Christmas and New Years 2009

Our Christmas was great. We had the week off and Chris's sister 'Nara and her fiancee Charlie came to stay with us for the week. We had a really great time. We love Charlie. 'Nara waited a long time for him to come along and we're so happy for them. They're getting married in April so we will probably get to take another week off work to go out to San Diego for the wedding. Holla! Ü While they were out here for Christmas we actually got to spend time with them. Usually when 'Nara comes out Chris has so much work to do for the company that we don't have a lot of play time. This week we did. We went and saw the movie The Blindside. Have you seen it? It is really wonderful. Very uplifting as well as entertaining. I love Sandra Bullock. And an added bonus for me is that Tim McGraw plays the husband. I don't usually care too much about celebrities but I love Tim's (that's right, I call him Tim because we're tight like that... Ü) music and he's always been my favorite famous person. So I was excited to see him. I think he did really well. Anyway.... We saw that movie and enjoyed it a lot.

On the Monday before Christmas we threw a bridal shower for 'Nara since several of her friends were going to be in the area for the holidays. It was fun. Kathy, Lacey and I each made a soup and we had salad and rolls. Simple but delicious and Kathy made an awesome cake that I think is going to be the inspiration for 'Nara's wedding cake. It was a fun night with lots of laughing. At one point when we were making a wedding dress for 'Nara she said she "needed" a chihuahua so I handed some tissue paper to Lacey to draw one. She in turn handed the paper to Kathy who MADE one. It constantly amazes me how talented she is. In the end we all agreed that 'Nara will make a very beautiful bride. Ü



We also went sledding one day. The plan was to go with Chris's other siblings and their kids but they didn't end up making it so instead it was just us four adults. We went to a park near our house and there were a bunch of little kids there. I wonder if they thought we were odd. It doesn't matter. We had a great time. I even went off a (very tiny) jump. I was on my stomach when I did it and it was a bit unexpected (I certainly wasn't aiming for it) so when I landed I was a little winded but laughing. At the back of the park is a really high steep hill (it's right near the base of the mountains) and so Chris and Charlie slid (sledded?) down that. I went less then halfway to the top and decided that was high enough for me. We all survived although I think Charlie was a little sore afterwards. When Chris was just about to sled down a bunch of the kids stopped to watch him. I think it made him a little nervous. Then, when he started to lay down to go head first all the kids started yelling at him to go feet first instead. It was pretty funny that they were so concerned about him. He did take their advice and made it safely to the bottom, thank goodness. Ü

After sledding we went home and had hot chocolate and cheese and crackers. And the rest of the family came for that. Since it was our niece Cambria's first Christmas we had to get her a cute little pink outfit that was so snuggly looking. I love those kind of pajamas with the feet. Ü We sat around and visited for a while and then played a game of Risk. Usually that would seem like a long game to me but I had our two nieces, Em and Julese, helping me out. We would all roll one dice. And I don't play with much strategy. We would just attack random countries. At one point we made it from the Russia area all the way across Europe and almost to the western United States before we lost our armies. But on the next turn, instead of taking over the USA like everyone thought we would, we headed into Africa. No strategy whatsoever. It was really funny because it made us completely unpredictable so no one knew how to defend against us. In the end it worked pretty well for us, too. We came in second place. Holla! Ü


We went to Temple Square on Christmas Eve with 'Nara and Charlie. It was freezing cold and we didn't think to get some real coats for them so they were freezing almost as soon as we got there. Luckily we found a parking spot directly outside one of the entrances so that saved us some walking, and it wasn't too crowded so we were able to go around pretty quickly. Still, it was freezing. In the pictures near the end of our evening you can tell from their faces just how cold they were. We still made them pose though. Ü





On Christmas day we opened up presents and then went to my parents house. As always, it was so nice. My Grandma Roberts was there this year and it was really nice to see her. It was also our nephew Oliver's first Christmas so of course we took a bunch of pictures of him. I got him some snuggly pajamas, too. They had moose on them and since I LOVE moose those were the ones I chose. We got a really fun game from my parents called Ticket to Ride. Have you ever heard of it? It's really fun. We've played it a few times since we got it and I really like it. I love my family. It's always so fun when we get together. We were sad that we didn't get to see Camey, Spencer and Addy. They were up in Washington visiting her parents and we're glad they got to go. We just wish they could be two places at once. I think Clif wishes that too. Ü But they did stop by the next day so we were satisfied.
Papa and two of his boys
Sweet Ollie


Grandma Roberts, Shian and me

The day after Christmas 'Nara and Charlie went home. I was sad to see them go but glad we had so much time with them. We went to my Aunt Claudia's house for a big family party on my dad's side. We played Big Buddha. It was a blast. For the most part only us ladies played but Gordon was man enough to join us. Ü He was a little hesitant about doing the "woo, woo" part so we tried to man it up a bit by grunting instead but he said that was worse. It was hilarious either way. We spent a bit more time visiting and then went to our house to meet up with Clif and Camey. That was a nice little visiting time, too. And then on Sunday we went back to work. Whew! I didn't realize all the stuff we did until I started writing it down.

For New Year's we were on the road but Chris woke me up at 11:52. We told each other 9 things we loved about 2009. Then we opened a bottle of sparkling cider (I have some plastic goblets we got for our wedding), counted down to midnight, yelled "Happy New Year" and toasted 2010. We, of course, had our New Years kiss and I was back in bed by 12:08. It was quite the party. Ü

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. We love you.