Christmas Adventures

How was your Christmas? Ours was jam packed and so much fun!!

On Christmas Eve we did our traditional get together with Mom's side of the family where we all meet up at Grandma's for dinner. All of Mom's sisters were there and a small handful of cousins were able to make it, too. We ate and exchanged presents and had a good time.

My favorite part of the party happened towards the end. As everyone was getting ready to leave, my Aunt Judy wanted to round up all the sisters to be in a picture together, but as we tried to find Aunt Etau someone told us she was in the bathroom. A bit of history about this particular bathroom is that it has some random window thing right above the toilet and the door of the window can be opened from a connecting closet behind the bathroom. It's definitely good prank material, so I went over to Judy and jokingly reminded her of it and said that it would be funny just to have Etau peek through the window for the picture. I now know where I got my love of pranking! As soon as Judy heard that she started laughing and took off at high speed to the closet behind the bathroom. She stepped into the closet and shoved the window open. It scared Etau who had just finished up in there, but she was laughing as she said, "I was just looking at that thing wondering what it was even used for, and then it came flying open!" 

We were all watching as this happened and it gave everyone a good laugh!

 "Grandma and the Girls"

                                                               Us with a couple cousins

On Christmas day we drove to Jerome in the afternoon where we got to spend time with Dad's side of the family. By the time we got there, most of the party was over, but we got to exchange gifts with the people who's names we'd drawn.
  The next morning was when the real adventure was starting. Grandma and Grandpa decided that as part of their Christmas presents to the family, that we would take a day trip to Salt Lake. It was a blast!! We haven't had a family road trip for a long time. David and I rode with our cousin, Ben (how crazy- he's been home from his mission for a whole year now) and had a fun drive.
  Eventually everyone made it to our first stop - Hogle Zoo. I know, a zoo in the winter? It was cold, but we had a good time. There were about 40 of us that went on the trip, so you could say we were our own little zoo everywhere we went. But don't worry, no animals were harmed and no small children turned up missing, so I'd say it was a success for that reason alone. :)

This was the sunrise at the Farm the morning we left for Salt Lake - with a start to the day like that, how could it not be good?

 Once everyone got to the zoo we gathered around and had pizza before going in. Nothing like warm pizza on a cold day!

Three Amigos - Heather, Becky, and Tiana

 The little cousins had fun just running around the parking lot and throwing snowballs at anyone they could actually manage to hit. There was barely even enough snow on the ground to make snowballs, but where there's a will there's a way!                                                            

 

Baby Lincoln's first trip to the zoo seemed to be a success. I got to carry him around for part of the time and it was so much fun (not to mention the fact that he added a bit more warmth)!

 After we got done at the zoo, we went across the street to Heritage Park, the "This is the Place" monument. They were doing their CandleLight Christmas and we got to go check it out. It started out with a train ride through part of the pioneer village, which was all decorated for Christmas.

       

More cousins!

 Look! An amazing Utah sunset to bookend the amazing Jerome sunrise!

 We all piled off of the train and headed into the Huntsman Hotel where we had some tasty soup for dinner. We filled the whole hall with our family and it was so much fun to look around and see cousins, uncles, aunts, and my grandparents at all the tables.

  It was the perfect little Christmas village and I loved having so many of us all there together!

                   Where's Waldo? :) Ok, so we don't have a Waldo - but we have just about everyone else!

 After dinner we all broke off into little groups and went around to explore the pioneer town. Some of the different buildings and houses had little pioneer Christmas activites to do or see. The first stop that a few of us made was in the dance hall. All the family got paired up with each other, so I stepped out since it was an odd number. I was fine to watch and take pictures, but at the last minute someone pulled me into the line and had me dance with some random, little teenage boy from another group. My family was all laughing at me, and the cherry on top was when my cousin's husband yelled out, "And yes, she's single!" Awkward!! :)

 There's Benny Boy and his girlfriend, Kim. We all met her for the first time and she was super fun.

 The very last part of the trip, and the part I was looking forward to the most, was going to Temple Square! I've been wanting to go there forever since the last time I was there was when I was probably 3 years old. It did not disappoint. No matter where you look there are lights everywhere, and it has nativities all over the place. Despite the fact that it was freezing outside, it was so awesome just to be able to walk around and take it all in.

 Me, David, Ben, and Kim hanging around Temple Square.

 Here are the masterminds of the trip. Grandma and Grandpa were so awesome for planning this whole trip (among other reasons)! They got sealed in the Salt Lake temple 51 years ago, and I bet they never imagined they'd be back someday with such a big family - or maybe they did. :)

  And here we all are! Halfway frozen, but glad to get to be there together.

It was time to head home to Jerome after that. David and I rode with Ben and we were joined by his mom, Lisa. We drove Kim back to where she'd left her car at the beginning of the day, then it was time to go - but not before we made a 10:00 stop at Carl's Jr. Once we got on the road, I'll admit, I didn't stay awake for long. In fact, Aunt Lisa was the superstar and drove us all back to the Farm where we rolled in at 1:30 in the morning.

  It was totally worth it! That was the best way to spend Christmas and be with our family!!