December Part 2--Christmas!

It was a big year for us in that we stayed home for Christmas! Our first time ever! We love going to family for Christmas, but it has gotten so cumbersome having to drag all the gifts and treats and everything wherever we go, and not even be able to use our own tree or anything! (Wow, what a first world problem!) So now that we're so much closer, we tried it out! It really was special and I liked it a lot. The sad thing is that Ashlyn came down with a fever on Christmas Eve afternoon, and was sick until about the 28th. She was still a pretty happy camper, but not her usual chipper self, and kind of out of it. Collin got sick right after she got better! Ugh! Germs! But we still had fun. It was really pretty nice to just stay at our own house. But I do have to say, it was a lot of WORK for me!!!! That was the biggest change! Who does all the cool Christmas stuff? MOM! That was all on me this year! So that was new. I'm used to just getting to chill and relax on Christmas Eve/Day since we've always been the visitors. But now everything fell to me, and it was just a lot! Still great though.

We had originally planned to make empanadas for Christmas eve dinner, and I'm SO glad that at the last minute I changed my mind and got Papa Murphy's!!! Totally worth it! We finally got to use our own Christmas dishes that we 've had for like 7 years and never pulled out of the boxes. Same with the table cloth and placemats. All fun special Christmas Eve things! We ate our yummy pizza and fresh pineapple by candlelight, which was so fun. Then that evening we read some new Christmas stories I had saved--The Grinch (which surprisingly, had Ashlyn riveted!), Berenstein Bears, and of course a kid version of the Nativity Story. Then we all watched Muppet Christmas Carol together. Again, sick kid was definitely out of it. But it was very cozy and fun. After she went to bed Collin and I watched a cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie, Santa came, and we went to bed!

Ash didn't get up until almost 9:00 the next morning, nice! But sad because by then not only did she have a fever but her nose was running non-stop. She was still SO excited to see all that Santa had left her in her stocking. (Santa just does stockings here. All other stuff, credit goes to Mom and Dad!) Mom and Dad had set up a new play tent for her for a big gift, which she was excited about. We all had a yummy breakfast casserole breakfast, and then opened presents! Ash wanted to stop and play with each new thing she opened, of course. Especially the Diego movie she got, we had a tough time convincing her to wait and watch it later. She got some new paints in her stocking, and she spent a good 30 minutes painting as soon as we got done opening gifts.

We were all sufficiently spoiled, that's for sure. I had a bunch of Collin's high school and college wrestling VHS's put onto DVDs, which was his big gift. He got me a new floor lamp for the living room (no more $12 Walmart lamp we've had for 9 years), yeah! And the new Taylor Swift CD was another favorite gift I got from him! Our parents spoiled us so much too. We're very blessed.

After we got done with presents, we kind of had to rush to get showered and finish packing and get on the road. It was an awesome snowy Christmas we woke up to, except not awesome in that we had to drive! It was pretty windy and snowy. We left at about 1:00 for Idaho Falls and it took us like an extra 45 minutes to get there due to having to drive pretty slow at a few times. Good thing we had 1989 (Taylor Swift!) to listen to the WHOLE WAY! (yep that's right! Lucky Collin.)

Again, poor sick girl. She was happy to snuggle with her new Rainbow Dash pony and watch her new Diego movie, but she used almost a whole box of kleenex just on the drive to IF! 

We made it to my parents' house in time to get to skype with missionary Jodee! She's in San Antonio TX, and comes home in April, woohoo! She looked so good and it was so fun to talk with her. Ashlyn loved it too.

We had a lot of fun staying in IF! My parents pulled a sort of "Christmas with the Kranks" and took off for a vacation in Phoenix just a couple of days after we got there! But our little family stuck around to keep Alex and Andrea amused until New Year's Eve, and we had some fun! Collin and Alex took Ashlyn sledding for her first time! I think she had an awesome time! 

We all went to a fun little Nativity and Santa display at the Idaho Falls museum the day after Christmas. This was the 2 seconds that Ashlyn "helped" push Lauren. I seem to remember that Lauren didn't feel she was moving fast enough and got cranky. Sorry, Ashlyn. Lauren's a little particular! :)

One of the highlights of the trip was that we made a trip to Kelly Canyon! woop! Collin, me, Andrea, and Alex went up for a half day. Last time I went was probably 5 or 6 years ago, when I wasn't nearly as good at snowboarding as I am now (I'm by no means very great now, but just to explain, I have come a long way from back then, I didn't catch on quick!!) so the runs were a lot more do-able and it was really fun! The bad thing was that it was about 5 degrees! Even my hand and foot warmers didn't keep me warm for too long. I gave in after a little over 3 hours of boarding, and the rest lasted about a half hour longer. It was really fun, and if it wasn't so cold I would have stayed out a lot longer! When we were pulling out of the canyon, the Explorer's thermometer said it was -2 degrees. Well then.

Aw!

Our snow crew!

Cory and Hayley were kind enough to watch Ashlyn for us while we went snowboarding! Hopefully she was well-behaved. There was lots of snow so I guess Cory took Ashlyn and Adalyn out to sled and play in it....but apparently it was too fluffy to sled on, plus FREEZING outside so they didn't last long. But the pictures are CUTE!

AW! Seriously!!

So that was our Christmas break. We had some fun games of Just Dance, Scattergories, watching White Collar and Disney movies, went to some movies (Into the Woods and Unbroken!), and other fun stuff! It was great! 

And we even had a fun New Years Eve here in Jerome, believe it or not! Some new friends in our ward invited us over for games and dinner, and we had a lot of fun. Great way to ring in the new year. Collin left at 4am New Years Day to catch a flight to AZ for some clinics and visiting Tyler, so the fun ended quick after NYE! But anyway, more posts to come sometime. If anything interesting even happens in January, which it probably won't! :) Happy New Year!