Crazy Christmas

December was filled with unpacking, decorating, parties, planning parties, making gingerbread houses, shopping, cooking, projects, school programs, Alex's choir shows, etc., etc. As Christmas drew closer I was having a hard time getting in the spirit, I was feeling overwhelmed and forgetting to enjoy the season. But it turned out to be one of the best Christmas's yet. Once I decided to drop some of the things off my To Do list and let go of some of my perfectionist tendencies things started looking better. By the time we left for Utah I was done with everything on my list (mostly).

The festivities started on December 21 with my whole family in Utah. We were only missing 3 people-Maryn and Andrew on mission's and Stephanie in Colorado. It was a weekend full of cousins, yummy food, gingerbread houses, presents, snow, games and a talent show. It was the perfect weekend to start out Christmas. We headed home and spent Christmas Eve with Merritt's family. My Mom and Quin, Melissa, Shay and girls came over Christmas morning for the traditional Pork Chop Breakfast (my favorite meal of the whole year). We spent the rest of the day in our p.j.'s playing the Wii Santa brought. We even have video and pictures of Grandma, Grandpa, Mema, Papa and even Grandma DaBell (Merritt's grandma) playing it. It was quite entertaining. Then on Thursday Kelly, Danette, Kelsey, Gheen and Beth and their four boys came to visit. We stayed up way to late playing Guitar Hero and then got up the next morning for a day of skiing at Targhee. Sadly, Merritt had to work. Neither of us have been since before his mission and every year something prevents us from going (mainly tax season). But as sad as I was that he couldn't join us I still had a great time :)! After that group left Marci and her two kids came. It is always fun to have her here and Carson and Morgan are so adorable. While she was here we went to the Rexburg Temple open house with Merritt's whole family. We were just missing Marci's husband and their other 3 kids. It was a really amazing experience. Alex is old enough that he understood how neat it was that he could go through. School started back up on Wednesday (yeah!) and Marci went home this morning.

It has been a very busy and fun couple of weeks, but I guess it is back to our normal routine.