"Christmas is weird. What other time of year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks?" --Crabby Road--

I cannot believe that the holidays flew by so fast and I'm now back in Utah and starting another semester. Ugh. This break was just not long enough. It seems like yesterday that I was here getting ready to go home...what a good day that was. This was Mark's first holiday with the fam and the first time since the wedding that he's seen them so pretty much it's the first time he's gotten to be around them to actually get to know them. It was great fun though. He had a lot of good bonding time with my dad and brother and the other brothers-in-law which hopefully he had a good time. They all went bowling one night (minus my dad but plus a nephew) and had a fun time with that. He even got to spend some quality bonding time with the twins. He had the privilege of babysitting them while all us girls went out to lunch the day after Christmas. He ended up having to watch my sister Emily's kids too by the time we got back. He did such a good job though! First time he ever changed a diaper and everything.


Anywho, we got into MO on the 22nd and were busy pretty much the whole time, or I was. Mark spent most of the time watching movies with my dad or tagging along on trips to town with my brother. I'd see him every once and awhile when I wasn't helping my mom or sisters. :) He did go with me to go out to dinner and to the movies with Sarah and her family. I was so excited to see her although I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked. I did get to spend a lot of time with my sisters though and had a delightful time with all the babies. Santana is seriously the cutest, most adorable little thing ever and super cute now that she's walking around. And of course the twins are as cute as ever and always up to something. You just can't turn your back for a second on those two at all. They are so much fun though!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We did things a little different Christmas Eve and had a "Pajama Party" of sorts. Mom bought pj's for everybody and no one got to see them until that night. It was quite the experience for a couple of people, Ben especially. His were too tight and way too short and it was just hilarious. Mine were actually pretty darn cute compared to some of the other girls so I lucked out. It was fun though. Another thing we did different was the food, we didn't have dinner or anything like usual, instead we just did appetizers and the like and lots of cookies and desserts. We were going to have a cookie bake-off so we all made cookies but never got around to judging them so I think we'll just say that I won. :) Mine were pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

(My mom's "lovely" tree...)

For gifts this year we all did a little exchange where we each had a family and you'd do a gift basket for them, anything you wanted to do. This was supposed to be anonymous but of course some people just had to find out who everybody had. I got my grandma and grandpa and they ended up having us too which was funny. I was kinda going for a winter type theme and got my grandma a scarf and my grandpa some nice slippers and then some cute coffee cups and candy and a deck of pink cards and some little things like that. They got me a cute shirt and scarf and Mark a nice white church shirt and dress socks and then a cute oven mitt with a cookie mix inside and a couple other small little things which were all in a big, cute bag instead of a basket since it would be a little hard to bring a basket back home on a plane. I thought the baskets were a good idea though; much better than a white elephant type gift thing we do sometimes.

The other thing we did that night was a little Christmas program. Each family had to do something for it so we had readings, musical numbers, stories, etc. It was pretty good, especially my Mamma's part. She and Annie did a duet of a song she wrote for the occasion (my Mamma is quite the little song writer, she does the most random stuff, like she wrote songs for both Monie and I at our graduation parties which were very funny). Anyway, this song was really good and I was real proud of her.


Christmas Day was a good day too. We had our yummy tradition of fried bread, which I made the dough for but didn't put exactly enough salt although it still tasted good to me. The rest of the morning we got ready for our nice dinner and chatted with the fam. We had a nice ham dinner which was especially yummy. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, spending quality time with the fam.

The rest of the trip was just doing random things with everybody and enjoying every minute of it. The kids really liked Mark, especially the girls and especially Jerica. It was pretty cute and very funny. He said she's make up games and change the rules at her will so that she would win. She's a funny little girl. The other girls liked Mark a lot too, even Mellisa. She said half the fam was crushing on him, he's getting quite a fan club out there, very funny stuff. We did celebrate Natalia's b-day while we were there, she turned 11 and is growing up so fast! As is all my other nieces and nephews. Sierra turned 15 on the 3rd and can get her learner's permit...eek! How crazy is that??? She's planning on coming out to Utah this summer for a sports camp and if she does she'll be staying with us...lucky stuff! :) haha..I love you Sierra! She's super excited about it though and talks to me about it everytime I talk to her. Anyway, my other niece Carmen is turning 12 (I think??) on the 15th and then even more birthdays are right around the corner. This is our family's busy birthday time as you can see.

(Isn't that the most attractive thing ever?)

But anywho, it was a great trip home although I wish it could have been longer! I loved seeing all my fam and all the kids and especially my mom after last time with me only getting to see her in the hospital. This was so much better. Here's a "few" pictures from the trip!

(See? She wouldn't leave him alone!)

(I LOVE this kids smile!!!)

(Too cute...that's all I can say)

(I love taking pictures of this girl!)

(This was just too perfect...he's gonna have to do this more often when boys start coming around...)

(The nephews!)

(These girls are so beautiful!)

(See? Adorable!!!)

(Ha! I got Kady to smile! I AM the favorite aunt!!!)

(Hey! They said I could rip this open...)

(And the Rhino is back! With a rider...? Hmmm...)