Christmas and Family

First of all- I can't believe Christmas is over! This year has flown by. Wow.

OK. On with the blog. To begin with- this has been the Week of Driving for our family. We started off on Sunday evening, when we drove down to Monroe to go to the Stake Devotional to hear my dad speak. There was some beautiful music and it really got me in the mood for Christmas.

The next day, I (Kristen) hung out with Josh at Lisa's house while Steve came back up to Ephraim (he hitched a ride from my dad who was coming to work in his Ephraim office). Steve finished the cupboards (see previous post) and they came home that evening in a very bad snow storm. We hung out at my parents house and then drove home to Ephraim on Tuesday.

After a quick layover to do laundry and re-pack the diaper bag, we were off again to West Jordan. We got there in time to make Steve's dad's choir concert on Temple Square which was fun.

Steve's family has a tradition of going out to a resturaunt for Christmas Eve dinner, but since we were going to be at my parents for Christmas Eve, and Dave (Steve's brother) is joining the Air Force and moving to Texas in January, we decided to do a lunch so we could at least all spend a little time together at Christmas. In years past, they have always done a nicer resturaunt, but with all the grandkids, we decided to go a different route this year. And it was different indeed! We ended up at Chuck E. Cheese's (where a kid can be a kid...) and it turned out to be really fun. The kids could run around and be noisy and the parents could just chat and didn't have to worry about keeping their kids quiet and seated. Josh got to ride a few of the rides- here are some pics of the day:

They also have one of those photo booths that "sketches" your picture for you. Here is Steve and Sam (our nephew).

Ater lunch we packed up the car again and drove down to Monroe. On the ride there, Steve came down with a bug. It pretty much put Steve out of commission for the night. He just slept and ate crackers and drank 7-Up while I had Clam Chowder (the Mathie family Christmas Eve traditonal meal) and spent time with the fam. Poor Steve.

My dad read the Christmas story out of the bible and some of the grandkids helped act it out with the Fisher Price nativity set my parents have. The best part was when we got to the wise men. My dad was reading the verse, and my mom said to the kids "The wise men were bringing presents. Who were the presents for?" And Allie- Michelle's daughter (3 in a couple weeks) said "For ME?!" loudly with an excited smile on her face. We had to laugh and then we reminded her that the presents were actually for Jesus. Then we opened our Christmas Eve presents- they were pajamas! (big surprise).

Josh just wasn't too in to the festivities. A few hours later I found out why- when he puked all over me. Pretty sure he caught whatever bug Steve had. Poor kid.

But Christmas morning, everyone was feeling fine, so we all congregated around the tree to open presents at about 8:00 am. It wasn't until around 9:15ish that we actually started opening- and by then Josh had fallen asleep again. He woke up about halfway through and we helped him open his first present from Santa- wooden blocks- which he really loves to play with.

We were definitely more excited about him opening presents than he was.

And just as we expected, he liked the boxes and packaging better than the presents, but oh well. All the cousins came by throughout the morning to show off their presents and open presents from Grandpa and Grandma Mathie. Then we all got together at Michael and Marisa's house for Christmas Dinner which was FABULOUS! We played Guitar Hero- but, alas, we didn't take any pictures of that excitement. Sorry.

So today, Dec. 26th, we drove back to Ephraim with a fussy boy who is still getting over a bug and an "almost 100%" Steve. I still have yet to come down with anything (knock on wood). The driving isn't over. We are headed up north tomorrow for a family Christmas party, and then it is back home tomorrow night so I can prepare to teach primary on Sunday.

Whew! What a whirlwind of a holiday! We were so busy, but we tried to keep our minds on the reason for the season- and that is our Savior's birth. All the songs about the birth of Christ really hit me hard this year now that I am a mother. There are so many songs that talk about the incredible potential and mission of such a humble, small baby, and it makes me wonder what Josh will grow up to be. How humbling to be the mother of one of God's children!

Merry Christmas to all!