Merry Christmas!

Christmas was great! It started early, as Sarah and I met in Mesa on Tuesday December 22, and despite storm warnings we headed up to the mountains. We couldn't go through Payson because Jon was stuck there and had to go around. We drove through Globe and hit snow and 30 miles an hour forty miles out of Show Low. It was slick and slow but it was worth it when we got to snuggle into blankets and wake up to snow, drink dad's orange/apple cider and not go anywhere!
We spent the next few days getting ready for Christmas, plus sledding with Jon and his family.
Tim, Rosa and Jon and his family came for Christmas Eve dinner. We had turkey, ham, rolls, and pie. We got a late start on the potatoes so didn't have them for dinner but leftovers. We did make sure we had deviled eggs because we missed them at Thanksgiving when we forgot to add them to the menu.

After dinner we did a Nativity reenactment! It is always one of my favorite times of the season. I loved Melissa and Tim in this one, Melissa just got her stuffed horse (from me - trying to buy her affection - but when I asked her if she loved me she pointed to her horse and said I love it) she is horse crazy and wouldn't put it down so we used it as the Baby (a little sacrilegious but it was all done out of love!). Jon and Kristi left to have a small family Christmas the next day at their own house.
Rachel came in from Utah late after having to work a part day, and we all settled down for a quiet Christmas!

We were so blessed this Christmas, I got part of the computer that I'm writing this on, the other part I'm paying back. Tim and Rosa gave each other their gifts stuffed in cereal and cracker boxes and wrapped, we thought it was hilarious and so we took a picture, they really didn't get Raisin Bran. Dad got a tv and Tim helped install it.
The day after Christmas or as I like to call it: My Birthday, people started to come. Beth and Scott from California, Daniel and Amanda from Queencreek, Ben and Kori from Utah. We had the cup rope again, always a sign that we are all together!


Puzzles and Christmas seem to be starting to link themselves together. We did lots of puzzles, well I can't say "we" I think I put one piece in on the tree puzzle and that was it. So I'm not so much a puzzle person, not when I have anything else to do, but I did help feed the addiction, by buying a puzzle for Dad and Aunt Louise that was a picture of the family.

Once everyone was there, we had lots of noise and lots of kids. We always have lots of food, eating together is a huge production, but worth every minute! The babies made it a really fun year, lots of giggles and snuggling.

It was a perfect time of just being together!

Sledding is always a big hit! Beth's boys are convinced that Arizona is where you go to see snow, because a large percentage of the time that they have actually come, there has been snow. Kai wasn't a fan of his gloves and would take them off, only to find that he was even less of a fan of wet cold hands. William and Mackenzie had contests to see who could go the fastest, they would jump on lie flat and go strait down the hill. Daniel started a game of jumping over them. Calvin started a game of surfing down the hill and soon had a following, including Tim.