A Utah Christmas

On Christmas day, my brother, parents, and I flew out to Utah.

When we landed there wasn't any snow, but the next morning, on our "Christmas", we got a white one.

We got to see quite a few relatives, including Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Steve, Aunt Pat and Uncle Boyd, cousins Wil and Connor, and Aunt Merna and Uncle Willis. We spent most of our time playing games and laughing - both things that my family is known to do.

Opening presents, Grandma got what she's been waiting over a year for - wedding pictures. I gave her some prints as well as a book. She loved it.

Another present hit was Jakob's new shirt. Very fitting.

By the end of the night we had a pretty cool surprise.

The next day, Jake really wanted to see Uncle Willis' Buick that he's been restoring.
It looks pretty awesome!

On our last night, we convinced our parents to walk around the town center so we could see their Christmas light display. It was amazing. It was multiple blocks of amazing Christmas houses and lights!

The next day, we said goodbye to our family, the mountains, and the snow.

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! What are your plans tonight?

Jingle Bells

We spent Christmas morning with the Bells before I headed off to Utah. The funniest moment was actually on Christmas Eve. Linda found a temporary tattoo on her grandbaby and asked her, "Do you have any other tattoos I should know about?" To which Esme responded, "Not yet!" Esme's parents have many tattoos and they have always joked with Linda about tattooing the baby - the jokes started before she was even born. Needless to say, Esme's response generated many, many laughs. That is a story that is bound to live on forever.

For the record, we always laughed at people who dressed their dog.

Then we got a chihuahua mix who has the chihuahua shakes.

Rufus gets cold and needs clothes.
We don't love doing it, but the pup needs them!

Hope everyone had just as merry a Christmas as we did! 

Our Christmas Eve

  The stockings were hung by the chimney with care... 

*Those stockings (minus the snowman) are my favorite knitting projects.

Dad got cashews in his stocking... and Al got a yak that Jakob made out of clay. 

Yes, a yak. 

I think it might be her favorite present.

Dad created DVDs of all of the old family videos he could find as a gift to Allison.

We watched footage of Jakob as a newborn through one year old. 

He was the cutest kid ever.

Watching the videos now you can see his brilliant mind developing already at only a year old.

In contrast, 

that tape also contained a video of me and two friends in middle school performing 

"The Killer Salad Dressing" - an extremely compelling movie that we made up for a school project.

I remember we thought it was fantastic and hilarious at the time.

...It was terrible. Simply terrible.

Oh, the memories.

Twas a fantastic Christmas Eve.

Merry Merry!

Rufus in his Christmas morning PJs.

More pictures to come later this week!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve

Celebrating Christmas at home we'll enjoy this tree

And celebrating on Christmas morning we'll enjoy this one with this company, along with a lot more family.

Hi, dearest in-laws!

We'll also be celebrating Christmas with my family tomorrow on Christmas Eve before we (Dad, Al, and Jakob) fly out to Utah on Christmas day. I'm very excited to visit my relatives along with the mountains and snow. I love Utah. Unfortunately, Jason is staying at home because he has to work, but we'll get to celebrate together before we leave. 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! 

Love to all.

Lazy Sunday

We like our Sundays lazy.

Today wasn't exactly lazy but I managed to catch a cute lazy moment.

One more week until Christmas!!!

xoxo

Snow again, snow again, jiggity-jig

Did anyone else watch 24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the Winter Classic on HBO last night? I loved it. Even though my dearest team is not doing very well (they lost again last night making the losing streak a total of seven in a row - ouch) it was really, really cool to get a "behind the scenes" look at my favorite professional sport.

So - SNOW. You already know how snow makes us happy. Today we got what I would call our first REAL snow. Snow that sticks. It looks like our snow storms from earlier this year (that's three separate links!)... but only in the beginning. It's expected to stop tonight (tear), and has already slowed down, but I hope it sticks for a while and stays clean and pretty.

Now you can actually see the snow behind us unlike last time.

 

A young trail-blazer with his sled.

Freezing cold pup.

In snow/holiday fashion, I wanted to make something "cozy" and holiday-like. First I thought I would make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies but we don't have eggs. So I tried making hot chocolate with soy milk (I try to avoid dairy when I'm sick, and I have been quite sick lately). Verdict: gross. Then I figured I would make dinner in the crockpot and decided to make this orange curry chicken dish again except this time I used orange cranberry marmalade instead of plain orange. It smells delicious right now - we'll see how it turns out!

First Snow of the Season!

Can you see the snow? No? Well, there wasn't much but I promise you it was there!

Hooray for our first snow (flurries) of the season in DC!!!

Tonight we're laying low. The hubby is feeling kind of down so we're going to do fun things to cheer him up, like eat Chick-fil-a, play Super Mario Bros, and watch some funny TV on Hulu (we love Outsourced and Modern Family the most). I love cheering my love up. It's one of my favorite things to do... even when I'm sick as a dog!

Still No Snow.... in DC

Last weekend I trekked down to Harrisonburg with my family to support my little bro in his First Lego League State Competition. His team didn't win anything but they did a really great job.

I managed to walk away from the weekend with my first taste of a fried oreo, my first snow of the season, and my first cold of the season thanks to the 5,000 middle schoolers I spent all day Saturday and Sunday with. Spending time with my family was really great, watching Jakob put his smarts to the test was amazing, the fried oreo was delicious beyond anything I dreamed of, and of course cheating by leaving DC to see my first snow of the season wasn't half-bad either.

So happy to see SNOOOOOW!!!!

Let's Go Caps!

While my grandparents were in town for Thanksgiving, we all went to a Caps game! It was Jakob's first professional sport game so I let him wear my (old) jersey while I Rocked the Red.

 Grandpa, Grandma, Allison, Jason, Jakob, and Dad

Best of all - the Caps won! The final score was 3-2 which they won in a shoot-out. 

I love the high of a winning game!

It was a great night full of good food, good company, and darn good athletes. I can't wait to go to another game! Let's Go CAPS!!!!