I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

We drove up to Utah to spend Christmas with Mike's family. Amy was actually pretty good on the trip, taking a couple naps each way and watching Finding Nemo, and of course eating (because my child eats 24 hours a day if I let her). She liked pointing out the snow all the way up there, because we had been telling her that the snow was at Grandma Laudie's house, so she thought that meant we were almost there... but we started seeing snow in Flagstaff, so it made for a long trip of "Look Mom! Snow! Grandma Laudie's House!" We were so happy when we finally pulled up to the house, mostly to see the family, but also to just get out of the car. Amy was much more affectionate and less shy towards the Laudie's this time around. She has gotten over most of her stranger-danger screaming she used to do when someone she didn't know very well would look at her and/or pick her up. She figured out really quick that the Laudie house was chock full of Christmas goodies, and there were enough people around that SOMEONE would give her what she wanted if she asked the right people.

Utah was definitely COLD, but the snow was beautiful. We got snow almost every day leading up to and including Christmas. We got to take Amy sledding with her aunts and uncles across the street from the house on a little hill. We just kept calling her Randy whenever we had to bundle her up (Thanks Emilie for the snow clothes!) because she looked like the little brother from A Christmas Story. She also loved making snow angels and "stompin in a snow."

Mike's favorite story to tell is that, while we were out sledding, he through a snowball at Amy and it hit her right in the face. Well, mostly on her hat, which kept falling over her eyes, but stuck right to her face/hat. She stood perfectly still, bawling. I looked at Mike and said, "Go save your baby!" to which he quickly replied "Not until you take a picture!"

Another funny story happened at church that first Sunday in Utah. Amy went happily to nursery and Mike and I went on to Sunday School. After Sunday School, a woman came up to me and asked if I was Amy's mom. She said she had heard that a cute little blonde girl in nursery named Amy had stuffed playdoh in her ear, and she just wanted to make sure I had been told. I went over to check it out, and sure enough, there was playdoh in her ear. There wasn't much I could do there because it was so deep, and it wasn't bothering her, so I let her finish out church, deciding to get it out while she was asleep so that she would lay still. Well, being a bad mom, I totally forgot about it until the next day. I had a sudden "oh no!" moment and enlisted the help of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law (Joy) to hold Amy down while I used Mike's mom's smallest tweezers to carefully pull out the now solid rock in Amy's ear without poking anything important. Sigh of relief.

I spent the first half of my Christmas vacation finishing Christmas projects. I had to finish a blanket I was making for Mike's sister Hannah for Christmas, put some finishing touches on his other sister Jane Anne's paper dolls, and finish Mike's Christmas stocking that I had finally put off to the last minute. It wasn't until Christmas Eve morning that I finally got around to starting our family's Christmas pajamas, which got finished just before the Christmas Eve festivities started. We enjoyed watching A Christmas Story and reading the scriptures and remembering the real reason for Christmas. It's easy to lose track of that when there's so much fun to be had with the commercial end of the season.

Christmas morning was a bustle of people and presents and wrapping paper. With 6 kids still living at home with Mike's parents, plus the 3 of us, there were a LOT of presents under that tree. Every time I was sure I was done, someone else would stick another present in my lap. We were definitely spoiled. Mike's highlights were Cities & Knights (the expansion set for Settlers of Catan), new movies (Dark Knight, Transformers, and Prince Caspian), a C.S. Lewis compilation book, and a new drill. Amy's highlights were a marble run (handmade by Santa himself! It's beautiful!), new movies (Peter Pan, Kung Fu Panda, and Wall-E), games (Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land), and a playdoh play set. I got several movies too (including Mama Mia), some new maternity shirts from my unborn child, and several new games (including Set Cubed - Thanks Jessie!). We also got a lot of amazing books from Mike's mom and dad, and lots of holiday treats and presents from his siblings.

I also thought I had gotten an ice cream maker (since that's what the box said). I was excited because my last one had been ruined. After all the gifts had been unwrapped, Mike's brother Ben came over and asked to see my ice cream maker (come to find out later, he was a plant and already knew what was in the box). Anyway, I opened up the box to find another box inside... and another box inside that... and another box inside that... weighted down with fax paper rolls... and finally, in the smallest box, was a piece of paper. I had to answer some Christmas trivia, use the answers to decode the password to a website that would show me what my present was. After conferring with the family and making a couple incorrect guesses, we finally did it and found the website. It was a new vacuum! Woo hoo! My old one was HORRIBLE and actually had stopped working weeks before because of a hole in the hose. It was too large to bring to Utah, so he created a website that even demonstrated Mike's vacuuming abilities. Thanks for the Christmas fun Mike!

Amy had a lot of fun that week playing with her aunts and uncles and cousins. Reed and Ivy (and baby Blake) came over to play a couple times and she loved following them around and playing in Grandma's adorable playhouse (They took the empty space under the stairs and had a friend of theirs paint a cottage on the side of the wall, complete with small door and shuttered windows). We also got to spend some time with Mike's older siblings Jim (& Emilie) and Jon (& Carrie). We missed Liz, who was stuck in Texas, having just had a baby a month before.

Our visit ended with a beautiful family musical number in church the Sunday after Christmas. Luckily for me, it was a vocal piece, which means I got to bow out gracefully (I haven't been allowed to bow out of instrumental numbers yet, but for some reason I don't get pushed into vocal pieces... I wonder why...). It was absolutely beautiful! Thanks so much, Laudie family, for letting us come spend the holidays with you! We wish we could see you more often and feel so loved whenever we talk / see you. I feel blessed to have such great in-laws. I feel bad for those who may not get along with theirs, because I truly feel part of the Laudie family when I'm there!

We had a million pictures from this trip, so enjoy the slide show!