Christmas Break

Ahhhhh. 

And when we got home, we still had a week of Christmas break left!  And we came home to over a foot of snow with more to follow.  Christmas Eve brought the white Christmas that everyone in both Utah and Idaho had been wishing for!  It was the perfect time to have fresh snow!  Dallin and the boys got to try out the new snowblower, and the kids played in the snow for hours every day.  I was surprised at how much 2 year old Sullivan loved it!  He wanted to be out there with the big kids, and he didn't give up and come in after 15 minutes like most 2 year olds.  I'd go out there to play with him a little and pull him on the sled, but he'd turn me down to get back to the game with the other kids.  The big boys made a cool slide that wound down the deck stairs, down the patio stairs, and onto the patio by the shed.  It was steep and fast, but the kids loved it.  Then they got really creative and made a slide down the roof of the racquetball court.  That one was much steeper, and caused some mommy heart palpitations.  They had fun and nobody got hurt. 

We took the little kids sledding up at the church, where there is a little steep hill.  It was perfect.  We didn't have to do a lot of hiking and we were close to the car and it was just fun enough.  Dallin took the bigger kids to the golf course later for some extreme sledding.  I was happy to stay home with the littles.  I've done the golf course thing with little kids before, and it just didn't seem worth it.

We were able to relax and enjoy each other, play games, watch movies, and do some long awaited home improvement projects!  My dream vacation!! We got our basement cleaned and organized in a way that is so much less crowded and more user-friendly.  We got a motion detector light installed in sthe ceiling of the boys' closet so we don't have to jump up and try to hit the switch on the ceiling!  We cleared out the big basement room to make it more usable for exercise and organized some of the toys and dressups down there.  The kids have spent so much more time enjoying that area, and I love it!  We got some shelves put up to clear out some floor space in the game room which made the upstairs bedrooms less cluttered.  Every bedroom got deep cleaned (except mine).  That will for sure happen before the baby comes!  But it was so fun working with Dallin and playing with the kids.  I LOVED not having to go anywhere.  It was a true break and I felt more prepared for the New Year than I ever have. 

We rang in the new year with our younger kids because the big boys were invited to dances and parties.  We watched movies and ate snacks.  We watched the ball drop at 10:00 and pulled party poppers and threw streamers and made lots of noise and danced around.  It was perfect! 

We have had a truly blessed year!  We have so much to be grateful for, and I loved spending the final week with my favorite people in my favorite place.