Christmas 2009

I think I've fallen into a vicious cycle, one that I can hopefully free myself from. I wait so long to blog that if becomes daunting; and thus I put it off, making it even more daunting when even more blog-worthy things happen and add to my load. Hopefully, though, now that we have church at 9, I can free myself from these chains with which I am bound. :) So, here goes nothin'.

We left Seattle on the 18th about 3. We knew we weren't going to make it to Idaho that night, so we had made hotel reservations in Missoula. We thought it would be a nice rest; we'd get there around 11, sleep, and leave around 9ish the next morning. Ellie thought differently, however. She fell asleep about 20 minutes outside of Missoula, and when we arrived at the hotel woke up just enough to be really disoriented. She started crying and saying she wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed, that she needed to go potty and wanted to use our potty, etc. We tried bribes, threats, and finally just ignoring her and going to bed, but she was so distraught and worked up that she kept coming over and hitting Jake and I in bed. Finally, about 1:40 AM, I decided to not make our neighbors listen to any more and take her for a ride. She was happy; she thought we were going home, and after about 30 minutes of driving around she fell asleep. We got back to the hotel, and I moved really slowly taking her upstairs - the last thing I wanted to do was to have to go drive again!!! She was fine the next day, and I now know where to find 2 Wal-Marts, 3 McDonald's, a bowling alley, and places where the cops pull over drunk drivers in Missoula. :)
After being up so late, though, she did take a looooooong nap in the car the next day, which we appreciated. She must have been really tired, though, because this is how she was sleeping:

We got to Idaho on Saturday, and that Sunday we blessed Mason in my parent's ward. Mason did great until his paci fell out, and the blessing Jake gave was wonderful.

{Most} of the Circle members

Mason with his favorite cousins, Bridger and Ashton. They're all growing up so fast!

We enjoyed a couple of days just being at my parent's house before Christmas. Jake and I got some R&R thanks to the extra hands, and the kids enjoyed playing outdoors. Ellie was fascinated with my parent's lawn nativity

~And now a funny tale~
Once upon a time, a wife ordered this for her husband for Christmas:

He'd been eyeing it at Costco, saying how fun it would be to have it. She kept brushing him off, telling him it was too expensive, but she knew better. She thought she was so on top of things; She'd had it shipped to her parent's house, so it was there and waiting and the husband was clueless. She could just see in her mind how excited he'd be to realize that the big box under the tree on Christmas morning was for him, and see the excitement in his eyes as he opened it. Then, on Christmas Eve afternoon, She went to wrap it. She got it out of the box. . . . . . and realized that she had ordered it for Playstation 2 and not Wii!!! She went and frantically told her mother what had happened, asked her to take care of her baby, and then ran of to the store. The first store she went to was out of it for Wii. Practically in tears, she went to Wal-Mart. The Christmas surprise she had been planning for so long was going to be ruined!! The store was a zoo, but a Christmas miracle happened and she was in and out in 10 minutes with it in hand! Wal-Mart even came through for her again a few days later when they took back the one that she had ordered online (not from them) that was now outside of the return policy. So, the wife is now ever so grateful to Wal-Mart and has vowed that she will check and triple check the game system if ordering any Wii games online.

~The End~


On Christmas Eve, we headed over to my Aunt Sonya's for the annual Johnson shindig. Jake and I were volunteered to be in charge of the nativity, probably because we had the baby Jesus. It took on an anamalistic theme, though, as evidenced by the tiger blanket in the manger and Joseph's cheetah robe.

But I bet our Harrod's head wear was way cooler than yours. :)

My bros took over the couch

and then we went home for some last minute "Elf work."

Our kids slept until 8 on Christmas morning; bless them! I love Ellie's crazy hair in this picture. .

And tore into the presents with gusto. Here's Connor opening his Leapster

And here's Ellie seeing how many of the numerous princess gifts she received she can use at the same time

We spent all day on Christmas in our PJ's, having lots of fun with Band Hero. It was worth the grief the day before!!

My brother Aaron is great at multi-tasking. I never knew guitar hero and exercise were so compatible!!

We spent a few more days after Christmas bonding with family. Mason loved talking to my dad.

And Ellie got my Grandma to read her story after story. .

. . . but then it was time to say goodbye and head up to Bozeman. The kids entertained themselves on the way up by getting out some sibling aggression. At one point, Connor excitedly told us, "Guess what?!? My game was made in China!!!!" We didn't have the heart to tell him that almost everything we own came from there, so instead we laughed really hard and tried not to let him see. :)

We got to play more games with Jake's family

and even convinced Jake's dad to do some Band Hero

And got in some more snow time.

But, like all good things, it came to an end and we came home. I think this is the most excited we've ever been to head home from Christmas - because we're now in the year we graduate!! Hallelujah!!