Christmas Week 2022

 We weren't sure who we were going to have for Christmas this year until the last minute.  We knew Tyler and his kids were coming but not sure who else.  We ended up having Glen's family a few days before Christmas and then Tyler's family plus his girlfriend, Kelci, and Todd's family, as well as Eric, Hannah, Chase and Violet, and Joel and Erin, and Joni's gang, and even Livi for parts of the week.  It was a joyful week of celebrating!

Glen and Kendi and girls came down to get Carter from UVU.  We had a nice visit with them and Livi came over one night as well.  She's moving to Denver for school (she's getting her master's degree in nutrition at Metro State University), so it was nice having her with us.

We also got to attend the Jordan River Temple with Glen, Kendi and Carter for Carter to receive his endowment before beginning his mission training and mission in January to the Atlanta South Mission!  It was such an honor to be there with him for this special event.  Some of Kendi's family were there as well.

We are excited to follow Carter on his mission journey to the south!  He's going to be a great missionary.  He is such a fine young man.  

Christmas Adventures:

Tyler, Kelci and I took Sophie, Tucker and Austin to Gardner's Village to see the Elf displays.  They had a scavenger hunt that I printed ahead of time and the kids had to find all the different elf scenes.  The elves were pretty weird looking but I think the kids had a good time.  It ended with everyone getting a piece of taffy in the candy shop!  Afterwards, we met up with Mike and Todd's family at Zupa's!

The week was full of Karaoke, snow fun, food, date night for the adults, hot tubbing, going to see Sing 2 at the movie theater, coloring, ipads, and just lots of fun togetherness.

Family Gift Exchange, Secret Santa:

Eric hosted a fun evening of pizza and presents.  He had previously drawn names and given out gift assignments to family members who would be there.  It was a lot of fun guessing who gave what present to which person.  It was so nice of him to have it at his house.  He has a great party house!  Todd's family went home from Eric's house.  There was a storm in the forecast and they wanted to beat it home.  They wanted to have Christmas Eve and Christmas at their own house.

Christmas Eve:

We had a prime rib dinner at our house and everyone contributed.  It was a beautiful dinner and we also portrayed the Nativity and Papa read the Night Before Christmas!

Violet was Mary, Eric was Joseph, Kelci was a shepherd, Tucker was the donkey, Austin was a wise man and Sophie was the Angel!

Tyler, Sophie and Tucker sang a Christmas song

Christmas Day:

Santa came in the night and we woke up to lots of presents under the tree and the stockings filled with all sorts of delights! It was a fun Christmas morning.  We had apple pancakes with cider syrup and sausages for breakfast, then Eric, Hannah, Chase and Violet came over for cheese and chocolate fondue for dinner with leftover meat from Christmas Eve.  It was a perfect day, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Birthday to Jesus!  So blessed to remember Him amidst all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season! We were so blessed to have some of our precious family with us.

Tyler, Kelci, and kids left the day after Christmas and had a very snowy and dangerous drive back to Colorado.  I-70 was closed at one point so they started a different route and then were sent back to Vail and waited for the road to re-open.  These last two pictures were from Vail.  I'm glad they were still smiling!  We were so grateful that they made it back safely.  We were so happy to have them with us all week.

They almost didn't come at all.  Turns out that Jaimee and her boyfriend tested positive for Covid right before they came so they were all exposed.  We weren't sure what to do, but we all decided to have them come anyway and we'd just take our chances.  Everyone was pretty healthy all week, for which we were very grateful.  Kimiko had a touch of something, which luckily wasn't too bad while they were here but their whole family got very sick the week after Christmas.  Kelci had a really bad toothache and she actually got Covid on Sunday or Monday after they left and then Tyler got it!  We felt like we were really blessed that everyone was relatively healthy while they were here.  Sad there was so much sickness afterwards. This new strain of Covid is spreading like wildfire, but luckily, it seems much milder than the first round, more like a cold or flu.  It's just a bother and a worry and the whole world is sick of it!

Christmas was amazing and we are truly blessed!