Christmas Day 2010

On Christmas day everyone goes over to the Barnett's house for a delicious breakfast. When we were done eating, my brothers brought in my mom's gift. It was so fun to see her surprise when she opened her eyes. It wasn't hard to guess it was a giant TV. Jon tried to tell her she guessed wrong and that it was a giant calculator, but she didn't believe him.

The grand kids helped her open her present.
Todd was happy about his present...a Bose surround sound system for his upstairs TV
I don't usually get to surprise him, but I did this time.

Meg was lucky enough to get a London sweatshirt from Stephen's recent travels.

We went over to the cemetery in the afternoon. It's so hard to believe he's gone. I miss him everyday. Merry Christmas Dad, we love you!

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve has always been a big event at my mom and dad's house. It is the night that everyone comes together for a big ham dinner, games, playing chimes, acting out the nativity story, finding the almond in the rice pudding, singing carols and unwrapping presents. We had so many traditions growing up and I'm so grateful that my parents continued them through the years to share with the grand kids. Living out of town has meant we have spent most of our Christmases without extended family. It was bittersweet to be in Utah this year. We were so happy to share the holidays with my family but everyone felt the emptiness of my dad's absence. My mom did an amazing job of giving us a wonderful Christmas, even through all her pain.

Poor Spencer was healing from a shovel to the face, an accident he had with some of his cousins.
It was amazing that Cooper could sleep through the party...the noise level was extremely high.

Spencer and Mikey were cast as "wise men" I am not sure why Mikey was wearing his head band across his nose, but it made us laugh.

While my dad was growing up, he received a popcorn ball and an orange as Christmas gifts from his grandpa. Years ago my parents started the same tradition and it was fun to help make the popcorn balls this year.

Lily played a part that was basically her reality...a perfect little "angel."

Aaron was an enthusiastic "Joseph"
Brittany was "Mary" and Tyler was a perfect baby "Jesus."

Sterling was a shepherd...I think that was a sheep he was holding.

I love this picture! Uncle Mark-David keeps us laughing.

I got my favorite gifts on Christmas Eve, my mom had my dad's shirts made into pillows for all of us. These shirts were so familiar to us and we could remember him wearing them through the years. It was such a thoughtful and meaningful gift. She also made us each a book of photographs of him from when he was a little boy through early adulthood. We shed a lot of tears that night, we will always cherish our gifts from mom that year.

A little game that Stephen likes to play with Tyler. For a six month old baby, Tyler has some mad balancing skills.

Tyler doing what he does best...being adorable!

The new P.J.'s

A Night of Lights

The week of Christmas, we decided to do a little "sight seeing." We started off at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake. My mom, Brooke, Stephen, Jon, Meg and their kids went with us. The hotel was beautiful and we went on a scavenger hunt to see all the decorated windows. We were sad that Stephen and Brooke ditched us after the hotel, but once we got to Temple Square, we realized, they were very smart.

We decided to see the lights at Temple Square on the Monday night before Christmas. I can't remember who's "brilliant idea" this was...probably mine. It was completely packed. I couldn't believe how many people were there. There was not a single reasonable place to park. Jon and Todd dropped us off at the front gate and then parked about a mile away. The visitor's center was so full of people, that there was a slow moving line to walk up to see the Christus. We went outside to see the lights and stayed fairly warm the whole night, thanks to all the people packed so closely together.

The little boys got tired soon and the big boys got to carry them for the rest of the night.

One Snow Day

Yes, we had one snow day on our trip to Utah. We were so excited to go sledding...so sad that didn't happen. I am quite certain it didn't have anything to do with us being there, but this year, Utah didn't have a white Christmas. The day after we got there, Aaron did have the resources to make one snow man, and a very fine one at that.

Our Singing Son

We have loved watching Aaron perform this year with the Madrigals and Concert Choir. We love to hear him singing in the shower and hope he continues to develop his voice talent. We also think he looks really handsome in his tux.

A day with Wendy

Wendy came to visit me for a day while her husband was in work meetings. This was her second annual "day visit" and she takes me to Paris for lunch each time. Yes, we have a huge amount of fun eating our food. We went while they were still serving breakfast but ate slow enough to get the lunch food too. We always love the giant crepes, but can never eat the whole thing. We went and saw the consevatory at the Bellagio and then spent the rest of our time shopping. We had a great day and I always hate when our visits come to an end.

Now that's a case of the hives

The Friday I took Ariel back to Cedar, Aaron started an anti-biotic called Cefdinir. Unfortunately, we didn't know he was seriously allergic to that medicine until he broke out in the worst case of hives I had ever seen. Since I was out of town, Todd sent me a picture of some of the hives on his stomach. It looked so bad that I immediately called the doctor and set up a second doctor appointment that afternoon. They had to started him on oral steroids and benadryl. He ended up taking the steroids for 8 days. They told us the hives could last up to two weeks. Luckily they only lasted for three days...but they were very intense. When I came home on Saturday night, he looked terrible, he was covered. They were in his hair, eyebrows, everywhere. I was so freaked out looking at the hives, Aaron was trying to calm ME down. I felt very bad for him, but he was a brave little trooper. The pharmacist said, in the future we should avoid the whole cephalsporin family. Occasionally, I get a single hive on my neck when I am stressed. That one little hive can drive me crazy, I can't imagine a whole body of them. Miserable!

Thanksgiving Week 2010

We were very blessed this Thanksgiving to be together as a family. At first, we thought we were going to be apart. Ariel got a new job in Cedar and they had her working the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Friday after. That wasn't going to be much of a Thanksgiving to spend it driving to Cedar and back. Since Todd was on call, we couldn't all go up to Cedar, so Megan and I were going to go and be with Ariel and the boys were going to stay home. I felt pretty bad about this arrangement and was so happy when Ariel got her Wednesday shift covered and was able to come home Tuesday.

Wednesday we got the tree set up and decorated (I swear every year I am going to throw this tree away, it is a Christmas light nightmare) Some of the pre-lit strands wouldn't light up and I couldn't figure out how to make them work. After hours and hours and hours of frustration, I gave up and threw some strands of lights from the garage on all the dark places of the tree. I was so glad that Ariel was here to decorate everything with us, even though it meant we had to put the tree up before Thanksgiving, which should be illegal.

Thanksgiving day we relaxed and watched the parade as we made our dinner. I love the turkey dinner, I don't know why we don't make it more throughout the year...I guess that is what makes Thanksgiving dinner so special. After we stuffed ourselves and let it digest for awhile, we went over to our friends house, the Parry's. There we were able to visit with lots of good Parry friends and eat delicious desserts. We have so many blessings to be thankful for.

On Friday around noon, Ariel and I left for Cedar. She had to be to work by five. I was going to just drop her off and turn around and come back home, but she pleaded and pleaded with me to stay the night and go home the next afternoon. Even though I didn't bring a single over night item, I agreed to stay. I was so glad I did, we had a great time. Her apartment complex was abandoned and I would have felt really bad to leave her there so alone. While she worked her shift, I just relaxed and read. When she got off work, we went to dinner. We watched a movie and went to bed after one. Yes, I was acting a little bit like a college student. I stayed awake for the whole movie, Ariel didn't.

On Saturday, we went to lunch and then tried to go see a movie in the theater, but everyone in Cedar wanted to see the same movie, so we couldn't go. We went and got a yogurt and then went back to her apartment and I taught her a new card game my mom had showed me when I was visiting her. We had a lot of fun playing together and I was sad when it was time for me to leave. I am thankful for such great kids and for college sleepovers.