A LOT of work to pull it off for everyone involved our kids had a Christmas and New Years to remember. And when it comes right down to it, at least at this point in my life that is what it is all about. We started our trip off with an Adults only morning at the Logan Temple and then my dad took us all out for breakfast. It was such a wonderful way to set the tone for our Christmas week and truly one of the highlights for Ryan and me. The kids had a great time back at Granny's with the two sitters aunt Angela hooked up for us. I swear I saw my mom slip them an extra 20 bucks on top of what Angela and I paid them so I'm sure we will have no problems securing child care for future "adults only" outings. It started snowing the second we touched down and it did not let up for much more than and hour or two the entire 10 days we were there! The boys were in snow heaven! Granny made sure there were plenty of super-speedy sleds and the kids played outside for hours at a time. So fun for them, but seriously that whole "getting on your snow gear" routine is about the most infuriating part of parenting EVER! Just as bad is the take it all off and find a place for every wet glove, hat, and sock to dry until we do it all over again in a couple of hours. Aside from minor details like that it was a fabulous week. The kids went to a Christmas movie, to see Santa (who was by far the most unbelievable Santa's helper ever, see photo:)) and visited Temple Square. The night we went to Temple Square we went over to Aunt Sues for hot choc. and cookies and had a really fun visit in her festive, cozy home. Amidst all the running around, wrapping, and socializing there was a major amount of cooking and eating going on. I know all of you who know mom at all, know that when I say major I mean MAJOR. We changed our usual routine this year and had an hor'derve and dessert night a couple of days before Christmas. It was a huge hit and I hope we do that again. I felt like I could enjoy so many more of moms dishes without being so over stuffed. On that night we got to visit with the Carnahans, but missed Uncle David and Marie due to the bad storm that was going on that day. It was great to catch up and reconnect with so much of our family. I wished we could do it more often. Christmas eve, was our usual singing, reading from the scriptures and our family added "The little Star" flannel board story that is a tradition from Ryan's side. We had a lovely meal and just really enjoyed being together and feeling blessed as we remembered why we were celebrating in the first place. The boys were amazed that Santa could find us at Grandpas and went to bed without any trouble once we assured them that Santa would LOVE Granny's pumpkin pie in place of cookies. (which he did!) We missed Uncle Andrew and his family but were thrilled when we were able to visit with them over the web-cam. That was really cool! We ended the week visiting our good friends in Centerville who surprised us with the new baby girl that they just adopted. It was great to see them and even more special to hear how this baby just came to them, literally being dropped off at their house. Our boys love their boys like brothers and were so thrilled to be able to hang out (cuz their way to cool to "play" now days) with them. Back home in the NW we were able to spend New Years with the other side of the family and meet one of our new nieces in person. It was a busy and full two days of playing games, celebrating, and catching up. We spent a fun night out with Ryan's siblings and their spouses where we went to dinner and went back to one of his sisters for a movie and cheesecake. So fun and yummy too. When it was all over we discussed how wonderful it was that we connected with almost every single family member on both sides of our families. It was then time to look forward to next years festivities and begin the detox that is January. Happy New Year!