Christmas Vacation Top Ten

Eric got a week and a half off for the holidays, one reason why we love his job! So we fully enjoyed ourselves, here's our top ten.

#1 Grammy we stopped on our way to California to see my great-grandma, yes that's my girls' great-great grandmother! She was so cute asking Katelyn all about her cars and trains and Kate had fun showing them to her. we loved her and were sorry it was such a short visit.


#2- Chowchilla While in California with my family, we went to my grandparents' house in Chowchilla for a few hours and the boys helped my grandpa with some yardwork ( he's 80 years old and still climbing ladders to prune his trees- we want to keep him safe so my mom has been recruiting my brothers to do it for him!) It was way fun. Here's Derek taking a break to check his voicemail... oh the cell phone generation... he worked really hard though. :)

Katelyn even pitched in to help when my mom gave her the idea to harvest pecans. Jenae helped her and she LOVED filling her pockets with them like a little squirrel!

Here's Jonathan doing the dangerous job. Yes he's holding a saw.

I mainly chatted inside with my grandma and aunt. :) And played with my girls on the swingset where I spent many happy hours as a child.

#8 BYU Basketball- For Christmas we gave Kurtis tickets to the BYU-Wake Forrest Basketball game. So we joined the second-largest crowd ever in the Marriott Center to cheer the Cougars on to a loss to the #6 team in the country. It was a great, intense, LOUD, so fun game. We played well and only lost right at the end. I love this picture of Kurtis talking to Whitney.

#7- New Year's Eve- My family has this random but awesome tradition of gathering up all the used wrapping paper rolls after Christmas and having a big swordfight. It's so fun and lasts until the swords are all broken or someone gets hurt and my mom makes us stop. Katelyn got really into it and kept wanting to fight Derek, so funny!

We had a fake New Years for Katelyn at 9 pm. Here's Eric and Whitney enjoying themselves.

Kate with my siblings before they left for the church New Year's Dance.

Kate banging a pan for New Years

Everyone watching her and banging their own pans :)

Eric and I and my parents had our own party and played games, it was really fun!!

#6- Reunion!! We had a bunch of friends from our freshman year at BYU over to Eric's parents' house for a party, it was so fun! I LOVE these people! We missed the few who couldn't make it- Brenna, BJ, Tenille, Alison and their families. The kids, who are all SO CUTE, had a grand time playing, it was Kate and 4 boys, plus 3 babies! The rest of us talked and talked and then played Catch Phrase, awesome. My favorite moments were a couple of times all of the boys just busted out laughing at something one of them said, it was so cute to hear them all laughing together like they used to. :)

#5- Our 5th Anniversary! Here we are, happier and I guess crazier than ever. We went to the Fresno temple which was great, but didn't end up doing anything else for our Anniversary because I had a stomach virus of some kind... anyway maybe we'll do something real cool next year when I'm not nursing a baby. :)

I love Eric! Life is great and so fun with him.


#4- Temple Square for Christmas Eve- We decided to go even though we figured it would be packed, and it wasn't that bad and it was BEAUTIFUL! We totally loved it. Eric's family met us, Kate was thrilled to ride the TRAX, and it was a wonderful Christmas Eve.

#3- My family playing with my girls It is so fulfilling, I'm not sure why, to watch my parents and brothers and sisters playing with my children. I guess that's just how it's meant to be, eternal families enjoying each other throughout the generations and extended family!

Jonathan probably tried the hardest of anyone to win the girls' love.

Jenae played Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Katelyn for seriously hours every day, so cute!

Whitney and my mom

us playing with the parachute Kent gave me for Christmas!

Melissa, Derek, and my dad were also so cute with them, I just didn't get a picture.

#2- Acting out the Christmas Story

This was probably the highlight of the whole Christmas season for me. Katelyn totally knew the story and was so excited to play several parts. She was the angel (that's the part she wanted) in several scenes and even repeated lines we told her, such as "mom, your baby's name is Jesus". She was the innkeeper and nodded solemnly when we asked if we could stay in the stable. Then we were all shepherds and all wise men in separate scenes, and Whitney was the baby Jesus. It was all just really sweet and when we finished Kate asked if we could do it again. :)

Notice the baby Jesus is playing with the sheep.

#1- Christmas Morning!!!

It was our first one all by ourselves in our own home, and we loved it!
Here's Katelyn so excited about the huge stuffed Sally, Lightning McQueen, and Mater that Santa gave her!

And the trains and candy Santa gave her

Whitney loves her airplane

and her ball

Kate is a present-opening pro

Whitney enjoyed it too of course.

We had a delicious and fun Christmas dinner with Eric's family, and had a blast in California with mine. Family is the best. Christmas is the best. The end.