Holiday Happenings

We hope your holidays were fun and safe. We had a great holiday season filled with family and friends.

The fun started a couple of weeks before Christmas when both Sophia and Max found out they had won prizes in the community coloring contest. Sophia received some pet shops from a local title company and Max got an awesome John Deere hoodie from Greenline.
Next on the list was Max's preschool fieldtrip. We went down to the Christmas Village in Ogden and had a personal tour by Mrs. Claus of all the cute displays.

Let's not forget the serious business of gingerbread houses the Saturday before Christmas. Building four houses and decorating four "yards" did a number on my Carpal Tunnel.

A couple days later, we were back in Ogden at the Christmas Village for Max's preschool concert. We joined with the Ogden preschool and the kids sang about 5 songs. It was a pain to travel so far for just a few songs, but I was asked to help lead the kids...which was nice to get up close. They did a cute job. Afterwards the kids and I grabbed some hot chocolate and enjoyed all the displays (much cuter at night) in the pouring rain.

The next evening was a quick Christmas piano recital for Kiarra and Zac. They both performed two Christmas songs they had worked very hard on. Great job, kids!

After the recital we got down to the business of Christmas cookies.

Finally, it was Christmas Eve. We headed over to Providence for the annual Christmas Eve party at my parents' house. I don't want to call Todd a baby hog...but he was. These two cuties belong to my nephews. Elizabeth and Ezra were born only days apart.

Santa and Mrs. Claus dropped in for a quick visit. Mrs. Claus read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and each kid got a turn on Santa's lap to put in one last request.Max and Joe bonded over dinner. After dinner, we read the scriptures and then exchanged presents. Zac found a fellow Lego enthusiast. He and Will were in their own world and started building right away.

Arriving home around 9:30, the kids went to work getting Santa's (and the reindeers') plate of goodies ready.

Christmas morning was almost perfect. The kids didn't get up until about 6:30 and following the rules...enjoyed their stockings until they got mom and dad out of bed at 7:00. Sadly though, Kiarra had started throwing up during the night and was still very sick. She managed to make it through opening all the gifts. She quickly disappeared after to soak in the tub and go back to bed. She slept for a couple hours... got up...then fell asleep on the couch. Poor girl. Luckily no one else got sick. I was worried we'd pass it around all through the holidays.

The next morning, we got up early...very early...and headed to Altamont to see Todd's parents. We managed to get there in time for church. After Sunday dinner we opened gifts and Max finally received "Cootie" from Grandpa and Grandma. Whew!

Watch out for these chefs on a mission!

We cut our trip a little shorter than planned so that we could stop by Grandpa and Grandma's condo in Park City to swim. They always have the condo during Christmas break...pretty pathetic that none of us ski. Oh well...we put the pool to good use. We then raced home to meet up with friends that were in Utah from Vegas. Thanks Drew and Melissa for taking time out of family plans to come see us.

We took a couple of days off to play, visit with friends and then clean up the house to party on New Year's Eve...and make more messes! We filled the house with friends and kids. Most of our guests were from out of town, so we had one huge slumber party. (No one had to hit the roads late.) We played games until 2:30 am.

We were very happy to have the Basheins back. They've been living in Kansas that last few years and recently moved back to Utah. Waymans were also here from Georgia.

The only one who didn't make it to midnight was baby Kaitlyn and Zac. Zac has a good reason though. The day before...while helping me...he tripped over the vaccum, landed bad on his wrist and broke it. Todd didn't a chance to look at it until Friday afternoon. So just hours before the party started, he received a custom cast from his dad. His wrist was hurting pretty bad... and he was just plain worn out.

Zac's a trooper though. He's still playing basketball and has promised to not use it as a weapon. Anyway...after New Year's Eve, Todd made a fabulous breakfast feast for the masses and then we continued to play games until 7:00 that evening.

This is why I need another vacation!