Still catching up

Wow! Christmas is over, the kids are back at school and it's snowing...again. Welcome to January. I have a few more days to catch up on so here it goes.

We started off the Christmas season with the much anticipated Poinsettia Bowl featuring BSU and TCU. Long story short BSU played crappy and lost. Made for a disappointing night.

Christmas eve we relaxed at home most of the day. About 4 we went to Rodger and Terry's for dinner then went together to the Christmas Eve service at church. It's always such a sweet time celebrating the birth of our savior. After the service it was snowing. Hard. But nothing would keep us from our 13 year tradition of looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. We have gone with Rodger and Terry every year and we usually go to the same spots. For a long time we went to the same place but over the years we have changed it up a bit and now we head up to Quail Ridge to see THE Christmas light house. I'm telling you it must take these people three months to put all the lights up. It was snowing but I wanted to get out and take a few pics so Rodger, the kids and I got out to walk around. Rob eventually joined us once he found a spot to park. I wish these pictures showed just how hard it was snowing. It was miserable. After this house we went to a house that does a show like this. We went last year but got there about halfway through and ended up standing outside in the cold and listening to the music through someones cracked window. Not this year. We waited our turn, pulled into a spot and got to watch the half hour show in a warm car. So much better. When the show was over we went home and ate snacks and played a game of canasta. About midnight we decided it was time to go home and wait for Santa.

Christmas morning started way too early for me. I heard something in the living room, then saw a light, which turned out to be the tree coming on. I looked at my clock and it said 4:45. Since the kids weren't in bed till 12:30 and it was almost 1:00 for us I was not about to let them stay up. I went out there with my eyes only partway open and told them all they had to go back to bed. They were not happy but that's the way it goes. I said they had to stay in bed until at least 7:00. Lucky for me Austin didn't get up until almost 9:00. Taylor followed shortly thereafter and we had to wake up Emily. The kids opened their gifts and all loved what they got. Taylor is so animated so we got a lot of "YES!"s and "THANK YOU SANTA!"s (even though he doesn't believe in him, he plays along well) and even a couple touchdown dances.

Once our mess was picked up we trudged through the snow to my parent's house. We were supposed to eat brunch and then have tacos and enchiladas for dinner. Well there was food out all day so I pretty much grazed all day. Doesn't leave a lot of room for dinner. We spent a relaxing day just hanging out.

The day after Christmas we were again at Rodger and Terry's for more eating, a little train and another late night. Followed by another night of church, pizza and some more canasta.

The guys went to the H Bowl on the 30Th. Taylor is ever the sports fan and just had to have his face painted for the big day. He was going for Nevada because he said it would make BSU look better if they won it. I don't get it but Rob said he was right. HE wanted everyone else to paint heir faces too but no one was going for it. Good thing he isn't proud.

We ended the year with a kickin party at the Sanchez's. We went last year and had a great time. We were invited again and were, again, so happy we went. There was an air hockey tournament(which I lost in the first round, of course), a get to know you game that I would've won if Eliseo would've signed off my square that said "hit a dog with a car" and not "likes thunderstorms", and a music trivia game(my absolute favorite) that my team would've won if Steve would've joined us instead of going against us (darn you Steve!). Win or lose the music game rocked. We also had loads of fun hanging out til midnight. Besides Randall and Alyssa we were the only non family members that stayed but it was worth it. After watching another hour counting down to the west coast new year and making fun of people on TV (sorry Dionna) we decided that 1:oo was it for us and it was time to put our munchkins to bed.

Today I look ahead at the new year. I don't know what it will bring but I am ready for the ride. Happy New Year!