Christmas 2008

Okay, I admit it. I am really a slacker this holiday season. I haven't felt like blogging anything. I have actually had a really good Christmas, and have enjoyed spending time with family and friends, but haven't felt like writing about it.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this month. My camera is so big and bulky, but I knew Santa was probably going to bring me one that fits in my purse, so I waited. Which means I have quite a few pictures from December 26th on, but not many from before that.

We had a really nice Christmas Eve. My sister in law, Victoria put together a nativity program for all of the cousins to take part in at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was simple enough that we should be able to do this every year. The adults and kids really enjoyed it. It's a tradition to read the story of the 4th Wise Man. That was also really nice. I think the cousins are just getting a little older, and know how to sit and listen better than they have in past years. We had a Christmas Eve dinner, and exchanged gifts. John and Molly had our name. They got us a door mat. The problem is it's so nice, I don't want people to step on it and get it dirty, so I put it on my hearth. I think it looks really nice.

I was really happy to have Great Grandpa Collings and Loa Jean, his wife with us. Grandpa was tired and slept quite a bit, but we were so glad they let him leave the rest home and visit us.

On Christmas, we had a huge windstorm, and decided to just stay at home. My sister, Erin and her family came over and ate turkey with us, we played games, and just relaxed all day. Erin's family gave my family a gift this year, it was a crock pot cook book (I think she got the hint when I kept calling her for recipe ideas for my crock pot), and a framed picture which is a quote from President Monson.

This year my mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brothers and sisters and their families were going to get together on Christmas day and spend the next 3 days together. Sometimes the weather likes to throw a curve ball. Mom and dad were going to be traveling from Washington state, but they have been burried in 3 feet of snow. Dave was going to come up from California, but was worried about the roads. Jamie was bringing her family from Illinois, but the freeway was closed through Wyoming. I was feeling kind of sad because I enjoy spending time with my family.

The siblings that live here in Utah still wanted to get together, but we decided to scale it down a little bit. We spent the Saturday after Christmas together. Lee and Tricia treated us all to a brunch in the morning. Then the younger cousins went outside and played in the snow. Lee has a small hill on the side of his yard that they thought was really fun to go sledding down that hill.

Lee took those who were brave enough sledding just a few blocks away from his house. The name of the sledding hill is suicide! Steve and I, and all of our kids went, Lee took the oldest three of his kids, and a couple of brave uncles... Brayden and Jared. This place was CRAZY!! You go down a small canyon, zig-zagging between the trees. Once you start, you really can't stop your sled, unless you crash. There are a couple of jumps, and some curves that, if you take them too fast, also cause you to flip, roll, crash... you get the idea. The kids went first, and on the first run, the inner tube that Stevie was riding popped. I was the first adult to go, I really didn't have control the whole way, I hit a jump at the end and landed on the side of my face. I'm a little bruised, but no blood. At one point my hubby, Steve and Brayden pulled Jared's hat over his eyes and pushed him down on his tube backwards...not nice! By the end, I had gone down 5 times, the last two times, I learned to control my sled and had a blast!!

All The pictures I have are from the top of the hill. I didn't dare take my camera down the hill, I thought I'd break it. It's really hard getting good pictures from the top of a canyon.Steve stood at the top and threw snow balls at people as they would go by. At one point, Kaylea got plastered by an armful of snow.