Christmas 2011

Since it's almost Valentine's Day, I thought I should post about Christmas. We went up to Idaho to spend the holidays with my parents. My sister Liz and her family, my brother Andrew, and my Aunt Kathleen were also there. It was great. Annie had a great time bonding with her grandparents and her cousin Klara.


The main activity for Klara and Annie was changing clothes, helping each other to get dressed up in just the right outfit. Here was one of Annie's favorites. The Dora pj's were compliments of Aunt Kathleen.

While we were together, the family watched movies, ate food, did puzzles, and even went Christmas caroling. My dad is the bishop, and he asked Aaron and I to help him and my mom carol to all the widows in the ward. Before we went to Idaho, I told Aaron that I was going to make him go caroling--something my family used to do a lot. It was just a joke until my dad really asked us to. So Aaron's caroling dreams came true (he didn't complain at all), and we got to meet all the awesome widows in the ward. Here was Annie's caroling get-up.

Of course this Christmas also included our special Christmas Eve rice pudding dinner. This year the family decided to add some savory items to the usually all sweets menu. I really liked the additions, especially Aunt Kathleen's cream cheese sausage rolls. And let's not forget to mention Liz's cheese ball contribution. Opposition in all things--sweet and spicy.




It just melted my heart to see Annie being a good Swede/Dane and enjoying this Christmas Eve tradition. She really got into it. How could you not?



Christmas Eve also included a talent show. Aaron and I sang "Away in a Manger" in Chinese. Many other talents were shared, but what I really wanted to talk about was the sock my nephew Seth wore to the event. It was truly amazing.

On Christmas we opened presents of course, but the biggest surprise came when Aaron and Annie and I drove to Liz and Darren's house. When we got there, we turned off the car, but it kept running. We opened up the hood and gray, stinky smoke started pouring from our engine. Finally, the battery ran down and the car officially turned off. Turns out our ignition switch was bad and our starter motor had burned out. Merry Christmas! Luckily, Aaron was able to buy the parts and figure out how to fix it so we didn't have to spend money on a mechanic. I'm so proud of Aaron for fixing stuff, and I'm proud of our car for not pulling that stunt in a gas station in Malad.

My parents headed out to see Phil after Christmas so we spent New Year's with Aaron's family. That was also loads of fun. Aaron's parents gave us some great presents including a trunk full of princess dress-up clothes for Annie. The happiness at that moment cannot be described, but this picture might give you a glimpse.

We also made a post-Christmas trip to Temple Square. The weather was balmy, and I fulfilled my dream of having Annie see the lights. I was more excited than she was, but I think she still enjoyed it. We only had cell phone cameras, but this picture was kind of priceless.

Now that I've blogged about Christmas, I can officially transition in my mind to 2012. Happy New Year!