Home for Christmas

I got to be "home" for Christmas this year for the first time since 2005. I wish I could say it was perfect and dreamy and everything I thought it would be. As far as Christmas activities and being with my family goes, it was. But remember in this post when I said that Brad came in second place at our top three job choices? That all happened while we were in UT. And because they were all lower-ranked schools and we only had the higher-ranked schools left to apply to, we began to fret that we might not get a job this year. And my better half, the guy who takes providing for his family so seriously, was majorly stressed. It was an emotional time that tested our faith and patience. But the Lord was mindful of us. Four of those "higher ranked schools" that we were so worried about ended up offering  my genius husband a job, and we knew that the Lord was leading us to KS. For forever or only temporarily is yet to be seen. But I digress...


The theme for this trip seemed to be "help." Like this photo of Cora, helping Daniel eat his food...

And these photos of my boys, helping with the Dudley family tradition of making gingerbread boys...

Not sure what in the world I did with my camera on this one, but I like it! ;)

And Cora, helping to eat all the Christmas treats we made and received...

And the grandkids, helping  Grandpa to play "Life"...

And the baby girls, always helping Granny clean her house...

We got there early enough that we got to help decorate the lovely crooked tree...

And we tried to lift a dear elderly neighbor's spirits, who had just lost his wife.

And when a certain decoration went missing, Nick helped to replace it!

 Nick was trying really hard to learn how to wink at this time. He would always come up to me with this face and ask "Am I doing it, Mom?"

 We went to Liberty Park one night and walked through their live nativity. The music wasn't my favorite but I still really enjoyed it. The boys all loved seeing the animals, especially they camel and donkey.

 We also went to temple square which was too c r o w d e d! We didn't stay too long.

 One of the biggest highlights of the trip was seeing my best friend, Jen. It doesn't happen nearly often enough because she lives in AZ. She is amazing and inspiring and beautiful and I'm not exactly sure why she's friends with me but I'm so glad she is.She took me to lunch on my 30th birthday and she and her oldest, Thatcher, also went to a play with us.

While we had a great time, we also decided that this was the last year we'll travel for Christmas. Taking presents to and fro and trying to do our own traditions and everything is a bit too crazy. From now on we'll be traveling the day after (happy birthday to me). Or better yet, we'll try talking them into coming to us! ;)