Christmas 2008

It all started with a little snow... and it ended with 2 feet of the white stuff!

We woke up Christmas morning around 8 am. When I say we, I mean Brian and me. The kids had been up for a while begging us to drag ourselves out of bed. The boys shuffled through their presents and picked out the biggest one to open. Much to their surprise, it was a laptop. Xander had only been asking for his own laptop for years now. My kids now have more computing power than anyone else in the house. They were very excited and grateful. They know how much laptops cost because Xander had been saving up for one. The last present they decided to open was their Karate Gees. They had tossed those aside thinking it was just clothes. They were THRILLED to get a year of Karate lessons that would start after the holidays. We had been trying to find a local place that we liked for quite a while. Just about a month before Christmas a Bobby Lawerence Karate studio opened about 5 minutes from home.

Oh I can't forget Taffy. She got a bit Dingo bone. Her favorite kind of bone.

Brian was very easy to shop for this year. He had been wanting an air compressor and electric razor for months now. He has me feel his smooth face all the time. (granted it takes him 3 days to grow a 5 o'clock shadow) Now he making lists of all the tools he can get to go with the compressor.

Brian got me the best presents ever. I got a new stainless steel programmable Crock-Pot. (seriously people, I have wanted one of these forever) He also got me a gift card to Zappos.com for new shoes. A new dustbuster. No more lugging the big vacuum out to clean the stairs. YAY! A new trifle dish. And a buffet serving bowl set. It was awesome. I guess he does listen when I ramble on and on about the crazy stuff I want. I am pretty sure he cheated and went over budget on my gifts. But, I cannot complain because everything was fabulous.

The boys made pancakes for breakfast and they were delicious. After that we all looked outside and saw the massive amount of snow we had received over night. And it was still snowing. They all bundled up and went outside to start the massive chore of shovelling snow. It took them almost 2 hours to clear the 2 feet of snow. While they were out there the channel 2 news team came by and interviewed Brian and the boys. Josh was so excited to be on the news again. He had previously been on the news with his boy scout troop while helping neighbors that had their basements flood during a rain storm. Josh actually got the most airtime in the broadcast. And Xander ended up on the cutting room floor.

While the boys were shovelling I was busy getting the turkey ready. This year's turkey was lovingly named "The Redneck Turkey". I had forgotten to buy string to properly truss the bird. I had to zip-tie the legs together and use toothpicks to hold the wings in place. It actually turned out to be a beautiful bird, after the fluorescent green zip-ties were removed.

We packed up the turkey, gravy, and cranberries and made our way in the snow to Lisa's house. She was nice enough to host Christmas this year. She had her basement all set up with tables and chairs. She decorated the tables really nicely with cute centerpieces and candy. Everyone was able to make it despite the blizzard. I guess most of the valley was missed beside West Jordan, South Jordan, and Herriman. We had a great dinner and then opened presents. The boys once again got such wonderful presents. We decided to draw names this year to make the gift giving and receiving a little more manageable.

It started snowing again around 7:30 pm and everyone decided it was time to get packed up and head home. No one wanted to get stuck in the snow and several of the cars did not have 4 wheel drive.

Another Merry Christmas under our belts with many more to follow.

Click here to see pictures and video of all the festivities.