Holidays Part II

OK, this may be another lame picture-less post. We are getting really good at forgetting our camera for everything.

So anyway, it's been a holly-jolly Christmas! Mandee's parents came down from Seattle, despite the horrible weather up there. Between all the cancelled flights and hazardous conditions, they were lucky enough to have had their flight scheduled in between one of the lulls in the weather up there.

We met up with them Christmas Eve for the Mandee's extended family's open house at her grandmother's. There was lots of good food, and we watched a movie that Chelle had put together about Grandma's Christmases many, many times and said hi to some of the uncles, aunts and cousins.

That evening, we spent the night up with Camshaft's parents and spent the evening hanging out and playing games there with the whole family: Mom, Dad, all the siblings, their spouses, and the niece and nephews. The nephews were pretty wound up. At one point Brennan stated that he couldn't stand not opening a present for one more minute. Hilary finally relented and let them open the watches that they have been given. We think they were hoping for something a bit more exciting, like a video game or a toy, but when Camshaft asked if they would give him their watches, their answers were in the negative.

By 8:00 the next morning, the wrapping paper was coming off of presents at a frenzied pace. The boys were definitely the most fun to watch. Decker was very enthused about a LEGO Batman game he got and Brennan was excited by pretty much everything he got, tools, a castle (That we spent 2 hours trying to put together), and a treasure box, complete with the requisite pirate plunder.



We spent the rest of the morning playing games, eating everything in sight, like Christmas ham and sweet rolls, and enjoying our time with family. In the early evening, we braved the conditions and headed to Ogden to Chelle's house, where we had Christmas II and opened all of the presents that we had given and received from Mandee's family.



The main activity of the evening ended up being watching Mamma Mia. The reviews were very mixed. Mandee loved it and Camshaft did a lot of eye rolling and sighing.



The ride home ended up being a white knuckle ride. By the time we got out towards the west side of Ogden to get on the interstate, the weather was awful, but we made it home, slowly and surely, just in time to go to bed and get ready for another fun-filled day in Mt. Green. We mostly did more of the same, played with the boys, and played games. We also broke out the new Cooking Mama, which everyone enjoyed.



Saturday was the big party with Mandee's family. They all headed over for an all-day party, where we spent the bulk of the day playing Rock Band, which Mandee's parent's had gotten us for Christmas. Too bad we don't have pictures, as we all pretty much made fools of ourselves. We also busted out Cooking Mama and Loaded Question while enjoying Mandee's pulled-pork sandwitches. Good times were had by all.

So anyway, there's our Christmas activities. Hope everyone had a good one as well. Here's to a happy 2009 for everyone.

Holidays Part 1

Yes, we know. We have been slackers. We keep putting off posting, because we are afraid we will foget something that we did.

But we'll just post what we remember and let it go at that.

It's been a fun month. The holidays are gearing up. Thanksgiving was a blast. After spending the night before with Mandee's incoming family at our house, we ended up at Mandee's aunt Julie's house for the big meal. And we do mean big. There were like 35 of us there. We ate and ate and ate and then went over to Chelle's house to visit with her new beau's family and with each other. The next day we ended up at Camshaft's parent's house and spent a nice afternoon with his family. We've been lucky to see them quite often and especially enjoy going up there when the niece and nephews are there. Heidi is so cute, Decker is so fun to play with and talk to, and Brennan is so funny.

We also made a trip to Temple Square with Mandee's parents, down from Seattle, and siblings to see the play "Savior of the World."
It was very well done, with a large cast and a very cool, modular set that they could transform into about everything. We enjoyed it very much and were glad it helped us keep focus on the most important aspect of the holidays.

After a meal at the Lion House and the play, we saw the lights at temple square and then headed down to Mandee's grandparent's house and stayed the night there. Here's a couple of shots of us at temple square, one with just us, and one with Mandee's whole fam (We stole from Chelle and Holli):







That weekend was also Mandee's birthday. We had a great time with everyone, and Mandee finally got her big mystery birthday present that Camshaft had been holding on to for about 5 months, a Nintendo Wii. It's been fun so far, although we've probably been spending too much time playing Lego Star Wars

Another highlight was going to the Scrooge: The Christmas Carol musical at the Washington Terrace Playhouse. We went along with Holli, Chelle, and Victor and had a good time. It was quite the production, and their big finale of the year, with a huge cast and lots and lots of musical numbers.

So anyway, that's all we can think of at the time. Things have been good and we are looking forward to spending the holidays with friends and family. Thanks for all your love and thoughts this holiday season.

We hope everyone has a merry Christmas and happy holidays.