It's a Jolly Holiday with Joshy

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season.

We spent Thanksgiving with Josh's grandparents in St George, UT this year. Josh wanted to take his jeep offroading so we all took a little adventure in Kolob canyon where Josh managed to find some mud in dry Southern Utah. For a bit there it was looking like we might get stuck in the mud and get equally as muddy as the Jeep to get it out and back home again. Thankfully, Josh got us out and home again. On Thanksgiving Eve we went to a Chinese buffet in Hurricane that Josh loves because of the crab legs. We had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner with the four of us and watched 4 Christmases.

The next day Nana and I did a little shopping after the Black Friday crowds had died down a bit and the boys took Pa's new Razor out for a ride. Josh fixed the lights on the tree and I helped Nana with a little decorating and before we could believe it our week was over and we were headed back to Salt Lake.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, that nearly took my sanity.

We came home and Josh must have caught a little Christmas spirit helping Nana with her decorating. Without me asking him, he brought in all the Christmas decorations, hung the outside lights, the garland, and the mistletoe, and even started to put together the tree until almost all the lights on our tree were burnt out. He checked the fuses and when that didn't resolve the problem left the rest of the decorating to me. He told me to either put new lights on or get a new tree. It seemed like a waste of a 4 year old tree so I decided to take all the lights out of the prelit tree and get new ones. When they string the lights on a prelit tree ever removing the original lights must not be the manufacturers intent because I spent the next several hours cutting zip ties and undoing clips before I finally cut through the cords and pulled the strings of lights out in pieces.

After that ordeal I took a much needed break from Holiday anything and didn't decorate the tree until the next day.

Originally our tree started out with all gold and purple ornaments the first year. I loved it since purple is my favorite color and Josh surprisingly never said anything about all the purple on the tree and even in the garland on the entertainment center.

Last year I decided to add lime green ornaments and loved it. That was how I planned to keep it this year until I bought a red Norwegian ornament while we were at Epcot. So to tie it in I decided to try adding some red this year. I loved how it turned out. I love our tree a little more every year. I think the addition of the red made some of my sentimental ornaments look like part of the scheme as well, the nutcracker, my ballerinas, the Disneyland castle ornament, my handpainted Santa and angel ornaments, and even the fishing Santa I bought for Josh and our little red A Angelina made for us 3 years ago.

My parents were in Seattle for almost a month and came back a week before Christmas. We did our traditional trip to see the lights at Temple Square that we've done since I was little. My mom bundled up quite attractively. If it were in black and white she would look like she could be in the movie Defiance. It was very cold but a lot of fun with just the four of us this year.

We spent Christmas morning at Josh's brother Rob's house. We watched the girls open presents and play with their toys. Josh played with the PlayDoh set he got for Lexi a little as well. Madi got a little of the green on her bum. Lexi got a little 3 wheeler that you can ride on and would use her feet instead of the button when she needed to turn. It was especially funny when the girls both got on it together.

Madi was my favorite to watch open presents, she was as excited about clothes as she was about toys and the look on her face when she pulled it out of the box was priceless.

Josh's younger brother Darin was there as well and ate a pound of Summer Sausage before noon! No crackers, no cheese, just straight sausage. He would cut off a large portion of it and just eat it. It kind of nauseated Lisa and I just thinking of eating that much in a short time by itself with nothing else.

The girls also got this toy that shoots the balls up a tube and then around the track and the air pops it back up the tube again. Madi could have played with it all day and I think Darin could have as well.

Josh and Rob also played on Rob's new Ipod touch they were playing that game like Guitar Hero. The girls also got some cute dressups. Lexi's was Snow White and Madi's was a ballerina.

We headed over to my parents' house after that and opened gifts there. My mom sent us all on scavenger hunts for our big presents. My dad is not very good at figuring out his clues. Josh and I were supposed to be looking together but he read our Christmas cards and newsletters in the livingroom with my mom instead.

My cousin Amanda and her family stopped by and we all hung out and played with her little kids for a while. They just turned 2 and 3 and are both potty trained. Rather impressive. They are two of the sweetest little kids you'll ever meet.

We helped set up for dinner with my dad's brother Gary and my mom's sister Judy's families. It is always so nice to catch up with everyone especially at holiday dinners. My parents got a Wii that my cousin Rusty set up for them and after dessert we played. Wii golf is very hard compared to Tiger Woods on the Xbox.

After admitting defeat to the Wii we headed back to Rob and Lisa's to spend some time with Josh's dad and his girlfriend Katherine. We played games like Snaps that I can only play in slow motion and Black Magic. We had a lot of fun. After a long day we headed home and opened our presents to one another around 1230. About 3 1/2 minutes after that we were fast asleep. It was a great holiday season and thank you to everyone who helped make it memorable for us.