The Holidays 2008

A week or so before Thanksgiving, the kids and I went down to Salt Lake to spend a little time with my Mom as she was recovering from some surgery, and we just had a blast! My parents just moved into a new house and they set up not one but TWO guest bedrooms for us, so the kids had their own little room and I had my own room, too! I slept so good! (Thanks Mom and Dad!) Tommy flew down on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (the kids were very excited to see their Dad again!) and we spent the rest of the weekend down there and came back Sunday night.

We spent Thanksgiving with my Mom's side of the family, and it was so good to see everyone again! I don't even remember the last time I saw some of my cousins! The dinner was held at my parent's house, though, and Dad got really ambitious to finish off the basement before everyone got there so we could have the dinner downstairs. Dad and Jason worked some long hours to get it done, and Tommy helped them finish it off when he got there, too. Here's a picture of Tommy and Jason doing some painting.

When we got back, we started decorating and getting ready for Christmas. The kids did pretty good with the Christmas tree, I guess, for being only 1 and 3 years old, but I did get out of the shower a couple of times to find it pretty much completely undecorated. Zach especially had a hard time leaving all of the ball and bell ornaments alone. Everything round is immediately a "ball" to him and needs to be examined and played with. What a stinker!

We had a ward Christmas party that was pretty much a bust. We're getting ready to go, our potatoes are cooking, the timer goes off, and Tommy goes to take them out. I'm fixing Libby's hair and I hear Tommy pleading/shouting for me in the kitchen. All I can think of is that the potatoes got burned, but as I walk in I see Zach and Tommy both covered in throw up. I guess Zach walked up to him whining just a little bit and Tommy went to pick him up and that's when Zach just let it loose. Poor guys! Well, to make a long story short, Libby still really wanted to go to the party so Tommy just told me to take her and the potatoes and have fun! He stayed home and put Zach to bed. Anyway, it was kind of lonely without half of our family, but Libby was really excited to see Santa Clause-that is until she actually had to sit on his lap, at which point she was a little nervous about it all. When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, all she could say was "that" pointing to the goodie bag his assistant was holding. I do think the candy made the whole experience worth it for Libby, though. Here's the pic.

For Christmas Eve we went over to Tommy's sister, Tiffany's house. The cousins not only put on the nativity but also a very exciting talent show! Libby and Zach sang "Away in a Manger" and "Jingle Bells." Okay, I guess Zach didn't really sing but he did stand next to Libby for most of it. When we practiced he would actually do some of the actions for "Away in a Manger" which was just darling! But I guess it was a little overwhelming with all of those people looking! Libby dressed up as an angel and we brought clothes to dress Zach up as a shepherd, but Tiffany found the cutest little furry wool coat for him so we turned him into an impromptu sheep! So cute! It really suited him seeing as how he was continually running away from the nativity play and we had to keep rounding him up!

And finally for Christmas morning! Here is a picture of the kids waiting in our room before opening their presents. Libby is a little anxious. Zach doesn't have a clue what's going on!

And here's the kids after seeing their presents. Zach's big gift was his big truck, and Libby's was a little kitchen that she's been wanting for forever. Yeah, she was pretty happy!

And here's a representative picture for the rest of the morning. Zach was so enthralled by the new kitchen that he didn't open one single present all morning. Libby was, of course, happy to do it for him, though. Here she is showing him his new pajamas he got.

We all really had a nice morning, I think. And then later that day we headed to another nice dinner with Tommy's family.

To finish off our holidays, my family came up on the 27th to do a little celebrating. Unfortunately, though, Dan and Meg weren't able to come up because of complications with some newborn pups, so we really missed them. Libby was especially sad about not seeing Maddie! We had a lot of fun, though, with Mom and Dad and Lindsay and Jason and were glad they all got to stay a little longer than they were originally going to. I didn't get a lot of pictures with them here, though, because Lindsay had just gotten a new incredible camera for Christmas so we were doing most of the picture taking with that. Here is one that we did get, though, of our gift exchange after church.

All in all we had a very wonderful holiday season!