Christmas Eve Skiing

Craig has been talking about getting Jace on the slopes since he was born. Skiing used to be a HUGE part of Craig's life. He used to be a ski instructor/racer and spent a lot of time on the slopes during the long Utah winters. He decided to take Jace for the first time on Christmas Eve. We planned to go as a family. Brooke and I were going to hang out in lodge and I wanted to take some pictures of my boy skiing for the first time. However, the road was a little too squiggly and both kids got car sick and barfed all over their car seats. (They must get that from me . .I have a really weak stomach. I even had a road named after me by my parents . .Heather's squiggly road because I would throw up every time we drove on it.) We turned around and quickly put the kids in the shower when we got home. I washed out the car seats as best I could then Craig and Jace headed up to Mt. Hood Meadows by themselves. I did send my little camera with them and they brought me back these photos:









Boys will be boys! Jace had a fun time but got a little too cold. We need to get better gloves for him. Craig was a great teacher and showed him how to do french fries and pizza with his skis. I love my boys. They had a great time bonding together.

When they returned I had Christmas Eve dinner ready. We have a little family tradition of having king crab legs, cheddar biscuits, salad, and smoothies. It was awesome! After dinner Craig read about Christ's Birth and the real meaning of Christmas. The kids opened up their new pajamas, put out cookies for Santa, laid out their socks and went to bed. Poor Jace was just so excited that he couldn't sleep. After 2 hours of just lying in his bed filled with excitement I went in and laid down with him. Usually he listens to music but he refused tonight stating that he was listening for reindeer hooves. We sat in silence for a moment then heard a thump thump thump on top of the roof. We looked at each other wide eyed and I told him he better go to sleep QUICK! He pressed his eyes closed and wouldn't open them after that but he yelled at me to get to bed too and to tell daddy to hurry and go to sleep because he was pretty sure Santa was here. It was very cute. Later, I found out that Craig had tossed a pebble on the roof and it had bounced down the side and off the other side. I enjoyed watching It's a Wonderful Life with Craig as I wrapped presents.

Previously, on Monday, we had our special family night where we celebrated Christ. We had a birthday party for Jesus. The kids helped me make a birthday cake for him, and we gave him 'presents' . .things we can work on . . and put them back into the birthday box. Then we looked at the gifts we gave last year to see if we had fulfilled our gifts. We had a puppet show of the manger scene and talked about Christ in all stages of life and death.