Visiting my Family: New Years

This trip up north was one of the most relaxing visits I have had for a long time. Tyson slept like a champ, for both bedtime and naps, and I got to have lots of quality time with both my parents and Dusty's. My siblings were out of school and relatively "unbooked", so I got to see lots of them as well. It was very enjoyable and full of laughs.

We had a movie marathon that lasted for 12 hours. I'm not kidding. Can you guess which movies they were?


Tyson also got to spend many little moments with his grandpas. He loved it. I'm sure the grandpas did too. :)


Willy pulled out his super cool Hogwarts train for Tyson to play with. Definitely a highlight of the trip.


The boys also exerted much of their pent-up aggression in mini wrestling matches.


For New Year's Eve, we toasted to a better year and played a rousing game of Settlers. I'm pretty sure my Dad won, which boggles my mind because he is so generous in his trading. Good karma I guess.


I spent much of my time staring out the windows, wandering down memory lane. There were also many deer living around the town. I was never close to the camera when they chose to drift by, however. Bummer.

Visiting my family: Sledding

On New Years Day we went sledding with my family. It was a magical day. Big clumpy flakes falling on our heads, the light making the snow seem like marshmallows, bright winter hats sprinkled along the hill.

December Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth

In order to feel all rounded out and finished with my December Daily (which I am currently putting the finishing touches on), here is my offering of favorite pictures from those days. I wish it was better recorded, but it is so much in the past and with my spontaneous vacation, this was the best I could do .

Dusty's parents came to see us. They arrived on Christmas Eve and we celebrated with a scrumptious dinner at my Grandma's house. We watched last years' Mormon Tabernacle Choir Musical Celebration and watched Tyson open a few presents from Grandma and Joie. Later, we arrived home to make sure the house was all ready for Santa to arrive and put Tyson to bed.

Christmas Day was relaxed and overwhelming at the same time. Tyson was over-loaded, poor kid, with all the people who love him showering him with gifts. We kept dragging him back to the tree to open more! :) Next year we will open more on Christmas Eve and spread the love out a little. Tyson would only let Grandpa help him open presents. So funny. He followed him around the entire visit so starved as he is for male attention. I'm afraid he's surrounded by too much estrogen with me, his aunties, cousins, and grandma. After we had breakfasted on freshly squeezed orange juice, bagels with cream cheese, hot muffins, and cold milk, we got dressed and attempted to cross-country ski. (the attempted was on my part, everyone else was very good). It was refreshing and stimulating. The rest of the day was spent reading, playing, and doing all those Christmasy things.