Holiday Memories

I know, I know. The holidays are over and the kids are back in school. The decorations are down and put away. The smiles and memories are fading. And I have yet to update the blog!

Where has the time gone, you ask? Well, it has gone...I don't know where. However, it's gone and cannot be retrieved. So, I thought I would share some of the highlights of our holidays.

First, I would like to say thank you to everyone who sent Christmas cards and letters this year. I was amazed at the number of cards that arrived that were photos! It was so great to see how everyone is and to hear about everything going on in your lives. Thank you for sharing. Maybe I will get to that this year. . .

Second, I would like to say thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make our Christmas be a true miracle. We appreciate each and every one of you (you know who you are!). Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

Now, for the memories.

Adam has finally hit true teenager-hood. He knows how to sleep in past 7:30 a.m.!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!! The drawback is that he seems to grow a smidge everytime he actually sleeps past 7:30 a.m. Hmmm. Not so fun for Brian! (Tee hee!)

On Christmas Eve, it was really fun to go to Grandma Maathuis' house to have the Christmas story read and then eat donuts and have hot chocolate. It was different to not have Grandpa with us (he passed away in September). Lyssa (finally!) got to be Santa's helper this year; she helped fill the stockings. She really enjoyed that. I was glad to still keep a few surprises back for her, though. That made Christmas morning even better.

Christmas morning, we had to wake Adam up at 8:30 AM (What?!?!?!?!?) to open presents. Ah, the injustice of it all! He was okay with it, though. He liked what he was given, so he felt it was worth it. Lyssa got what she wanted as well. We enjoyed relaxing and being together before heading to Grandpa and Grandma Taylor's for lunch and more presents. After a nice time with them, we headed out to Grandma Camp's for dinner and more presents! (Do you sense a theme here? Never-ending presents? Well, they did end...eventually.) We had gotten a new family game that morning and had taken it with us to try out. If you haven't heard of or seen Sorry! Sliders, I highly recommend the game. It's loads of fun.

For New Year's Eve, Adam had his two best friends (Ryan and Robby) and Lyssa had her bestest friend (Kelly) join us to go to First Night in downtown Salt Lake City. Brian and I volunteered for 2 hours while the kids went ice skating and got something to eat. While Brian and I got something to eat, the kids went to Temple Square. When we were done eating, we joined them and ended up seeing Jon Schmidt in concert at the Assembly Hall. We had really enjoyed his concert at Kingsbury Hall earlier in the month and enjoyed sharing that experience with the kids' friends.

When the concert was over, we decided to drive our cars to the top of the parking structure we had parked in so that we could see the fireworks display at midnight and then we'd head home. As Brian and I were driving up to the top, we were stopped because the fireworks were being shot from the parking structure we were in! Bummer. Adam and one of his friends had decided to run up the stairs to see if they could beat us to the top. A would-be police officer stopped them and threatened them with seeing the inside of a jail cell. I was annoyed, but the boys laughed it off. So, we drove around a bit and found a place to watch the fireworks from the comfort of our warm cars instead of standing outside freezing anymore. Then we returned home to toast to the New Year. We were able to spend the later afternoon and evening at Grandma Camp's again with the Maathuis relations. It was a very nice, laid-back afternoon and evening.

Lyssa and I enjoyed our girls afternoon with Aunt Robyn the day after. We always love it when she comes to town.

The rest of the time was spent relaxing and sleeping and being with friends and being together as a family. It was a much needed rest time for all of us. It's actually been a bit hard to jump right back into the regular schedule again. Especially since I got a pretty nasty cold from First Night and am still battling it. I am feeling better today, thank goodness! Hopefully, it will only be a week long instead of 10 days!

Even though we aren't very good about updating the blog and calling to see how each of you is, we love and appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you for being who you are, and for being our friends through all the trials of life. It definitely makes the journey easier.

Love,
Bobi