Christmas in Utah

Christmas for me is just like any other time of the year.

Except with added stress,

of all the commercialism,

and ideas of what Christmas SHOULD be.

and it never really is as it really should be, somehow.

We haven't spent many Christmases in Utah since moving out east.

It is just a LONG trip, even when you fly.

I felt a HUGE pull to get together with our children this year.

HUGE pull.

So Huge, that when we couldn't find decent priced flights,

we decided we would take on the 35-hour (one way)

drive out to spend it with the family.

We decided to drive it without break.

Straight through.

The trip out there didn't seem bad.

We only stopped for gas,

bathroom breaks,

and mostly used drive-through windows to eat.

The way home, however was different.

We had a sick teenager, 

who didn't take his sickness in silence,

as we would have wished him to do :)

We also had more miles of snow to make the trip more stressful.

All-in-all, I'm glad we went.

We really needed to touch base

and see each other eyeball to eyeball.

So many prayers have been answered.

So many more need to be answered.

We are thankful for all our monumental answered prayers.

Now, on to the pictures!

Here is the Christmas tree we left behind.

A newer, slimmer version this year.

Our old tree is in the landfill!

We stayed at Lincoln's brother's home they purchased recently.

It is quite large and was an excellent place to stay.

Thanks to them for their hospitality during

The Lincoln Steven's family invasion!

Here is Lincoln, all the kids, plus a girlfriend!

So good to see them having fun together.

On Christmas Eve, the boys all went skiing

thanks to complimentary ski passes to Deer Valley Ski Resort.

Halley and I stayed at home and cooked Christmas Eve dinner.

She was feeling under-the-weather and probably would have loved to go skiing.

I, however, was glad for the mother/daughter time.

(as I'm sure she was too :)

We were able to get our traditional Christmas Eve Jammy picture!

Lincoln's brother's house has a rather large game room area.

We played pool,

ping-pong (round robin)

and generally had a fun time together.

One of our nephews manages the Trafalga in Lehi.

He gave all 7 of us complimentary tickets to do everything there.

AND gave us each a card with 50 tokens on them to play the arcade games.

I can safely say that I have never played as many arcade games in my life!

I'm too frugal.

We also played mini-golf and laser tag.

Lincoln and McKay on the climbing wall.

Made it to the top!

I can't believe Lincoln's mom actually got on this one!

Fun!

Chancy was able to come from California,

but ended up leaving earlier than we did.

This is just before taking him to the airport.

By the way, it snowed and snowed and snowed while we were there.

Going out to eat with Halley and Ryan.

This place was so full of wood smoke that we smelled like we'd been camping when we got home.

Justin and his new friend we got to meet.

Halley and me.

Justin and Me.

Celebrating Ryan's Birthday.

Halley and Ryan.

We got to spend a lot of time visiting Lincoln's family.

It is nice to visit from out-of-town.

Everyone makes every effort to make time for you.

Nice.

The only thing I didn't like

was that the time flew by so quickly

and we are already home

and back to normal.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas also.

Just gotta share!

When we went to Utah we had family pictures taken (as you can tell from my new header!) It was a lot of fun! This by far is one of my favorites. Love that daughter of mine! I love all my kids . . . . but Halley and I, being women, share with each other differently than I do the boys . . . .

Aren't we cute?????

Christmas Tree Woes

Okay,

I realize that it is WAY past Christmas,

BUT,

I must blog about our Christmas tree.

because blogging just didn't happen in December!

I know a lady,

(some of you know her too)

who puts up 90-some odd trees every year.

(am I getting this number right?)

Her house looks like it could be a craft store.

A regular wonderland.

This year we put up 2/3rds of a tree.

I love this fact! Not even a FULL tree, just part of a tree!

Why 2/3rds you ask?

1.  I hate Christmas decorations (WHA?)

If I could, I'd just forget them all together.

I'm allergic to real trees  . . . 

and decorations seem like clutter to me.

2.  Our pr-elit/fake tree has been on the fritz 

for about 3 years now.

Branches have been falling off . . . . . .

Pre-lit lights are not working . . . . 

we have strung lights over those dead lights

EVERY YEAR.

I ASK AGAIN . . . WHY 2/3rds of a tree?

3.  McKay mistakenly put the middle of the tree in the 

base of the tree holder and 

WE LIKED IT.  

Just left the bottom section in the box . . . 

and used 2/3rds of the tree.

PERFECT!

Except . . . .

Our tree's life has come to an end.

It is in the merry land of the 

landfill.

Next year, we'll look for a smaller

more trim tree.

One that will take up little space

and will make me happy during it's

required month of use.

Is it to soon to say

BAH HUMBUG!

in January?

Something special

Even though it is hard to be away from family

there are some things that are nice about it.

One being that when you ARE in town,

you are something special:)

Meaning . . . . . lots of family activities occur

when you come into town.

Maybe more than would happen

than if you actually lived there . . . . . 

The family Christmas party waited until after Christmas 

so we could attend :)

We met some members of the family that we'd never met before . . . .

And some we had met . . . .

but had grown!

A Christmas tradition of exchanging "white elephant" gifts . . . 

which really weren't white elephant

at all!

even though grandma

"doesn't need a thing"

I think she found something she liked . . . . 

A U.S. Capitol ornament we gave as a gift.

We drove down south to Lincoln's sister's house

the long way, west of Utah Lake

just for the heck of it.

It gave me a real taste of home.

Beautiful nothingness.

 We convinced them that playing games
would be more fun than a movie.
Games are always more fun than a movie!

We learned a new game.

And grandma and Chancy cleaned our plow

with an old game!

(look at those hotels)

 Chancy's stack of money!

It was fun seeing him have fun!

he owned most of the board.

Family time is the best!

Christmas in Utah

We had a really great time in Utah.

We usually spend Christmas at home 

and at my sister's and parent's house,

but this time we chose to spend it with our children,

three of which have settled in Utah.

We have a tradition of opening Christmas jammies

on Christmas Eve . . . . . 

Lincoln put his on his head as turban

and all but Ryan followed suit.

Silly us!!

Our "jammie" picture!

Usually we are in our pajamas Christmas morning.

This year we waited until after church to open gifts.

(Justin and I got out of our church clothes as soon as possible, however!)

Halley sang a solo in church

making it extra special for us.

Halley made her skirt . . . 

she's becoming quite the homemaker!

Grandma Stevens spent the day with us,

it has been a while since she has been able to be with us for Christmas.

We had our "Christmas Eve" dinner a week earlier

with the Bainters' and Youngs'.

And had Christmas dinner with grandma and our kids.

Mmmmm good . . . . .

and if you are wondering . . . . . yes, that is sparkling cider Ryan is pouring . . . 

(just saying :)

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Skiing fun in Utah

We had a long grueling flight to Utah . . . . didn't get to the car rental place until 10 minutes to closing, which was midnight!  The guys had planned to go skiing the next morning and got up early . . . . we thought it would be just our family skiing, but were surprised with a lot of the Stevens' men.  11 in all!

This is Marshall, Chancy and Lincoln on top of the world.

McKay  . . . .

Justin, McKay, Lincoln and Chancy . . . . all together again!

Halley and I shopped until we dropped while they skied.  She took pity on me . . . . we had great one on one mother daughter time.  Afterwards we went to Grandma Stevens' house for dinner.  Marshall and his family and all of our family was there.  GREAT times!