Both James and I had the 23rd of December off so instead of trying to make the drive over to Monticello in the dark after work on the 22nd, we decided to leave in the morning on the 23rd. We had pretty much everything packed and ready to go. We decided to try and different route since the one we always take to I-70 and over has snowy passes. We took a southern route this time that takes us into Arizona and back up through Blanding. It was a beautiful drive, blue skies and sunshine till about 3 miles outside Blanding; that's when we hit the snow. Mom and Dad's house was all snowy and white and pretty...but COLD. :p I guess we are use to the warmer temperatures of St George. Evie was so excited when she saw us get out of the car, her and Avery started to call to each other and when they finally got close the gave each other a big hug. It was so cute! Lemuel was kind enough to help James bring everything in and Mom automatically swept me away to go to the grocery store before they closed. Halfway into town I actually found out that it wasn't the grocery shopping she was worried about and needed help with, it was Dad's Christmas present. Apparently Mom had bought Dad a "new" car. She bought him a Cadillac Escalade with all the bells and whistles. :p We did go to the grocery store but the main reason was to sign some of the paperwork and pick up the new car. I got to drive mom's old car while she drove the new one. :) We took it over to her neighbors house (Sonny and Helen's) to hide it before Christmas. It was a fun little adventure, but by the time we got home I was tired and hungry and ready to call it a night. :p
Dec 24th
Today was a nice relaxing day filled with naps and miner preparations for the following day. Evie and Avery spent most of their time playing in the snow outside. Evie wasn't as excited about this as Avery was. We don't get snow in St George so Avery was more than ecstatic that grandma and grandpa had snow and LOTS of it. Her and Evie made snowmen, Avery made snow angels and followed ginger around all over. Those two were partners in crime all day long. Every time Avery came in the house she tried to sneak Ginger in until someone saw. :) (ginger is my parents St Bernard) When it started to get dark we had to wrestle to get Avery to come back in the house.
Mom and Dad had invited the sister missionaries over for dinner that night so we had them come over and got to enjoy the wonderful spirit they brought with them. Avery was excited because she got to see missionaries at Nona and Grumpy's at Thanksgiving and now at Grandma and Grandpas on Christmas Eve. She made sure to tell them too. :p After dinner and dessert they shared a wonderful message about the Savior and the holiday season. As they were saying their goodbyes, mom snuck Avery and Evie back to her room to get some stocking to give to the missionaries. The two girls came running out each with a stocking in their hands happy to give it to the sisters. It sure was cute to see how excited those little girls were to give them those. The sister missionaries were really very touched too. Dad explained how he knew the difficulty of being away from family during the holidays and so him and mom wanted to give them the stockings to try and help the holidays be a little easier for them. It was so sweet to see my dad with tears in his eyes telling about their experiences with the elders on their missions and how they wanted to make sure the sisters knew they were loved.
After the sisters left we watched a Christmas story while the girls played for a little longer till FINALLY it was bed time. :p Avery got to open her new Christmas jammies and get dressed in them. We then took pictures and went back in our room to call Nona and Grumpy. Avery thanked them for the new pajamas and then snuggled in her bed to listen to Nona read her a story. James held the phone so Avery could watch Nona and look at the pictures in the book. She looked so tired I actually thought she was going to fall right asleep. Yeah right!
It took her awhile to calm down, but Evie fell right to sleep. That actually helped Avery calm down and pretty soon she fell right to sleep, faster than I was expecting actually. :) Which was nice cause we were able to get right to work for the next day and get done at a reasonable hour. :)
Dec 25th MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
We had been joking and teasing and threatening dad to not wake us all up at 5:30AM again this year like he did a couple years ago. James and I were ready to sleep in till at least 7 if not longer. I think Preston and Mina were thinking the same thing. Well around 6AM Avery woke up saying her bum hurt. She asked if I could change her so she could go back to bed. I was hopeful that we were going to be able to sleep for a little longer, but it took awhile to convince her to let me clean her bum up and by that time she was wide awake and asking to see if Santa came. This was both good and bad because I was able to use this to get her to cooperate and let me clean up her bum but at the same time there was going to be no going back to sleep after that. :p We did try but by 6:30 she wanted to go see what Santa brought her. So I had her go "ask" grandpa if they wanted to see what Santa brought. Meaning I decided since she was up and we were up that I was going to have her wake dad up. :p Dad seemed pretty excited though and both him and Mom got up and started turning on lights and getting Preston and his family up. Avery was so excited to see what Santa got her she would have had all her presents opened before Evie came in if I had let her. :p She got this paw patrol road that was all set up and ready to play with.
