Holiday Lump

First of all I'm proud to say that after all that studying on Craig's part he is finished with his first trimester of Grad School and did wonderfully.  It was quite difficult .. especially during finals week and we hardly got to see him but now he has 5 weeks off.  YEAH!  I'm too far behind to a post about everything that happened individually so this is just a big holiday lump post.  We just spent the last 3 weeks traveling over the holidays but before we left we went on this adorable little Christmas train and got to visit Santa out in Scottsdale.  It was lots of fun.  We left the next day and our first stop was Mesquite, Nevada where Grandma & Grandpa Johnson had rented a villa for a week. Highlights from our time there include: 

*Having most of my family together (we missed you Becky) *Hitting golf balls into the driving range from our back yard. (Golfing is a lot harder than it looks!)  * Playing the animal game in the hot tub (Grandma does a great imitation of a manatee. lol) *Having cousins to play with. *Watching The Family Stone and other Christmas movies together. . *Tackling Grandpa in a heated game of spoons... most of us walked away with minor cuts and bruises but no one was seriously injured. The table stayed intact this time. (We played lots of card games since it rained the whole time.  Mostly Rook, Scum, & Spoons) *Driving around the golf cart that came with the villa. *Dipping chocolate pretzels with Grandma.  *Bowling! - Jace bowled 100 and the whole place cheered for him. He loved it. *Girl time watching Tangled in the Theatre ... it was very cute and Brooke promised not to cut her hair anymore.  *Hitting the gym together.  *Trying (key word 'trying') to keep Grant & Jace away from Kendal & Brooke.  Those boys loved teasing the girls and those girls loved screaming (LOUD) when the boys came to 'get' them.  It made for not much peace in a 2bed villa while it was raining outside -NO ESCAPE. *Walking into the bathroom to find the tub overflowing with bubbles and 4 little munchins. *Checking out the display homes in the area.  I love the way they decorate.  It felt like parade of homes. & *Wedding talk... since Jenny just recently got engaged.  Plus I gave Jenny a gift that keeps on giving.  I was so excited about it - she knows what it is and NO - it's NOT something dirty.  Becky - you need to get over here so we can throw this girl a Bridal shower!

We had a great time in Mesquite and after 4 days headed up to Centerville.  We were a little worried about the drive since St. George had received so much rain.  They weren't sure if the one of the bridges was going to wash out.  We made it safely and were very excited to be greeted by Christmas Lights on Nani & Grandpa's house.  The kids walked in and their eyes lit up with all the decorations, tree, & lights.  They went above and beyond to make their house feel magical with Christmas everything.  The kids LOVED it because we didn't set up anything at home this year.  I loved it too and that night I sat in the front room with the lights off and just watched the Christmas tree lights sparkle.  We spent 2 weeks there.  Here are some of the highlights:

*Making yummy treats with Nani & Katie like Reindeer cupcakes & chocolate chip cookies dipped in mint & bits of candy cane.  *Driving around looking at Christmas lights with Grandpa. *Shopping. *Jace & Brooke got to decorate their own little Christmas trees to put in their room. *Our Christmas Eve Feast.  (Paula made all her traditional appetizers like little smokies, 7 layer dip, tortilla roll ups, salsa, vegetable tray, & bacon wrapped chestnuts.  David grilled up the steaks, and I steamed the crab. * Watching Jace try to steal a crab leg before dinner and slamming it against the stove to try and crack it to get the meat out. *Giving our 'gifts' to Jesus and reading the Christmas Story *Putting Cookies out for Santa *Seeing my kids eyes light up at 6am when they discovered that they made it on the 'nice' list and got just what they asked for. *Opening presents. *Playing with new toys (Jace got an Iron Man mini car, Iron Man & Spiderman Transformers, an Iron Man robot, some new clothes, etc.. Brooke got Dress ups galore, a princess wand, jewelry & accessories, Cinderella paper doll set, zu zu pets w/ play area, pretend make up and new clothes) . *Visiting Great Grandparents. *Driving to Great Grandma Sundbergs annual Christmas party in a blizzard. *Girls nights snuggling under the electric blanket, painting nails, and watching Leap Year, Sense & Sensibility, & The Young Victoria.  *Eating the 'treats' that Jace made us while watching our girl movies... they were vanilla wafers with red hots glued on with frostine.... same as the reindeer noses for the cupcakes.  It was very sweet of him to think of us. *Watching the snow fall through the window while eating Christmas cookies.  *Getting pummeled in the face by Jace's constant snowballs.  *Making snow angels.  * Building a snowman. * Skiing with Craig at Snowbird.  *Crashing on the first run of the day.  *Being carried down the mountain in a toboggan by ski patrol.  *Spending the rest of the night in the ER. *Sledding with Uncle Joshie's family at the Craig's old elementary school.  *Swapping kids - Josh took Brooke and had the girls and we took Grant & Jace.  *Taking the boys out to eat.  *Having Grant tell Craig and I that we are his favorite. :) - he was quite the schmoozer.  *Taking the boys to krispy creams. *Taking the boys to the Christmas house in Centerville with lights galore that danced in time to music - you just had to tune your car radio to 91.5.  They giggled for 1/2 an hour.  Grant thought that we had a magical car because he noticed that the lights followed the music.  Jace thought it must be a computer program - quite the sceptic. *Staying up until 1am most nights.  *Celebrating the New Year at 10pm with the kids by banging on pots & pans and shooting silly spray.*Playing Apples to Apples on New Years Eve with the adults into the wee hours of the morning. *Getting lots of help with the kids (I've practically been a single mom lately so it was REALLY nice to have some help and enjoy time with just Craig).  *Enjoying time together.  *Having a poll on how many times Jace re gifted the Green Christmas Ornament to me. lol

Okay I do have to tell you about Jace's gifts.  Before school got out for the break I sent some money with Jace to buy a present for all his family members at Candy Cane lane.  He did so with a little help from his teacher.  He put quite a lot of thought into each gift.  They were the most special to open on Christmas morning.  Craig got a REALLY handsome (wink wink)  Christmas tie that had a picture of a Christmas tree and played music when you pressed it.  Daddy was so excited when he opened it.  Jace was beaming and was sure that daddy would want to wear it to church the next day.  He did.  It was a very musical Sunday. :) lol  Jace got Brooke a little baby doll dressed in a hippo costume.  She loved it and named it baby hippo.  He got me a beautiful green Christmas ball ornament that is very sparkly.  After I got in my skiing accident he was very worried about me and wanted to help take care of me.  He went through my things and found the green ball and made sure that I had it with me from then on.  We started a poll after a while because it was so funny.  At least 3 times a day Jace would find that I had left the ornament in my room or on the couch and would quickly re-gift it to me with a big smile.  It MADE my Christmas so special.  I love that little stinker!

Sorry - no Christmas morning pictures.  Can you believe it??  I didn't take one single picture on Christmas morning.  How weird.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!