Christmas in Price

We spent Christmas in Price this year, and on the whole it was great. We drove down on Dec. 21 (Friday). We went after Mike and I had gone to a movie. We weren't quite ready so, it was 8:00 before we left. But we did make it down there.

On Saturday our plan was to take the kids to the matinée showing of Alvin & the Chipmunks. When we finally decided to check on the time, the show was to start soon, so we quickly ate lunch and went. The movie was decent. Ashton liked it, but Emma had a hard time sitting through it. Later that night, Kari's family showed up.

On Sunday, we went to Mike's old ward. Mike's dad is the branch president in the college married ward, and we just didn't want to take our super noisy kids to their sacrament meeting. Kari did, but we didn't (it also was nice that we went to church at 11:30). It was a nice musical sacrament meeting.

Later that night, we celebrated Little Christmas Eve - a Norwegian celebration. We ate lots of food (I love crab dip) and enjoyed the night with family. Helene and Andrew showed up that night, along with Mike's younger brothers and their family (the brothers had in-laws they were splitting time with). Isn't the food beautiful (see slide show below).

Santa also came that night. It was fun because it was the same Santa that had come to visit Mike when he was a child. He came right in the front door, was loud and boisterous. He had presents for the kids, and they could sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted. It was great.

Here' a slide show of that night:

Monday was Christmas Eve and meant lots of playing with the cousins. The house was busy with most of the family around. Mike and Andrew left that morning to go ice climbing in Joe's Valley. They were gone most of the day. Janet planned a nice dinner, but we were smart enough to let the little kids eat downstairs before us, and something a little more kid friendly. She also waited till after dinner to give the kids their table presents (smart). The funniest part was that she could not find the table presents for the women (her daughters and daughter in-laws). She found them in early January. It was fine to go without.



That night Helene hosted a newly wed game. It was fun because most of us had been married for several years (I think the fewest was 4 or 5). Mike's parents won with 12 out of 20 questions right. Helene had some good questions, and of course I messed up on an easy one. There was one I just should have put "he really doesn't care", because that was the first response he gave. Oh well. We got 10 out of 20 right.

Christmas morning was fun. My kids were the first ones up at 7:30 a.m. All the kids were so excited (except Abbey who's almost 1, and Daniel who was so rudely woken up by his brother, Daniel is 1). But my kids were so excited. They had to first sort out all the presents before they could begin opening. That was hard for them, but then they were so excited to get their gifts. Grandma was smart and bought all kids in the same age range the same gifts, it's nice that way. Ashton loved his transformers, and Emma loved her purse with fake makeup and her princess tent. And I have loved the Leapsters for the kids. I've been amazed at how well Emma has done (she's three and the toy is for kids four and older). Mike surprised me with a new phone and a watch (they were both things I really wanted but didn't dare to ask for - thanks Mike). Mike was able to play with the Wii he bought for himself, he was really excited about it, and it has been a fun toy for our family. It really was a good Christmas. Mike had the camera so I have very few pictures.





We drove home that night, just so that Mike could spend the day after Christmas unwinding at our house. That was nice for all of us.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.