She happily played with that till Evie came out. Evie started to play with her till her parents showed her her pile that Santa brought for her. Evie got a brand new big girls bike she was happy but it took her awhile to register what was going on. :) She was still pretty sleepy and had taken cold medicine before she went to sleep so that might have still been in her system. :p But once both girls were awake they started tearing into all their Santa gifts without hesitation. It was fun to see them get so excited over all the things they got. After all the Santa presents were opened they tried to dig into the gifts under the tree too. They weren't to happy when we said they had to wait to open those after church. :p
So they played with all the toys that they had both gotten till we had them come sit and eat some breakfast. Then it was time for baths and to get ready for church. James and I stayed back from church while everyone else went. At first I thought that I was going to have to put up a bigger fight, but since Mom knew what we were up to she helped vouch for me. We waited for about 15 to 20 min after they left to make sure they were gone and then went out to the barn to open the garage door and make sure there was room for Dad's new car. Problem was the garage door was frozen to the ground, at first I wasn't sure what to do, I tried calling mom to see if we could park somewhere else or if she wanted to scavenger hunt to lead to Sonny and Helen's house. But it was to late they were already at church and she had her phone off. James and I went back to the barn to see what we could do, we found a flat edged shovel and James slide the blade under the door to see if he could break it free from the ice. TA DA!!! It worked!!! I was so relieved and happy, my super strong smart man figured it out. Next we had to move some stuff around and James got on the ATV to try and plow some of the snow that had built up by the door. After getting the ATV stuck and having to man handle it back in the garage we just moved it out of the way and used shovels to get the rest. Then we made the walk to Sonny and Helen's which isn't far but when you have a freezing cold wind blowing snow directly into your face it made it a little miserable. :p James was excited to see dads new car and all its fancy gadgets. :) We got it back to the house and luckily for us it has that backup camera and top camera so you can see all around you as you back up. We sure needed that because getting into the barn was a TIGHT fit! Finally it was parked nice and snug in the barn, we wiped off all the snow and put the bows and tags on that Mom had bought. Satisfied we went inside for a well earned nap. :)
When everyone got home the two little girls went and changed out of their dresses and was back ready to open gifts. We tried to convince them to have some lunch first but they wouldn't have it. :) So James got elected to play Santa, presents were distributed and the paper went flying. I think there was times that Avery didn't even really look at what was inside the present before she went on to the next. Every now and then Avery and Evie would get excited about something and show each other before they went to grab another present. It was really fun watching them.
After all was done the little girls started playing with their new toys and the adults starting to talk about lunch I "conveniently" noticed another gift in the tree. An envelope addressed to Dad, the start to his treasure hunt. :) He kept saying "oh Evelyn what did you do". He followed his first clue to the bathroom and then to the kitchen and then with coat and boots his next clue was in the garage and the finally the barn. He didn't quite see it at first but then James opened the garage door to let in some better light. Dad couldn't believe what he was looking at. He was so surprised and happy and irritated all at the same time. He kept saying this is stuff you see in the movies this doesn't happen. :p
It took him the rest of the day for the magnitude of the gift to sink in.
The rest of the day was nice and relaxing. The kids mostly just played with all their toys while the adults took turns napping. Dad finally wanted to take his new car out for a drive, so him and Mom went and did that while Preston and I started to help with dinner.
We had a larger Christmas dinner then we had planned. James and I had brought a honey glazed Ham that my boss Martin and his wife gave to us and Preston had brought a turkey. So we ended up having both with almost all the fixings. It was quite the feast. Mom and Dad had invited Sonny and Helen over for dinner as well. It was a fun night of laughing and talking while we ate. After they left and we got the little girls in bed, Dad, Mom, Preston and I all played Shanghai (a card game that we really enjoy) before calling it a night. :)
Dec 26th
James had to be back to work on the 27th so after we woke up and had some breakfast we started getting everything packed up and then said our goodbyes. We wanted to get back fairly early so we could unpack everything and have time to rest. It was a good Christmas and we had a lot of fun. :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
