Christmas Thoughts

What a wonderful year. It came with its ups and downs, but overall it was refreshing holiday. We enjoyed a slew of Christmases this year starting by visiting my parents and family in Moab for a few days. We enjoyed a wonderful time with my Mom, Dad, Sisters, Niece, Nephew, Aunts, Uncles and Grandma. We made the tours of several homes, opening presents with all varieties of family. My Mom always goes out of her way to make sure everyone enjoys the holiday and she was hard at work as always this year. She did a wonderful job I might add, always waiting on everybody and making sure we were having a good time. It was a great time to see my family. Working for a church, which of course means working weekends; I have less opportunity to go visit. Though my family understands, I still have times where I miss them greatly. I don’t get to see my nieces and nephews grow up and my Mom and Dad and Grandma and Sisters seem so far away sometimes. I relish holidays and time to spend with them. It was a good year.

We played board games, video games (my family got a little into the Rock Band scene), ate food, enjoyed the Christmas Eve Service at my church back home (it was so good to see all my long lost friends, it had been a while), opened presents, played outside and lounged around. We even took little Sammy down with us and my Dad had a great time with him. My Dad was so convinced of Sam’s excess energy that he had the great idea to hook him up to a sled.  After hooking him up and sitting down on the sled… Sam sat down next to him. Not exactly a sled dog I guess.

After Moab we made the trip home to enjoy a Haskins family Christmas. We spent Sunday with the Lansings and Haskins opening presents and eating more food. Gotta love the holidays, right? We had a wonderful time, and Gary made these amazing wooden toys for Travis and myself. He is quite talented. Shelli’s present was pretty amazing too, but I will let her detail that one.

Noah and I hit the penguin jackpot this year from Pez dispensers and giant pens to stuffed penguins and ornaments, the list goes on. I like penguins so I was pretty stoked, although I think Shelli is on penguin overload. Good times.

Next year will be Noah’s first and I can’t wait to share Christmas as a full-fledged family. Couple more months and the little guy will join us, I am so excited.