Christmas in Utah

24-31 Dec, 2012:

We had a white Christmas this year. On Monday (Dec 24) it snowed all day. It meant shoveling the walks and driveway several times during the day. Most of the day was spent preparing for Christmas: Andrea sewing gifts, Diane making peppermint popcorn to take to the neighbors, and Paul wrapping gifts and shoveling again. We decided on fondues for our Christmas Eve dinner, including: cheese, pizza, chocolate, and caramel fondues.

We started Christmas morning in the basement then came upstairs and turned on the Christmas tree lights in the living room. The kids started handing out presents. It was supposed to be two at a time, but the excitement soon carried them away. It was a nice morning. Andrea and Jason left with their family about noon to spend the rest of Christmas with Jason's family. Everything was certainly quieter in the afternoon.

Our Christmas tree

10 stockings in a row

Christmas smiles

Having most of the family in Salt Lake gave us some time to clean out and inventory the food storage and get some other things done around the house, like finances and organizing. The family returned on Friday (except for Jason who hopes to work a little in Salt Lake). Paul and Hanna went to a youth dance. Hanna was able to dance with several boys and even reserved a few for her aging grandpa.

Saturday was an emergency repair day. Diane put some stale cornflake crumbs down the sink and clogged the drain (clear down into the wall). In the process of unplugging the pipes the sink started leaking so we had to replace the insert for the garbage disposal. We finally got all the pipes put back together and the leaks stopped. It took from 9:30 am to about 3 pm to get it fixed. Watch out for bread crumbs! It's a good thing Diane married a plumber.

Sunday didn't seem very eventful until Diane hit the wrong key on her new iPad and it started reading the scriptures out loud during Sunday School class. She rushed out of class and finally got it fixed. Such is our world of technology.

Monday (Dec 31) was the last day of 2012. This has been quite a year. It started with a transfer from Toronto to Trent Hills. We then came home from our mission to a full house. It will be interesting to see what 2013 brings. We stayed home and played some games to welcome in the new year.

New Years Eve games