Holiday Update

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Yes, that's right, I haven't posted in three holidays, which is a new record. I could make excuses, but the bottom line is that it's about time. I will apologize in advance for only posting a few photos - I left most of the picture taking up to Kim because I was a slacker so I'll have to beg Kim for hers.

For Thanksgiving, we finally decided upon rotating every year so this year we went to Aaron's side of the family for the feast. It was fabulous to have all of the yummy food of the season and spend time with family. Aaron's parents made both a turkey and a ham so it was doubly delicious. Sasha just loved being able to run around and play with Abrie all day. It's so fun to see` those two cousins play together so well.

Christmas sort of snuck up on us, probably due to me being sick for two weeks just before the big day. I'm just happy that we got everything ready and it turned out to be a fabulous holiday. To provide a little entertainment during some of the colder times, we went on an outing to the South Towne Mall. Sasha loves the cars that you can ride there. The best part is that she doesn't even realize that they move (if you put quarters in). She doesn't care because she makes up things to do and loves watching the other kids.

It was fun decorating the tree together this year, although Sasha defintitely had her own ideas about how things should go (i.e. she should be able to handle every ornament as well as take it off of the tree at any given time and place it in a random place in the house). She loves Christmas lights both inside and outside the house. We also found out that she can easily plug and unplug the tree, despite out attempts to hide the plug.

We also decided that we would spend Christmas Eve with Aaron's side of the family and spend Christmas Day with my side of the family (rather than alternate years in order to allow us to see both families around the holiday). We got to decorate gingerbread houses on Monday, December 20 with Aaron's side of the family and had a great time coming up with unique designs and eating lots of candy (which, I believe, is one of the true purposes of the event). Sasha was happy to have a graham cracker with a little frosting on it so she could place pieces of candy on it and immediately remove them to place them in her mouth. My gingerbread house ends up being a typical, square house with some sort of decor, which was no different this year. Aaron usually focuses on making some masterpiece of architecture and could care less about decorating. This year was no exception as made a model of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, which are the tallest twin buildings in the world (and were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 - 2004). They were quite impressive!

On Christmas Eve, we continued the tradition of going caroling to neighbors of Aaron's parents. It was definitely a chilly night so we weren't out too long before the little kiddies decided it was time to come home. It's still amazing to me that the songs sound so beautiful with our frozen voices, which I'm sure due to the natural singing ability in Aaron's family. Afterward, we had some snacks and warmed up a little bit while chatting around the fire. It's always fun to talk and tell stories, especially since Lys, John and Jake were in town. To top off the evening, we watched a classic Christmas movie called Salt with Angelina Jolie. :) I know, it's not the typical movie, but since it's an action/adventure it appeals to everyone so it was the pick of the night. We stayed over night at Aaron's parents house so it was quite the party since there quite a few others staying there: Lys, John, Jake, Shelley, Rob, Grandma GG, Heidi, Abrie and Aaron's parents.

I'd like to say that we all slept perfectly and woke up refreshed around 8 am for a lovely Christmas morning, but the only thing that eventually happened was the lovely Christmas morning. Sasha was up most of the night coughing and finally got out of bed at 6 am with a fever. Her first words to Aunt Lys were, "I don't feel good. I'm sick." It was so sad to see her having such a rough time on Christmas, but since she's 2 and there were lots of people around to district her, it wasn't a big deal.
Other than the sickness, Christmas morning was pretty much the usual chaos since there are so many of us when everyone gets together. We had a delicious breakfast at 7 am since we had to presents earlier at 8 am so John and Lys could get to her family's by 9 am. After breakfast, we all went downstairs to open gifts, which Aaron had organized by name the night before to make it easier to find. I love that Aaron's side of the family opens gifts one by one so everyone can see what that person received. It takes longer, but definitely makes it sweeter as we get to share in each others' excitement.
After opening gifts, we went over to my brother Wade's house. We enjoyed a fabulous Christmas brunch, naps, opening presents, playing games, watching the kids play together, and eating a Christmas dinner together. It was such a wonderful day! We received so many great gifts, the main ones being the Cricut and cartridges for me, a blue-ray player for Aaron and toys and clothing for Sasha. We are so grateful to have such incredible families and truly enjoyed spending the holidays together. We are also grateful for this special time of year to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and all the hope and joy that comes from Him. Sasha said it best when I asked what Christmas is. She replied, "It's Jesus."
Last of all, we celebrated the New Year at Troy and Ang's (Aaron's brother) in Layton. We ate yummy food, including homemade chocolate mint truffles, played Dominoes, Scattergories and various games on the Wii (this includes my first attempt at Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii, which includes both feet and arm motions...it was awesome!). At midnight, those of us who managed to stay up shouted, "Happy New Year" while pulling the confetti poppers. After that we all ate 12 grapes, which is a tradition from Spain. The 12 grapes signify the 12 months of the upcoming year and if the grapes are sweet, then the upcoming year will be sweet. I think the assumption is that the grapes will be sweet so it's a good bet that you'll have a sweet and lucky upcoming year. It was a great night and fun to spend with family. Happy Holidays to everyone - may all your New Year's resolutions be fulfilled (or at least last longer than a week). :)