Christmas

Christmas is really fun as a parent. As a kid, you are super excited for what feels like years and years. Then you start to grow up, and your excitement dims as your age increases. How lucky that the excitement returns as we anticipate our kids' excitement.

We did Christmas in our own home this year. Tickets to Utah were cheapest on Christmas day, so we flew out at 6:30 pm and had most of the day to do our own thing and then go be with family for the week. On Christmas Eve day, Aaron and I told the kids we would not use electronic devices of any kind. They were excited about that. And it is really, really good to disconnect once in a while. I have a testimony of doing that. So we had lots of quality time. We did our traditional Sandberg dinner with rice pudding and caramel rolls. This was actually the third time this year that I had made rice pudding. Once for co-op kids to try when we were talking about Denmark. Then for our ward Christmas party (The whole bowl got eaten. I was kind of surprised.) And then for Christmas. I'm like a professional rice pudding maker.

Scotty did not like the rice pudding. We told him he had to take three bites of it and thus nearly ruined Christmas. He would put it in his mouth and start gagging and saying he couldn't swallow it. Once he walked to the garbage and spit it out. We didn't count that bite. There were tears and gnashing of teeth. But there was also character building. We hope.

The kids went to bed, and Aaron and I set up everything so that it would look magical on Christmas morning. It was so fun! Being a mom is wonderful. We felt happy with how things turned out. And it was just so great to share the experience with my husband. Being a wife is wonderful.

Annie made some homemade presents. The one she gave me came in three parts. I opened each part separately and then got these instructions. It was a Merry Christmas sign for the front porch.

The first part of the gift was a cardboard tray for holding cans. It had been painted red and green and had a hole poked through it. The second piece was an empty wrapping paper tube. You stick that into the hole in the tray. Then you put the sign on top. It was my favorite.

After a magical Christmas morning, we drove to the airport. Everyone was very cheerful, and we had a direct flight to SLC. Such a miracle to get from Texas to Utah in a mere 3 hours. Isn't it great to live in a modern age?

We had so much fun being with the Dennis clan. We were all there together. It was really fun. We went sledding and made slime and watched movies and played Pandemic and went bowling and took family pictures and opened presents and ate good food.

Someone to play chess with? Best cousin ever!

After our lovely time with the Dennises, we drove south to be with the Olveras and Halls. We did New Year's Eve and Day with them. It was so nice to see everybody! What wonderful people!

We also had a quick catch-up with the aunties and the Lewises. So glad we got to see them! We felt so blessed to be with family at Christmas-time. And we're glad to be back in Texas where it isn't freezing cold.