ether to do a live nativity at the pioneer park. This is something that James and I look forward to seeing when we have Christmas with my parents. Everyone is invited you just show up. So we bundled up and went down to the park. A lot of people show up and the have Hot Chocolate to help keep your insides nice and toasty. :o) They start off with a prayer and they have a small choir who sing songs. They also have solo performances that go along with the scriptures that are being read. It's really neat and the spirit is amazing. It's so nice to see all those people from all the different faiths gather together and celebrate the birth of the Savior. Because they start at 5:00 after the sun goes down they keep it to about 30 min so everyone doesn't get to cold. It's amazing the impact that 30 min can have on you though. After the performance we went home to watch A Christmas Story and eat dinner. :) We actually watched A Christmas Story/ football. I think Preston, James and I won over Dad and his football most of the time though. Everyone was staying up pretty late but I was still battling a stomach flu so I went to bed early. Christmas morning came and Rosko decided to wake me up early to be let out. So I got up to let him out but no one else was up so I tried to go back to bed. After awhile I gave up. But Mom was up by then. We started Breakfast while we waited for everyone else to wake up. After breakfast we started with our Stockings and then James got to play Santa. :) We got Wall.e from my mom and dad as well as some clothes. I got James some clothes, "The Dark Knight" DVD and the 6th season of "Simpson's". James got me (besides the painting) the 2nd season of "How I Met Your Mother" Some smelly good around the house stuff ( those fragrances with the bam
boo sticks in them) and some other little things. It was a good Christmas. After presents mom and dad usually go see what the grand kids got. James wasn't feeling to well so we didn't go. Instead we watched a couple episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" and then "Wall.e" while I helped get dinner for that night ready. It was really snowing outside and when mom and dad got back they were thinking of telling everyone not to come out. But we couldn't get a hold of everyone so out we went to try and get most of the drive way shoveled. Everyone was able to get in ok. We only had one instance were we had to push a van out of the snow. :) The it was dinner time. Christmas dinner is very traditional in our family. Turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, different kinds of salads, etc. Dad looks forward to it EVERY year. After dinner the kids were anxious to open presents. So we started with the kids and had them open up their presents from the cousins and my mom and dad. Then they would go 
and play with their new presents while the grown ups opened theirs gifts from each other. It's always fun to see the reactions of the kids when they open their presents. James and I went shopping with mom and dad while they got their presents for the kids so it was fun to watch them open them. Just as we were visiting and getting ready to have pie...the lights went out. :) Luckily dad and mom had a stash of candles. mom pulled out a HUGE bag full of candles while dad grabbed candle holders. After we had candles lit and could see, pie was served. :) It was kinda fun eating pie by candle light. My sister Denese and her family went home and since we couldn't really watch a movie we decided to try and play cards by candle light. :) The whole game the lights would come on and the go off again. We kept making jokes that it was a guy at the power company who had a little to much to drink for Christmas and decided to have fun with the town's power supply. :) After the game was over Jason went out to warm up their van only to find that they were snowed in. So with power still out and all but one kids asleep on various couches. We found more blankets and tried to get everyone as comfortable as possible for a sleepover. The next day we woke up and started shoveling, plowing and snow blowing snow. At one point I even had snow shoes on and was trying to pack it down. :) Around 1 or 2 we were able
to get Jason and Heather unstuck and they were on there way free to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day....we shoveled more snow. :p We finally stopped around 4 but my dad didn't stop till around 7. We were exhausted. So we enjoyed another evening at home. On Sat we had the chance to escape the house for awhile and were very excited about it. :) So to celebrate we decided to invite my mom and dad to go to the temple with us. James hasn't been to the Monticello temple yet and I have only been once. So we were excited for the experience. It was also fun to see all the different people I knew. I had a chance to talk to President Fuller (Katie I love your dad, he's so awesome) in the lobby and then I saw Brother Blankenagel and Sister Blankenagel. She actually was in the session with us (Emily your parents are so cute. I don't think your dad recognized me but your mom was just excited to talk to me as I was to her. :0)) I saw a few more people..but sadly didn't get to talk to them. It felt so nice to go to the temple, it was so refreshing. Yet again the rest of the night was spent watching movies and playing cards. It was so nice to relax. Sunday we started packing up early and by 10:00 we were on our way. We had a little "car" trouble we thought w
ith pushing our car out that it had thrown off the alignment..but it turned out to be a little ice stuck in the...I want to say rotars. I cant remember. :p But we got it melted and was on our way again. When we got to the outskirts of Moab James started telling me how he wanted to see some of the different places of Moab that he hasn't seen before. So after we gassed up I took him to a couple places (I thought he'd like) that I use to go to a lot when I use to live there. One was an Indian ladder in Moon flower canyon. It was nice to get out and walk around. the ground was almost solid ice. I couldn't believe how much of it there was. After looking at the Indian ladder and a few petroglyphs we hiked back into the canyon. At first our intent was to just look at the different campsites there. But we ended up hiking the whole thing. :-) It was a lot of fun. Rosko had a lot of fun too. But it was really cold and at time he would stop and look up at James after awhile we realized that he wanted to be picked up. It was really pretty in the canyon. There was this small stream that ran through the middle of it and at times it was completely frozen. 
This one point the ice was so clear you could see all the little rocks, pebbles sand at the bottom. We had a lot of fun. But it started getting cold so we left to go get some food. On our way out of town we stopped at a natural spring that comes out of the rock. James and I love the Artisan water you can get in North Ogden. The water is so yummy...and for me that's saying something. :p So i knew he would enjoy this stop. After filling up a water bottle with the spring water we were back on the road and our next stop was home...kinda. We went home unpacked the car, left Rosko then headed up to mom and dad Armstrong house. James wanted to watch The Dark Knight with them. They loved it. We had a great week. :) Here are some more pictures...
Oh I forgot to post pictures of the snow we got so here are some of those and then I'm done I promise. :p
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