White, Wonderful Christmas

We enjoyed our Christmas visit to Utah. Doesn't it make the world go round to be near family for the holidays? We arrived via Southwest Airlines on Wednesday and were picked up by my parents and my two brothers, Parker and Kip. It was a fun chat back to Nephi, about an hour and fifteen-minute drive. We ate a yummy dinner of Crockpot sloppy joes before heading to bed. Thanks for giving up your bed for us, Parker! Thursday started out with John making his famous Weir Waffles for my family. A hit for sure! Charloe and her family arrived just before our big Christmas dinner. Mom decided to make it on Christmas Eve this year, and not a single person complained! Gary even showed up to eat the turkey breast, ham, mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, Merrill's stuffing, and dinner rolls. It felt foreign to not have Jeffy Jell-O, but no one noticed because of the mass amounts of food on the table! It was an incredible meal! After it got dark, we went to the Old Mill Park to admire the Christmas lights and sing some carols as a family. It was fun, but a little chilly for my taste. We returned home to some hot chocolate, board games, and reading Luke chapter 2.

Christmas was an amazing day. Everyone got such wonderful presents, and it once again made me realize how blessed we are. It was fun for Santa to come to my niece and nephew, Brynn and Corban. They got tons of presents and loved opening every single one! John gave my little brothers a neat present...he burned every classic Nintendo game ever made onto a CD and bought them controllers that connect to the family computer. They can play Nintendo any time they want, and Mom may hate us in a few months! John hid a present for me in the tree...the soundtrack to my favorite movie, White Christmas! He couldn't locate it anywhere, so he made a copy from me using our DVD! Is he amazing or what? It was an incredible Christmas morning.

Saturday morning was full of work. We kids gave my parents a new kitchen! They have sixteen settings of plates, bowls, salad plates, fruit bowls, mugs, and silverware. We also got them new glasses and some serving bowls and platters. So on Saturday morning, we revamped the kitchen to replace all the old stuff with the new. It looks amazing! T'liese and I went shopping three months ago for everything and had to wait this long for them to get it! I think they will really enjoy their new things! Later that morning, Aunt LeAnn and cousins Dolly (with her adorable son, Connor) and Angel arrived to help us tie some baby quilts for T'liese. It went too quickly with amazing results! Afterwards, we visited while the boys went sledding. Everyone had a great time, and I didn't get cold and wet! That evening, we watched a few more episodes of Jericho, which Mom got for her birthday. What a great show! We even borrowed it to finish the rest at home!

Sunday meant church at 1:00 PM, then dinner of an amazing beef roast and roasted potatoes and carrots. Everything tasted so good, especially since it was our first official meal since Thursday! We had eaten from our incredible Utah Snack Table for three days and couldn't get enough! After dinner, we packed up and headed to Salt Lake City. It was way too cold to enjoy the lights at Temple Square, so we wimped out and went straight to the hotel. I got us free rooms near the airport with my hotel points so they could be close to the hospital he following morning for Parker's successful ear surgery. After arriving, we watched some Food Network then went to bed.

Monday morning, John and I slept in then headed to the airport for our flight home. Even though it was delayed an hour, we still made it to our house by 6:00 PM that evening. What an incredible trip! The only downside is how quickly everything went! It's our fault...if we weren't having so much fun, it would seemed longer!

Thanks for a great Christmas, everyone!