Our Christmas Vacation

We've had a GREAT two weeks! We have been playing like crazy and are now quite exhausted! Here's how our Christmas vacation went:

It was the waiting game before we left the Wednesday morning before Christmas. I had been nervously watching the weather and luckily the roads were open when we left. They were a little rough but not too bad. We left in the right window of time because shortly after we made it through, they closed the freeway because of a jack-knifed semi and the winds picked up. All of my siblings were planning to come Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. A couple of them were already there when we got there. Christmas Eve night, the winds blew 50 miles per hour!

Christmas came early. My mom stuck her head in and woke up my girls at 6:30 AM even though I thought we had "agreed" on 7:00 or 7:30 when they would wake up on their own. She was just too excited to let us sleep in. It was a fun morning. It was very evident that there are a bunch of girls at our house. My girls' Christmas consisted of princess dress-ups, magic wands, play make-up, Sunday dresses, Princess movies (like Sleeping Beauty and Swan Princess), tea sets, hairbows, and chocolate! Here are some pictures of said princesses:

Elena with her wand and princess dress. Love the Grinch slippers, Mom!
My little Princesses

Becca and some of their haul in the background. They love the "treasure chest" that the princess dress-ups came in

After getting home: The princesses watching Sleeping Beauty and eating chocolate.

Jason and I's Christmas was really cool too. I got him an MP3 player (finally! I've been shopping for one for about a year!) and a video game that you plug into your TV. It's like a knock-off Wii, but it's fun to box, bowl, golf, play tennis, and baseball. I plan to make it part of my workout routine. Jason surprised me with a sewing machine! I had NO idea because every time I mentioned one throughout the year, he basically said, "Yeah, right!" So, I put it on my wishlist, but did not expect to get one and I did. I was really surprised and I wish someone had a camera to catch the look on my face. Now I need a project to work on because I've always wanted to develop my sewing talent. I'll keep you posted on that.

Mckenzie and her cousin Kade. They are a month and a half apart and you could almost call them brother and sister since they look somewhat similar.

Meanwhile, my brothers were snowed in in Utah and were supposed to come Thursday afternoon, but couldn't get to my parent's house until Saturday. Our original plan was to leave Saturday but decided to stay until Sunday. Elena was disappointed on Friday morning when her cousins still hadn't shown up yet. Besides, I had told her we would 1)go to Grandma's, 2)have Christmas, and 3)play with ALL our cousins. We had done the first two, so where were her cousins?!?! Once they all got there, we had a ton of fun sledding down hills, going to the Telford party (another family we grew up with), eating lots of food, staying up late, telling stories, watching movies, playing Dominoes, and Jason and my dad fixing our van so we had heat.

Sunday morning dawned to a big snowstorm. We ventured the half an hour drive to church anyway. When we got home, we checked the road report to find that the roads were closed and we were snowed in for another day. Quite frankly, I was glad because I didn't want to leave the party yet. Jason was a sweetheart and lived through it. I took advantage of the time stuck there and finished my brother-in-law's wedding video using my mom's great computer program (it turned out awesome, by the way!) We left my parents on Monday about 11:00 am and had great roads the whole way home.

Elena and Becca applying their new make-up

Elena and her new tea set (we've already had several fights over this gift)

We were home about 24 hours before we loaded up the van again and headed to Jason's parent's house in Montpelier for New Years. The roads were dry the whole way down. We had a good time staying up way too late three nights in a row, eating way too much food, and watching way too much football. Oh yeah, and there was some Risk playing in there too. All of Jason's brothers and sisters were there. So we were fortunate enough to get to see ALL of our immediate family (except my brother who is on his mission but we got to talk to him on the phone) this trip.

Mckenzie sporting Jason's new Gators hat from Daniel

Elena sliding down the mattresses at Grandma's house (Yes, Grandma actually encouraged this behavior!)

Likewise, Becca. Sure looks like a ton of fun. Unfortunately, I had a pounding headache and didn't join in the sliding. I merely supervised.

By the time Friday afternoon came, we were all exhausted from our vacation and ready to come home. We had some horrible slushy road conditions for the first half of the trip but made it home safe and sound.

Becca crashed at Grandma's house

So, we had a great two weeks that went faster than two weeks ever has. Jason goes back to school on Monday and I return to laundry and housework. Oh yeah, and refereeing the brawls over the new toys. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are already working on those New Year resolutions!