Christmas Time

Apologies for a major slack in my blogging lately. My blog is on a binge diet... many posts all at once then a long lag. I've gotta improve.

But as long as we're playing catch-up, let's start with Christmas! As the day approached we did the usual pre-Christmas traditions: a work cookie exchange (Steve helped) and the infamous Ward Christmas Party which for us, was Night in Bethlehem themed. Even without my dad's go-to robe, I must say, we looked pretty legit.

 But the best part was we went to Utah and saw our families and friends. Oh how we welcomed the beautiful mountains! We only had 6 days, but we tried to make every second count. We made sure to eat some Cafe` Rio (think we need to open one here soon) and good, traditional,  homemade cookin' (a pleasant change from my often boring meals). We played tons of games and spent long nights chatting away. All was wonderful until I got sick Christmas Eve, which was a total bummer. Basically between the craziness of scheduling visits to see people and coughing I ended up not taking many pictures. Insert more apologies [here]. But I did get a few.

We got to hang out with my best friend... Miss Stephanie Lyon.

There was more snow there than Milwaukee!

Grandpa Bruce's puzzle made for some late nights 

Matching ear warmers for all the girls from Grammy

We got to talk to ALLI!!! who is on her LDS Mission in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

 Since we were flying most of our presents were shipped to us before. We got to open a few more gifts when we returned.

You know you're married and old when you ask for emergency preparedness stuff for Christmas, but hey, at least we'll be warm and ready if we ever experience a disaster.

Although we didn't get to stay as long as we might have liked, we were so happy to see our loved ones (and talk to Alli). We feel so blessed to have such wonderful, supportive friends and family. Thank you everyone!