flowers

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Christmas

We had an awesome Christmas!  Christine, Scott, and Zoey stayed with us for a few days before heading up to Idaho to spend Christmas with Scott’s family.  It was so fun!! We will never forget how tight the living space was, but it was so stinking fun!

DSCN2218

We had a lot of fun also visiting Jill and Craig Gygi(my aunt and Uncle).  They just had a brand new baby girl named Estie! She is a beautiful little girl and we were able to see grandma and grandpa McBride, Ivan, Gordan, and my aunt Denee.  Later that night we were able to make Christmas cookies and watch a Elf!

P1020030

P1020039

DSCN2228

DSCN2226

After the Butikofer’s left we went to a bunch of family parties for Christmas! They were all fun and we were able to visit with a lot of the family in Utah.  Then on Christmas Eve, Harris and I went to see “Despicable Me” at the movie theatre(as per tradition) and then went to the Hardman’s where Santa came to visit and we read the Christmas story in the Bible.  It was so nice to be able to focus on the most important part of Christmas, which is Christ!  He lead the perfect life and has done and continues to do so much for all of us.  What a remarkable blessing that we have to have a brother like Him. 

After the Hardman party, we went to Mona to spend the night with the Tasker’s.  Harris and I got into bed and read the story that Harry(Harris’s grandpa) wrote about his Chirstmas during WWII when he was a soldier in the war.  I loved hearing that new(well, new to me) piece of family history.

On Christmas morning we all opened presents and Harris and I were able to talk to Tyler on the phone!!!  He is on his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Uruguay.  He sounded so fabulous and already has a little accent.  He really brought the perspective of Christmas to me! I am so proud of him!  We also go to see our friends, Blaine and Krystal, and helped them assemble some of their Christmas presents.  Then we had a family tournament on the Wii and Ali kicked all of our butts!

The Tasker’s were so generous to have us in their home and I really appreciate them making my first Christmas away from my parents, brothers, and sisters a really great one!

w christmas Eve (13)

z christmas (8)

z christmas (11)

z christmas (33)

z christmas (23)

z christmas (27)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving in Colorado!  We were able to fly out for a few days and spend some time with my family.  We had a ton of fun! We watched movies, played games, and got to play with our only niece on the Atkinson side.

2_7

18_4

31_0

28

I have to admit that the most thrilling part of the break was watching the BYU vs Utah football game.  Both teams played like crap, but it was close almost the whole way through(which was pretty exciting).  Harris watched his first real BYU game with my dad and saw the true SOFTIE that he really isWinking smile.  During half-time I got to pitch with my dad.  It was so fun since I have not really thrown since high school. Unfortunately we were all a little distraught since BYU lost, but the game was still fun.

33

34

On our way home we got stuck in the airport for hours since there was a huge snowstorm in Salt Lake that delayed our flight.  Fortunately, my parents sent us with plenty of food to tide us over until we left.  The Butikofer’s flew out around the same time as us, so we got to hang out with them in the airport for a little while.  That definitely helped the time go by much faster since Zoey is such a hoot and busy as crap!!

39 

40

It was a wonderful break and so nice to see Atkinson’s and Butikofer’s!