Christmas

I've been procrastinating this post partly because I know at least 290 of the 328 pictures on my phone are from this 2 week period and also because my prose never does justice to this time of year (especially when I'm behind, but that can't be changed at this point).  

:: The Friday before Christmas we went to see the lights on Temple Square...along with everyone else in the Salt Lake City area.  After 20 minutes of searching, we found a spot to park with my Grandma and Grandpa Nielson and spent a good half hour admiring the beauty around us before we decided to hustle ourselves back into the warm car.

:: The Eve of Christmas Eve: We reenacted the Nativity with our good friends, the Sorensens (Erin and I did this together every year growing up and it made me so happy to have her over).  Robb and I talked about how Christmas has changed for us, that we've lost the old feeling of wonder and excitement (to some extent, we both still love this time of year and I have faith that we will rediscover it, but it will be different), but having Erin over for the Nativity brought it back for me.  

:: Christmas Eve: I had to work Christmas this year (oh, the joys of being a nurse), so we moved Christmas day up a bit since Colby can't tell the difference anyway.  We loved playing Santa for our little man who actually enjoyed opening presents this time.  Robb got his Christmas snow and I got my candy cane bread (thanks to Erin) and we ended the day eating Christmas dinner with the Valentines, a new couple in our ward.

:: Christmas day (for me at least) consisted of this:

and a little of this (I only had to work half a shift this year):

We decided to move the furniture around (more fung shui) after taking down the tree.

:: Boxing day: We drove up to my Aunt Paula's for a quick nap and her generous shuttling services, but we left much later than planned.  We arrived at the airport after three quick stops (Paula wasn't feeling well) and a missed exit with 30 minutes before take-off.  I was feeling uneasy until I spotted the security line which snaked all the way through the maze to the back of the hallway and curled around...and then anxiety hit.  Luckily for us, Robb overheard an airport official mention to another panicked individual that the lines might be shorter in the other terminal.  We sprinted over, wheezed our way through the line and barely made our flight.  

We had this waiting for us though :)

I love my family.

:: One day of down time and then we piled into a car bound for Medford, Oregon

Colby met his great-great Grandma Campbell

Ammon Ebert married his sweetheart, Estefani 

Medford will always be a home to me

Colby met his second cousin, Mason (although due to three new teeth and a delayed bedtime, he wasn't particularly charming)

Driving home we stopped at my Aunt Trina and Uncle Dane's place where we enjoyed amazing food and their delightful company

:: New Year's Eve:  Games until 10:00pm at which point three of our number decided sleep sounded good

Mom, Jory, and Em toughed it out

:: We enjoyed hand-crafted sodas from a store specializing in root beer

:: Indulged in some quality snuggle time

:: Colby learned to climb stairs

:: We went on a Duck Tour (it's a WWII landing craft turned tour bus that allows you to experience both the surf and turf of Seattle).

:: We demolished small trees

:: And got pushed around by the little guy

:: Dad took us to see a store of the company he works for (and we bought a couple more gallons of their addicting apple juice)  

:: And then our week and a half was up and life demanded we return to the reality of school, work, and massive amounts of laundry

And yes, Colby spent the entire flight raising and lowering the blind