Christmas Break 2013

I could not wait for Christmas break this year. Work was wearing me out and I couldn't wait to see my family again. This break was also the longest one I ever remember having, both as a teacher and being in school myself. I had 17 days total and 13 of them were spent at home (counting 2 travel days). It was also long enough to get used to not working again so going back tomorrow will be challenging but overall, it was a fantastic break.

Being home was wonderful as always. I spent lots of time with all of my family members and we kept busy. Sometimes I go home for too long and get bored but not this time. The Valley was extremely cold but that's normal. At least it was pretty.

We enjoyed a nice Christmas program in Sacrament meeting and went home to take our traditional Sunday before Christmas pictures.

Christmas Eve was spent without Whitney and Andy but my grandma was able to join us. We have our big meal on Christmas Eve and still had a little program where my Dad read the Christmas story from the Bible and I told a few stories.

Christmas Day was wonderful. As I grow older, I enjoy giving more than receiving and just love being able to be home with my entire family. Whitney and Andy joined us in the afternoon so we could all be together.

Christmas Morning

 My favorite gift was a t-shirt quilt I asked my mom to make. It wasn't quite finished but we got it done Christmas night.

 My dad loves toys and got us all a foosball table to share.

 I loved all of my gifts! My family knows me well.

Besides the usual Christmas festivities, we played lots of games, talked a lot, relaxed, went to Pueblo, ate too much, watched movies, and shot guns. My dad got a skeet shooter and clay pigeons for Christmas so we went shooting 3 different times. I was pretty darn good with the shotgun too; impressed myself even.

Shooting shotguns at the shooting range:

Everyone got in on the action:

Then we shot .22s

 Then shot shotguns again on our property:

If you can't tell, we hate guns :)

Usually we have a boring New Year's Eve and often come back to Utah to be with friends but this year, we got to spend it all together as a family which was fun. It was a pretty hopin' party until about 11 when we all crashed. We managed to ring in the year at midnight but as you can tell, were pretty tired...

 except for Sarah!

We went home on Thursday so Sarah could work for a day and I could see some friends. Now it's back to work and routines and seeing how long my New Year's resolutions will last this time.

I hope you all had a great Christmas as well!