Christmas 2009

Alright I'd better get this post up before I can't remember what we did for Christmas this year; which, given my deteriorating mental state, is likely to happen sooner than rather than later. I don't know what it is about being a mom or getting older or maybe it's just me, but it seems like these days I can have a thought in my head about something I need to do, walk into a room to do it and then end up stading there, compltely blank, trying to remember why I am in there. So, anyways, on to Christmas. We traveled to the land of snow and cold, otherwise known as Utah County, for Christmas this year. After frantically wrapping all the presents and getting last minute stocking stuffers we loaded (and I mean loaded!) up our trusty Kia and headed up to the in-laws for a 4 day Christmas vacation. We love to visit family for the holidays, and I really love to go up to the snow for Christmas but I made a vow that this would be the last year we would travel for Christmas. It's just too much to get all those presents and clothes, snow gear, etc. packed up for a trip. I think instead we will try to do Christmas at home and then travel for either the days leading up to Christmas or the days following Christmas. I honestly don't think my kids have ever had a Christmas at home. Moving on, as soon as we arrived at Kade's parents house we could feel the Christmas spirit. Yummy smells of delicious food, grankids running everywhere, beautiful Christmas decorations, and of course, mounds of snow outside. I decided at that moment it would be perfectly fine with me in we just stayed inside their warm and cozy house for the duration of the weekend. But, of course, we ventured out into the snow. On Christmas eve we took all the grandkids up hobble creek canyon for some sledding which was sooo cold but also lots of fun. Kellin had a great time with his cousins and Ethan, well Ethan and I mostly enjoyed the warm fire they had going. Afterwards, we headed home for hot chocolate and lunch, which of course, at the Mathews' house is always fantastically delicious, as is every meal. Christmas eve night we had a yummy dinner, followed by roasting marshmallows in the backyard fire pit and smores! We opened a few presents with the kids, including the traditional pajamas that they get every year on Christmas eve of course.
On Christmas morning the boys came down stairs to their Santa gifts which included a Nintendo DS Lite for Kellin and a scooter, among other things, for Ethan. It was a crazy Christmas morning with bows, ribbon and wrapping paper flying everywhere. The boys had a great time although Kellin had to learn the lesson that when you ask for an expensive gift like a DS, there's not a lot of other gifts to open. Tough lesson, but I think we all learned that at some point in our lives, after all, Santa has a budget too!! We lazily spent the day playing with toys, the Wii, eating lots more yummy food, and napping. Kellin played the DS almost nonstop the entire day and Ethan, of all the toys he got, loved a Handy Manny flashlight he got from my brother. We had a delicious Christmas dinner, literally eating ourselves through the night.
By Saturday, I was finally ready to leave the comfy, cozy house and do something. So we headed over to the Wilk for some family bowling fun! The boys had a great time with the pops & g-ma and actually bowled some pretty decent scores. Then it was over to the mall for some lunch and shopping. Later that night we were invited over to our good friends the Fell's for a traditional Boxing Day dinner. Boxing day is an English holiday that we have been so blessed to have gotten to share with the Fell's a few times. They cooked a fabulous meal of turkey, potatoes and veggies and an incredibly decadent chocolate dessert that I literally could have bathed in! Seriously, it was sinful to eat but oh so good! Kellin and Ethan had a great time playing with their two daughters, Addy & Lauren, while we caught up with our friends.
It was a great Christmas weekend and we really feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. From Kade's family to our wonderful friends, we really couldn't enjoy our visit more.