What a crazy two weeks! I think my kids are in need of a vacation from their vacation. (Not to mention how much I'd like a vacation right about now) It has been a lot of fun for sure, but I'm ready for a quiet weekend. I have to warn all readers that this post will be longer than most since this is as much for my journal as anything. We left the day before Christmas Eve in a bit of a hurry so that we could beat the bad weather that was supposed to close the roads. The drive up wasn't too bad. It was only 10 hours so we made it to my parents' house around 2 am. The next day Julia was SO excited to be up in Utah with her aunts and uncles and SNOW. She tried to run out in her barefeet to play in the snow, but I made her put on a jacket and boots. The cold didn't seem to bother her at all. She loved eating the snow and hearing it crunch when she stepped on it. I still need to get some pictures from my mom and siblings. My brothers burried Ben in a hill of snow and trapped him. The pictures were pretty funny. Julia was down for a nap which is good because I think she would have been rather upset that her daddy was trapped. She is quite protective of her family. I drank some of Ben's hot cocoa and she told me quite clearly, "That my daddy's choc, Money!" (She still calls me Money and anything chocolate is called choc). Anyway, when I get the pictures of Ben in the snow, I will post them. For Christmas Eve we went over to my Grandma Lund's house and had dinner, the nativity and a visit from Santa. Julia loved playing with all the cousins. She was an angel with Heather in the nativity story. I thought she was the cutest part of the pagent.
She mostly just wanted to hold Baby Jesus. She loves to sing the "baby Jesus song" (other wise known as Away in a Manger). This is her and Heather telling Mary that she is going to have a baby.
Then Santa came, which Julia LOVED of course.
Adria, however, was still unhappy to sitting with a hairy stranger. She didn't cry nearly as hard once he gave her a present though.
My silly JuJu was most interested in Curtis' truck and trailer, although she has really liked playing Candy Land now that we are home.
She also really liked Becca's princess castle.
I think its funny how she just knows that princesses are pretty and she likes them without any encouragement. I know that a lot of people will think I'm a crazy, overprotective mom, but I have no intention of letting Julia watch Disney movies in our home because I think that the characters are mean to each other and I don't want her to see that any more than she has to. We watched Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas and when Mickey yells at Pluto for breaking the Christmas tree, Julia cried and got very upset. She still talks about how it, "Mickey not very nice for Pluto" is something I hear a few times a day. So for now we just stick to Barney and the Wiggles. So, back to the tale of our Christmas Eve... Julia played pretty nicely with Becca and Seth while Adria played with her Aunt Jessica. Adria just adores Jess.
Grandma Lund put together a very yummy dinner for all of us. I'm pretty sure that I was set back a few months in my weight loss trek. We went back to my parents' house and wrapped the last few presents and stuffed stockings. I don't have any pictures of Christmas morning yet because I was doing the video camera while Ben helped the girls so I will have to post those when I get pictures from my mom. Julia and Adria loved their Christmas morning. Julia wanted to unwrap everyone's gifts and Adria was trying her hardest to eat all the chocolate from the stockings. She did figure out how to work the wrappers on the candies that twist and she got good really fast.
I don't know how many Christmases will be as plentiful as this one was, but I am very grateful for all the wonderful things we were blessed with this last year. This was our last year to have everyone together for awhile because Jared and Nate will be on missions. It was fun to have so many people at my parents' house to open presents because it made the pile of presents look very very big. I have to say thanks to my wonderful parents and siblings for their thoughtful gifts. Chris got a beautiful picture frame for Ben's office. Ben was also very thoughtful and bought me some very nice new shirts, pants and a wonderful new silverware set. Thanks sweetheart! We were planning to go see Ben's dad, but it was snowing so hard that we would never have made it all the way out there and back safely in our little Mazda so we decided to wait until the next morning. My mom made a very yummy Christmas breakfast which Ben added to greatly by squeezing several pounds of oranges so that we could have fresh squeezed orange juice. The weekend was really fun. We got over 2 feet of snow at my parents' house, so we didn't go out too much. On Saturday we went and took family pictures (also to be posted at a later time) which turned out so cute!!! Sunday was my brother Jared's farewell. He did a great job on his talk! We were planning to leave after sacament meeting, but we decided to stay for dinner with the Stoddard family and the open house. Julia was hanging out with Jess and me in the kitchen as we helped get things ready. Jessica was walking past the table when Julia said, "Its yummy Jeca, its very yummy!" She turned to see Julia biting the butter! So gross!
Dinner was very good and it was fun to see so many people that we don't get to see very often. We finally left around 8 pm. The drive home was much less pleasant since we left later and none of us sleep very well in the car. We did make it back in one piece, but it was 7:30 am! Poor Ben had to go to work too! Ben's brother Ray and his wife Heather came down to Cali the day after Christmas and were staying with us. So I went all crazy for a day and went with them to Knott's Berry Farm. I had a really great time and I think the girls did too. Adria thought the log ride was awesome. She giggled and laughed on all the rides actually. Julia and McKenzie are only 6 months apart so they went on a bunch of rides together. Ray seems to have a weak stomach and so he was only able to go one a couple of rides before he was too sick to go on anything but the kiddie rides. Heather and I took turns taking Wesley on the big rides and Ray was nice enough to take all of the kids a few times so that Heather and I could go on some really fun rides. Julia went on three trains so she was quite happy in the end. (one of them was actually a bus, but she didn't need to know that). Tuesday we just spent around home. The kids went to the tide pools and found some crabs. Heather and I were hoping that Ray would get his finger pinched by the really big one that he tried to pick up, but the crab was too slow. New Years eve we went to a park in Irvine to let the kids run out some energy.
Then we went back to the beach for a "bonfire". The sunset was so beautiful!
But as soon as the sun was gone, so was any warmth. Julia was so cold, poor kid! She is a California girl and unlike all of us Utah people, she isn't used to cold weather. She was shivering so hard, I almost took her home. But that seemed less fun, so we wrapped her in a jacket, two blankets, a towel and then Ben's sweatshirt and set her in the stroller right next to the fire. As soon as she was warm, she fell asleep.
That left more marshmallows for me!
That was as exciting as the night got, I'm afraid. Once we got the kids to bed, we tried to watch a movie, but Ben and I fell asleep on the couch. The New Years Man still came though, solely due to Ben's love of tradition. For those of you who don't know (which is most likely all of you) the New Year's Man comes on New Year's Eve and refills your Christmas stocking.
Ben's family did it when he was a kid so our family does it now. Julia got a Frosty that sings Jingle Bells. Frosty now goes everywhere with us.
Adria was quite happy with her candy canes.
New Years Day was cold and gloomy, but you know how tourists are...Ray and Heather headed back down to the beach to feed the birds.
Julia had a great time until Ray and Ben started putting bread on top of people's heads and then we were swarmed by seagulls. The pictures don't do it justice.
I told Ben that if I got pooped on, he was a dead man. Karma was on my side though and Ben got a juicy one right on his back. Sorry sweety! I have left out more and more details as I go along because my kids are running around tearing the house apart. So I have to go now because they have shut themselves in my bedroom and I can hear Julia trying to kill herself jumping off the bed. Happy New Year!
0 comments:
Post a Comment