Christmas in Utah

 

 I am super happy to finally be writing this blog entry because it means that I am one with all the 2013 entries!  I am sure I have missed many events in our lives for 2013, but oh well!  We drove to Utah for Christmas and were greeted by  snow- lots of snow.  Some of us went the first night to see Natalie's violin recital. The next night we went on a sleigh ride in Heber since it was so fun when we did it a few years ago.  We had fun and some of us sang carols.  Nana bought us all Canada scarves this year.  After the sleigh ride, Granddad used his manly truck and pulled someone's truck out of a ditch and then we headed to a Mexican place for dinner.  it looked pretty shady, but ended up being quite good. 

 There was last minute shopping and wrapping and TONS of food each day.  Granddad is not a fan of paper plates so he volunteered to do dishes and roped the boys into helping him.

 Colton an Lindsey and their kids were with us often.  You can't get the full effect of Colton's hideously awesome Christmas sweater i this picture, but Amber was jealous of it for sure.  Granny came to be with us Christmas Eve.  She and Amber always have a good visit.  Santa came as well.  He stopped into say hello and visited with each grandchild individually!

 We also had a live nativity scene with some "wise guys", a whole chorus if angels and a few humble shepherds.

Everyone slept at Nana's house for Christmas Eve- it was a FULL house.  We piled onto Nana and Granddad's bed and floor and listened to funny Christmas stories about Kangaroos and other crazy adventures. Nana got us all matching pajamas as is tradition. The moms loved these because it would be really easy  to tell which pjs they were since our names were on them!

 Christmas presents were opened in the basement.  It took us HOURS and HOURS! We stopped for ebelskeivers and scotch stew and went right on back to opening presents.  Justin and Ben got new bats, clothes and more.  Grace got an American Girl doll she named Faith.  Marin got a cell phone and Amber got a sewing machine.  

 The Empeys joined us after spending part of their vacation with Steve's family.  On Sunday after church, Spencer was ordained to be a priest. His uncles, father, grandfather and Justin got to stand in the circle.

 There was of course, lots of craziness! Laughing, movie watching, game playing, hunting and even sledding

 A highlight had to have been the UNtalent Show.  Nan was persuaded to do "The Nurse and the Dying Soldier" which she giggled through as she always does!  We watched awesome videos including our own 1 Direction music video, "Who is Uncle Ryan's Favorite Niece" and some funny videos Steve's family had made.  There was singing, joke telling, a few skits and lots of family craziness. All hosted by our very own Adam Christofferson (you really have to say that with the game show announcer voice).

 I was downstairs in the media room at Julie's when I got the "something is wrong with Ben's arm!" call.  Ben sled into Brady- Brady didn't see him coming- and to protect himself he used his arm.  Brady's leg was fine, but Ben broke both bones in his forearm!  A trip to emergency room at American Fork hospital, a followup trip a few days later for the hard cast and lots of laying around not getting to do anything was how Ben spent the second half of his vacation.  Luckily Dad did buy him an iPad mini for Christmas so he had something to play on while he sat around.

Two other fun things we did- we took all the kids who were old enough to the Draper Temple and did baptisms and confirmations for family names that Janet had found.  It was really special to be there all together.  Justin and Ryan are missing from this picture because they were sick.  We of course, passed around some sort of cold/flu thing that wiped people out a few at a time lasting as little as 1 day or as long as 4!  We also went bowling as a HUGE group and played laser tag afterward.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!