A Very Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone and, as usual, I'm totally bummed. I seriously thrive off of Christmas time (even though it is the busiest time of year for us)! But oh well, I guess if Christmas time was year-round, I wouldn't love it as much as I do. :) Anyway, we had a really great time hanging out with our families and getting spoiled rotten (seriously)!


On Sunday night, we had my family come to our house for a little Christmas party where we exchanged presents early (since it was our year to spend Christmas with Greg's family). I was so busy playing hostess (and opening presents of course! ha ha) that I totally forgot to take pictures, so sorry! But really, we were spoiled rotten. The boys got toys galore, I got a lot of new clothes (exactly what I wanted!), and Greg got camping stuff (which he was thrilled about because he wants to take Gavin camping this summer).

On Christmas Eve, Greg had to work of course, but fortunately he was able to get off at 3:00 since we knew a big storm was coming in. We then drove all the way up to Greg's sister's cabin at Bear Lake in that fabulous storm, and I honestly was fearing for my life again (just like last week)! Logan Canyon was the scariest because the visibility was so low and the roads were so snow-packed that you could hardly see where you were going. I was seriously so nervous we would have to spend the night in the car. But fortunately, we made it through unscathed and got to the cabin by about 6:00. We then had a little Christmas Eve party with fun party foods, watched A Christmas Story, opened pajamas (you can see the boys' in the picture to the left), read the Christmas story from the scriptures, and stayed up until 2:30 setting up... I mean waiting for Santa! :)

Christmas morning came all too fast after getting so little sleep, but it was fun! When Gavin woke up, we had to remind him that Santa had come during the night because he had completely forgotten! He walked upstairs, ran right past his toys (he didn't even see them) and to the window, and then asked about all the snow outside. I have never seen a boy so unexcited (or maybe confused?) about Christmas! We then redirected his view over to his toys, and he went crazy of course! Santa brought him exactly what he wanted: "A Geotrax and a dinosaur." (The dinosaur was added to the list about a week ago, but fortunately, Santa had an inkling a couple months ago that he might want one...)

We then spent the rest of Christmas day opening presents and visiting with family. Greg's brother Jeff and his family came over from Pocatello, and Gavin had a blast playing with their kids. We headed home that night since Greg had to work the next day of course... good ol' retail! But overall, we had a really great holiday. Gavin even told me yesterday that he wanted to tell Santa Claus thank you. :) I told him I would tell Santa and that he would appreciate that! :) We hope you guys all had a wonderful Christmas too! -Ash

Tyler and Grandma Swenson

Opening presents!

Mmm... yummy toys!

Bear Lake on Christmas Day. You would never guess we drove through such a horrible snow storm just the night before!

Our mess of a house once we brought everything home. I'm still not sure where we are going to put everything!

Both boys love this little table Grandma and Grandpa Swenson gave them. (And please ignore the gigantic mess in the background! How embarrassing!)