Christmas 2007

I decided to write a post before we take off in the morning for the cabin at Priest Lake..... We drove down to Idaho for Christmas this year, left on Tuesday night and stayed in Missoula, then drove on to Rexburg first to visit Stephen's little brother Joel and his wife Michelle and their 3 girls. I sure like it a lot better when we break up the drive. But it still felt like we were never going to get there. We stayed for 2 days and had some fun. We watched Transformers and now I have a new favorite movie. I also got to visit a fun store and found a blessing dress for our little Paisley. I know it's a little early, but I knew that this store was there and this way I didn't have to shop on-line and end up getting something that I didn't get to look at up close. It was fun to see Joel and Mic and their girls, Beck always has fun playing with cousins and these ones he doesn't get to see very often. They're like his Hanna, Alizah, and Piper away from home. Then we took off for Burley Friday mid morning and made it in time for the ward Christmas party.

Our stay in Idaho seemed like it went quickly, we made a ginger bread house on Christmas Eve to coincide with our tradition of playing Bingo. My Grandma Mimi joined us for our party and finally won and took the dish towels as her Bingo prize. Beck got to pick out a little dog stuffed animal and I made off with a bunch of candy. Kalan was our Bingo caller and took his roll quite seriously and made everyone laugh and have a good time. We've been playing Bingo for Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. The prizes are always really good too! Christmas Eve we also went over to my Grandpa Beck's and visited with my Aunt Patty and Uncle Gary and cousin Heidi who had all come up from St George, Utah. Grandpa got a new couch that he seems to enjoy and it was good to see him. Baby Beck had a hard time trying to understand that he couldn't open all the presents under the tree, he just couldn't comprehend the waiting thing. But Christmas morning he was up at 5:30, so him and I watched a movie until eveyone else trickled out of bed by 6:45. My little brother Kalan went and turned up the Christmas music until everyone else got up and then the fun began.

Beck really liked his "Queen" car, he had a tough time fuguring out what his trike was, he kept giving all his cars rides on it. After opening presents for a bit, he gave up, and didn't want anything to do with it for a while. I got a mini fridge to go up in my room because I am lazy and I don't want to go downstairs in the middle of the night to get Beck a sippy cup! Santa sure knows what I wanted! I also got some cute polks dot rain boots, but they are too big.... bummer deal. A cute green necklace from my twin and my mom also gave me a Lia Sophia necklace that I have had my eye on. In July we are going to stay in some tree houses with my family as a present to us. It will be fun to be able to see them all again and not just at Christmas time. Stephen spoiled me and we spoiled Beck pretty bad, he just kept opening presents that we had forgotten about. On top of all the ones that he opened before we left. We are sure going to try and cut back next year. Christmas at Grandma's was fun. We did a scavenger hunt for the great grandkids that ended with a $1 gift exchange. I think that they had fun and it kept them busy. Some of the clues made them name all their cousins' names before they could get the next clue or they had to run and get something from the basement and ask Mimi about it and if it had a story about it. It was fun to see the kids listen to Grandma Mimi talk about her old bowling trophy that Justin had brought upstairs as his "article from Mimi's basement." The day after Christmas Jakobi and I went shopping in Twin around noon and then my parents and Stephen and Justin met up with us by 3, we had fun just looking for a few deals and then we all went to dinner at Chili's. My older sister Britni who is due the week before me is on bed rest and it was frustrating to see her so bored and not be able to go anywhere with us. Poor girl. All in all, I think that Beck's favorite thing about the trip was playing with my mom's shizu dog, Zeus, that poor thing couldn't keep away from Beck. He also loved his cousins and playing with Baby Jax, Jakobi's son. He really liked to point to his eyes and nose and toes as we asked him, "Where's the baby's...?" I enjoyed seeing family and of course as materialistic as I am, I enjoyed the presents. I just love Christmas, the caramels, the wrapping paper, the nativity scenes, Bingo, family, warm coats, late movie nights, Christmas lights, and snow. I just love it all! Stephen even had a good time visiting his in-laws and mentioned that it went by kind of fast and that it didn't feel as though we had been gone for 10 days, so all in all, I say Chistmas 2007 was a success. Well, besides the fact that Beck threw up all over himself on the way home, luckily we were only about 40 minutes from Othello and he got to stop and take a bath at his Aunt Tiffanni's house while I washed his car seat..... and tomorrow it's on to the cabin to ring in the New Year!