Christmas

Whew! Finally, I got this Christmas post together. For the short version, just look at the pictures! We had a great time with our families in Arizona. Tons of fun for everyone! The painfully long version follows laterÜ.
P.S. Deacon doesn't realize that he didn't get any presents from us or Santa Claus----so nobody ruin it!






















-We weren't looking forward to driving 12 hours to Arizona with a 21 m/o little boy. I was trying to convince Nathan to buy a portable DVD player but he is very protective of Deacon's mind "rotting away"--haha. Luckily, we were talking to our Bishop and he mentioned how glad he was to have one for the kiddos and I told Nathan we really should follow his divinely inspired counsel Ü. Nate found an awesome deal on one so we bought it. What a difference it made! But the biggest difference was being able to split up our trip and stay Saturday night with Ashley and Matt in Vegas. Great Hosts!

-On Sunday we made a stop to eat at Metcalfe Park in Kingman. Nathan indulged me by pretending to be interested in every little memory I could think of. Deacon loved the playground. Later that afternoon we arrived at my parents house and stayed the first part of the week there.

-On Monday I got to visit my sister Brenna and see her new house for the first time. I paid homage to The Twilight tree Ü. I visited with my sister Paige who was home from UofA for Christmas Break. Nathan also spent the entire day changing the struts on my car. That man amazes me! He knew nothing about it, but got on the Internet to do some research. Then he spoke with my dad and his dad, and made some calls our brother-in-law Jim, and he decided to give it a try. He ordered the parts and we brought them with us to AZ (where it is a LOT warmer to work on your car outside). He scared me at first because he said changing them can be dangerous. If you don't replace them the right way, they are made of tight springs than can shoot through the car take your head off while driving (yes, I was ready to go to a mechanic right then). Then he found some online that are pre-packed (or something?) and not dangerous. I think he calculated a savings of about $500 over having someone else do it. I was only *slightly* scared to drive around after the job was done. He also took my car for new tires and alignment. I'm lucky to have him!

-On Tuesday we took my brother Colton out to do some Christmas shopping. I felt bad because I promised to do it the day before, but my car took longer than expected so I kept having to call every two hours and delay, and then finally cancel for that day. So we promised to take him to lunch if we could delay another day. After shopping, we asked him where he wanted to eat and we happened to be driving by McDonald's. He said he didn't want to eat there because it was unhealthy. Well, there aren't very many healthy fast food places. But there was a Peter Piper Pizza behind McDonald's that had an all-you-can-eat buffet for $4.50 so we asked him if that would work. Again, he was skeptical because pepperoni is unhealthy too. With all that fuss about eating healthy, we were surprised that he totally skipped the salad bar that came with the buffet and ate 11 (eleven!) pieces of pizza. I was impressed because I think Nate has 100 lbs on him, and Nate could "only" eat 12 pieces. Deacon fell asleep as we arrived so we let him stretch out on a booth bench. It was so loud there with all the kids, but he didn't even flinch.

-Wednesday was Christmas Eve so we headed over to my sister's house (The Wright Place) for dinner. We were excited to see my sister Monica and her family, since we weren't expecting them until tomorrow. There were LOTS of little cousins in cute pajamas running around. It wasn't planned but almost all of them were in stripes! We also had a fun White Elephant gift exchange. One of my favorites was the soft, furry 'pimp' coat that Paige picked up from the Salvation Army and Chanda ended up opening. It was even funnier when it got stolen.....by my brother Rocky.

My brother Weston picked his White Elephant gift (keep in mind he is 17) and showed everyone the items that were in there. He puts them back in the bag and is sliding it under his chair when my sister Monica goes, "Are you sure that's all that is in there?" So Brenna grabs the present and rifles through it again. She sees something at the bottom and tries to hide it. She then demands to know who brought this present. She was like an interrogator! She says again, "Who brought this? This is a FAMILY party!" It didn't take long to find the culprit was Jim (Monica's husband) and that he had given a box of prophylactics. He had been really sweating that whole time because he thought the gift exchange would be with all the grown siblings. But it turns out all the little kids were "helping" to open the presents. Also, we had a family from Connecticut with us as a guest and they have young children as well. So he was really regretting the present and was relieved when Weston missed it the first time----good thing Monica pointed it out so it was lost in the shuffle! Luckily, my dad "stole" it from Weston later in the game.

-Thursday (Christmas Morning) we headed over to the Hunt House bright and early for breakfast. A new set of cousins to play with and a new set of toys. And Deacon loved being outside most of the time we were in AZ because it's been too cold to go out up here. Lots of extended family came over for lunch and we took lots of family pictures.





We did a White Elephant exchange on the Hunt side that was funny as well. Some of the lovely items up for winning:

Rechargeable Batteries

Lovely lotions and potions from BBW

Matilda, by Roald Dahl

Or a used toaster oven!