This year we decided to stay home for Christmas, although we did leave for Utah the day after! Chris was able to take most of the last two weeks of December off from work and actually stayed close to home for the first part of the month as well. It was SO nice to have him around. We both felt much more relaxed and were able to just enjoy the season together with the girls. We are now back to the grind--work and school and activities.
Christmas included the usual school concerts (where you will undoubtedly sit on the wrong side of the room so that your kid is completely blocked from view!), sledding in Utah, video gaming, jumping on the NEW TRAMPOLINE (who thought kids could actually spend 4-5 hours a day jumping up and down!), Christmas Caroling, baking treats, etc. The kids actually all slept in until the usual 7:00 Christmas morning! We were quite happy. New Years Eve was equally relaxed. The girls had no problem celebrating with the people in Times Square. So, at promptly 9:00 we were blowing our horns and popping our string poppers and yelling "Happy New Year!" The girls then headed up to bed. Having already "celebrated," Chris and I felt no need to stay up until midnight. We headed to bed early and woke up the next morning pleasantly suprised that there were no neighborhood fireworks to wake us up at midnight. (There is usually quite a ruckus!)
On the way home from Utah we took a slight detour to visit Hoover Dam. It was an interesting stop, but we decided that we won't bother to go again until the new bridge bypassing the dam is finished. There are security checks along the road which currently goes across it and it took us almost an hour to travel the last 4 miles to the parking lot!
