Christmas with the Andersons

We got to celebrate Christmas in Colorado with my family this year. I love spending it with them, since I'm usually suffering some level of homesickness throughout the year... nothing too clinical or anything, but I miss my family often!

Despite weather warnings, we headed over to Denver on Wednesday the 23rd. Tuesday was a nightmarishly busy day. I had a chiropractor appt, errands to run for work, a class Christmas party to help with, kids presents to wrap, treats to make, house to clean, clothes to pack... I'm sure you get the idea. There was so much I had to get done and I only accomplished about 2/3rds of it before leaving on Wednesday. That's why my neighbors didn't get any yummy treats and why my house was still pretty cluttered (which wouldn't have mattered, but we offered to let our neighbors use our house while we were gone... so embarassing! At least the sheets were clean!). But we were able to get out the door by 9:00 on Wednesday morning and we prayed for good weather and good time. We miraculously got both! We didn't hit any bad roads until we were 30 minutes from Denver! Hallelujah!!!!

We even got there in time for me to go see the 'Little House on the Prairie' musical with my mom. It was done very well and even Melissa Gilbert herself was in the cast playing 'Ma'. My only complaint about the musical is that they attempted to make a political statement with one of the songs. I was highly annoyed that they portrayed the people of that era as embittered and whiny that Uncle Sam wasn't helping them enough. Ugh! Ah well... otherwise, it was lovely and I really need to read those books!

Thursday was Christmas eve and Paul broke our rule and took my sister and went shopping for me. We had agreed to pool our Christmas gifts together to get a new TV. We ended up with a 42" LCD screen HDTV and we're both excited about it. But Paul was frustrated that I wouldn't have anything to open, so he went & spent a little more... the booger. So then I went to Target with my mom so I could get stocking stuffers and something little for Paul to open as well. I guess we both cheated! On Christmas eve, we just hung out at my parents with my 3 younger sisters and my cousin.

Christmas morning was perfect. We always have our yummy breakfast casserole, and then open presents. We let the boys open all their gifts quickly because we had an appointment to talk to Paul's missionary brother, Tanner, at 9:00. This Christmas was so fun because the boys were very specific about what they wanted this year, so they were very excited when they got what they were hoping for. Charlie got the fire truck he knew he would get from Santa, as well as a Geo Trax train. That train is the best money we've ever spent since Charlie hasn't stopped saying "chugga chugga chugga chugga CHOOOOOO CHOOOOOO!" for 5 days now! Canon scored with all his bakugan and star wars toys and Andy got some fun things, but unfortunately, 2 of those toys were made of crap, so they broke within 5 minutes or never worked at all. Here's hoping Toys-R-Us wants to be nice and let us exchange them!

Talking to Paul's little brothers on Christmas was great. We talked to Preston at 2:00. If I'm being totally honest, I can't say I miss them. I know it sounds harsh, but they are exactly where I want them to be right now... serving honorable missions, learning new skills, strengthening their testimonies of the gospel, growing up... all good things! It was fun to hear their voices, but I'm counting on NOT seeing them for another 18 months.

All my Colorado siblings came over for Christmas dinner. That makes for one busy, noisy house, but I love it. My boys don't get to see their cousins nearly enough and they were having so much fun. We ate a yummy meal and gabbed and gabbed as we always do! We even pulled out a game of Trivial Pursuit, which would have been more fun except that very few people actually like that game... I know I don't! We sent Andy and Canon home with Scott's family for a sleep over and made plans to see them that next day. We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas day.

On Saturday, we went to Scott & Rebekah's house for the afternoon. The kids played so well together that we were able to sit down and play an entire game of 'Ticket to Ride'. It was a lot of fun and Paul even enjoyed it and managed to win! After that, we drove to Shelyce's house and had dinner and hung out with them for the rest of the night. Our visit with them was dampered a bit by Charlie's frequent vomiting. He threw up on the stairs and then proceeded to throw up every 30-45 minutes or so until we left... fun for all! Thanks to Shelyce and Lynn for being so gracious about it. I have NO IDEA where Charlie would have picked up this stomach bug, but he got it and passed it on to Paul, then Canon. My deepest prayer is that none of the family we visited this week picked it up. SOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry if ya did :/.

The rest of the weekend was mellow and we watched a bunch of the Planet Earth documentaries and movies on my parent's new BluRay disc player! Paul took me shopping and to lunch on Monday because we'd decided to drive home on my birthday (tuesday). I was basically able to milk my birthday celebration for 3 days! And even though it was sucky to spend my birthday in the car, we needed to avoid another storm and let my cousin have her room back. Julie was a sweetheart about the whole thing and I appreciate her being willing to give up her space for a week.

So in a nutshell (okay, a big nutshell)... that was our Christmas holiday. Thanks to my family, and especially my parents, for being the best! I love you all SO MUCH.