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Christmas Fun

This is a really late post since yesterday was Valentine's Day!  But for family history purposes, here it is:

Christmas was on Sunday this year.  We woke up to lots of fluffy snow.  First thing, we Skyped with Everett, our current missionary.  This is always a huge highlight.

Our married children joined us from California and Canada where they were visiting in-laws.
After Skyping, we had a big traditional Christmas brunch.  Then we went to church.  Afterwards, since it was snowing, we enjoyed playing together in the backyard.  It wasn't good snowman snow but the kids had fun throwing it and burying Talmage.

Garrett and Scott got cool new hats.







For the break, we decided to stay home and not go anywhere, especially since it was not very long.  We let the kids pick what they wanted to do.

On Monday afternoon I took Mindy and Camille sledding and we just happened to meet their cousins there.

Camille was finally brave enough to go down the hill on her own.




For our family activity, Talmage picked rock-climbing.  We went to the Quarry, an indoor climbing place, on Monday night when they had a half-price special.  My brother Brian went with us.  Mindy was a little mountain goat and climbed to the top four times.  Camille and I were not quite as ambitious.  Everyone had a good time except near the end when Camille ran under Talmage as he was jumping down.  He fell on top of her and she hurt her leg which still hurts a little, but isn't broken.

On Tuesday Susanna picked the movie Moana.  We tried to go see it but it was sold out by the time we got there so we came home and watched our new DVD of "Finding Dorie", which some members of the family hadn't seen yet.

On Wednesday Mindy picked swimming.  I hate indoor swimming in the winter because it's so cold so I stayed home and Scott took the girls to the Provo pool.  He's my hero.

On Thursday Scott picked sledding.  We drove up to Aspen Grove which really didn't have many people and most of the family went sledding while I tried out the snow shoes I got for Christmas.  This was probably my favorite activity because it was so quiet and peaceful up there in the mountains.  We came home and I made dinner for my sister and brother and their families.  Afterwards we went to an extended family game night at my mother's house.

Here I am in my new snowshoes Scott gave me for Christmas.



On Friday Camille picked ice skating.  My back was killing me so I stayed home while Scott took the kids.  A few cousins joined them and they had a good time.

The activity I picked actually happened the Friday before Christmas.  We met Scott at work and went to the Museum of Art to see "Minerva Teichert's Book of Mormon Paintings".  Right as we were going in, I heard that my sister-in-law has breast cancer so I didn't get much out the exhibit because I was so busy feeling sick with worry about her.  Fortunately, she is doing well and it appears she will make a full recovery.

Saturday was the day we took down the Christmas tree and cleaned the house.  That was pretty fun for me!  I enjoyed Christmas but I'm also happy when it's over and we get back to our regular routine.  We celebrated New Year's Eve that night at my brother's house.


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