Christmas Time

This was, in my opinion, my favorite Christmas as a family.

The boys were so fun.

We started off the celebrations with Steve and Carla coming up for the Christmas recital. Everyone played well.

We drove down to Utah and on Monday we drove to SLC to see Jordan's friend Solis and his wife Priscilla. Solis insisted the boys call him "uncle solis" and they do! We had dinner at an Indian restaurant and it was wonderful! We loved the food and now we're hoping we can find something as good in Boise. After dinner we went to Temple Square. It was freezing. The wind was really cold but we got to see the tabernacle and the conference center. The boys thought the organs were awesome. After, we had hot chocolate and visited until Eloise did a number in her diaper and made it clear she was ready to sleep.

She fell asleep on the way to the hotel and it was just long enough to give her a nice boost until after 11. She sat up laughing and coo-ing, trying to entice the boys to respond to her. Jordan and Solis stayed up in the lobby until after 3. He paid for it all week long-but he was happy to debate and get a rise out of Solis. They were both such lovely people and we had so much fun with them.

On Tuesday morning we saw Adrienne, Connor and Lily for breakfast. She found a diner that served vegetarian and vegan sausage. Yum! The kids acted as if no time had passed and we ate pancakes, eggs, sausage and hashbrowns. Adrienne gave me jam for Christmas. We have already loved almost the whole jar of the blackberry vanilla.

We stopped at Bruge's and got Belgian waffles to eat on the ride home.

We spent the next few days in a blur of food and family and games. It snowed on Christmas and was beautiful. Cedrik got a guitar-huge hit. He was convinced he was playing Angels We Have Heard on High all day and he continues to make up songs about sheep and hay-I'm not sure why. Freddie got a wooden airplane and helicopter set, pilots hat and book about airplanes. They each got new white shirts and ties-all are way too big.

Bingo was a blast as always. Christmas dinner was fantastic. And we ate way too many cookies.

Saturday before leaving we were able to see Stuart, Janae, their kids and his parents. They are some of the funniest people alive. Tina brought back loads of candy from Britain (she is British) and gave us some chocolate that is already eaten.

We made it back to Boise before the storm hit and Jordan had a great first Sunday at the organ.