Christmas

My word, I haven't blogged about what we've been up to in a very, very long time. December was filled with madness! Enjoyable madness, but madness nonetheless. I worked a ton, Josh worked a ton, he finished finals, my family came up twice, we celebrated birthdays, had Christmas parties, babysat, didn't start Christmas shopping until three days before Christmas, and my parents bought a cabin in Sundance. Pretty much all of our free time was spent at the cabin, preparing it for my family's arrival. We had electricians and plumbers out, installed new tv's, stocked it with goods of all sorts, did a deep clean, installed window treatments, put up Christmas lights (and ran them all the way down the longest driveway in the world. It looked AMAZING.). We only ran into one major glitch along the way. Our pipes froze! They still aren't thawed but the fifth and final plumber set us up with a temporary solution that gave us running water through Christmas.

Wowza! Christmas came and went very quickly for us this year. It was insanely busy, but extremely fun. We were able to enjoy time with both of our families, eat delicious food, make memories, and celebrate the birth of our Savior. It was perfect.

The day my family arrived in town we celebrated Luke's birthday. Luke is a martial arts guru and loves anything and everything that has to do with it. We decided to gift him with a fabric poster of Bruce Lee (whom he LOVES) and a ninja star. I have never given a more thrilling gift, and have never seen someone so enthused about a gift in my life. That ninja star was a hit. He never put it down unless he was throwing it at something.

We went to a tree lot the first night as well to pick out something lovely to trim. We came home with the most perfect, lopsided, quirky tree. I loved it.

They didn't have a bathroom, so the peepee dance it was.

Lindsay the retarded one armed elf.

Our perfect little Dr. Seuss tree.

My parents gingerbread house looking cabin.

The next morning Patrick went outside in his boxers to shovel snow. This is what happened from there:

Yes, it's true, my husband is a bully. Actually, we all thoroughly enjoyed watching this in action. It was quite hilarious and I probably would have done the same thing if I was big enough.

My dad loves knives. He has quite the collection. He gives the boys a new one every year as stocking stuffers (they are all obsessed as well). We all decided to pitch in and give him an extra fancy one for his birthday. I guess it is the same knife that our troops use on terrorists. Scary. Needless to say, he was happy and all the other boys in my family were jealous.

The boys enjoyed night time sledding down the hill outside of our house, and down our super, super long driveway.

Mari and I watched from the porch freezing our bums off.

That night, my parents gave us all Ugg house shoes to keep at the cabin. Oh how I love Uggs.

They also gave each of us a custom puzzle, for long days spent at the cabin, or to keep us entertained when we get snowed in.

We got to work immediately.

On Christmas Eve we spent the day doing some last minute shopping, watched The Elf, had a delicious dinner, and played Fact or Crap. It was the perfect family night.

Santa came and brought some fantastic goods with him. We ended up with everything from toothbrushes and mini salt and pepper shakers, to designer purses and new cameras. It was fantastic.

We each made my parents an ornament for their first cabin tree. Luke, of course, put Bruce Lee on his.

Me and Linds in our matching Snuggies.

On my families last night in town, we went out on a snowshoeing adventure at night. It was beautiful, and calm. Despite the 3 degree weather, we all stayed quite warm. I can't wait to do it again.

We had lunch with the Carver's, which is always fun and entertaining.

Christmas night was spent at Josh's parents house. We exchanged gifts, played with babies, and enjoyed wonderful food.

It was a perfect Christmas.