So This is Christmas

I confess that I was not excited about going to Utah for Christmas. I dreaded the drive through the snow and I was frantic with preparations. I was stressed out about how my boys would do in someone else's house for a whole week and, more importantly, how our host family and house would cope with the strain of our five. I needn't have worried. Well, except for the driving part. That was bad.
Anyway, Christmas in Utah was truly wonderful. There were so many moments in which I wish I could have just pressed "pause" and frozen them in time. However, since I don't have a freeze ray, I will just have to record some of my favorite things here in hopes that I can recapture those moments when I read this in the future. So, to me, this is Christmas:

Laughing with Lora and John about so many random things.
Attending church with Oma, Opa and the Flinders.
Watching how amazing the Flinders kids are with our boys.
Hearing Gabe's sudden realization that, "Hey! Everyone here is related to us! They are all part of our family!"
Singing Christmas songs with Rebecca a capella in two-part harmony.
Killing it at a morning zumba class, after I got over that whole altitude difference I-can't-breathe thing.
Visiting our dear friends in the hospital. All the boys wore their minion hats that CJ gave them. We brought a lot of smiles to those who were spending the holidays at Primary Children's in Salt Lake.

Getting to see the Conleys again, our former neighbors and parents of Elijah's fiancee. Love you guys!
Watching our darling niece, Maya, play with "the five boys" as she always called them. She was truly a saint when it came to sharing her toys and rolling with the rough-and-tumble play style. She didn't smack anybody until the second to last day of our trip. I'm sure they deserved it many more times.
Taking the whole family to see "Frozen". It's a good thing our extended family filled most of the theater because our boys made some very loud comments during the film. When the snowman said he didn't have any bones, David John shouted "It's true!" and when the ice castle broke Benjamin yelled out, "The castle breaked and the girl died!" *Spoiler* Don't worry, no one really died. She was merely unconscious.
Celebrating Marc's birthday with a date to Tucanos and to see Catching Fire.
Marc's birthday dinner with the whole family. Can we say French onion soup made by Marcus?
Cute kids opening their Christmas Eve pajamas.

Group hugs with cute cousin Maya.

Little children on Christmas morning. Who could ask for anything better?
It was Tobias' first Christmas. He liked tearing paper and trying to mouth everyone else's gifts.

One of the favorite gifts were these amazing super-hero capes made by Grandma. They wore the capes all morning.

I borrowed one so I could try my hand at being a supervillain. They call me Mean Mommy. Maybe my mom will make me one in black for my birthday.

Eating slightly crispy but still delicious banana-chocolate-chip muffins. This may have to become a Christmas tradition.
Opening gifts from Marc that always come with an adorable clue. See if you can guess what these are: To: My Past, Present and Future, From: Your Scrooge (A Muppet Christmas Carol) To: My Prince sess From: Your Meteor (The Little Prince, out of print English translation) I love that man.
Napping.
Singing Christmas carols in the car with our boys. We did a lot of driving and our boys would serenade us. "Angels We Have Heard on High" was a favorite. Benjamin's version of Jingle Bells was particularly endearing. "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun a bumpy ride and horse and soap and sleigh. Hey!" Benjamin also liked to sing the ABCs. The problem with that is that his ABC song never ends. I believe we heard it for at least 10 minutes straight on our drive to Salt Lake. "A B C D E F G, H I J K L M N O P, Q R S, T U V, W X, Y and Z. Now I know my A B C D E F G...." You get the idea.
Christmas dinner with the incredible Dutton family.
Seeing the lights on temple square as a family. The boys had seen some footage of the lights when we watched the first presidency Christmas devotional earlier in the month. They were in awe when we got to see the lights in person.

We ran into an old high school friend of mine while we were there, Brigette. It was so fun to see her. It turns out that we both married men named Marc (although her hubby is spelled with a "k") and we both have five kids with the oldest being twins. What are the chances? Only in Utah, right? She took this family picture for us.

All of the boys were fascinated by the fountains and statues as well as the lights. We tried our best to keep them well away from any water, but we let them get up close and personal with the statues. Here, they are all gazing at some shepherds and sheep.

Everyone thought this representation of the new star that appeared in heaven was beautiful, but David John clearly missed the symbolism. He exclaimed, "Look Mom! It's a party hat!"

Eating lunch at the Black Sheep Cafe with Marc's siblings. Bless Meagan for watching all of the kids.
Experiencing the incredible artwork of Carl Bloch at the Sacred Gifts exhibit. I was blown away by his paintings. Prints just cannot do them justice. It was as if the paintings were illuminated from within so brilliant were the colors and contrast. Just amazing.
Grabbing dinner at an old haunt- Burger Supreme.
Shopping with Lora and Nancy while the boys played "nerd ball". Scoring a cute dress for $5 that Lora just happened to have a matching cardigan for? Amazing. I was grateful to have the shopping assistance of two fashionistas.
Talking far too late into the night with Lora.
Meeting the newest family member, baby Finn.
Taking family pictures with the entire Ricks clan. It was chaotic but actually enjoyable. Fotogenix is amazing and our photographer was the best I think I've ever seen in dealing with kids. Phenomenal. The pictures turned out great.
Feeling really hip while eating lunch with bikers in a cafe inside the Harley Dealership. (Thank you Jen!) They had free kiddie motorcycle rides. The boys were ecstatic. It didn't hurt that the kids meals were served in a cardboard truck and included a toy motorcycle. Much cooler than McDonalds.

Spending the afternoon and evening just being with family, making photo books with the kids and chatting up a storm.
Sampling a variety of rootbeers and discovering that Berghoffs of Chicago is delicious while Always Ask for Avery should probably be named Never Ask for Avery.
Hugging. Lots of hugging and goodbyes.

Good times. We love our family. Next year, I'm asking for a freeze ray for Christmas so the good times never end.