I have a confession to make: Christmas kinda kicked my trash. Not in the way that I kicked Zach’s trash at Hoop Fever eight games in a row at our annual Henderson Christmas Party at Classic Skating in Layton…
What I mean is that by the time we got back from Africa there was Christmas. Right there, basically. We didn’t even see it coming!
Our Christmas Eve this year was spent with the Hendersons. Since Lori (Zach’s sister) and Chad (Zach’s brother) decided to join us we made a reservation at Tepanyaki for the four families.
There was never a dull moment. It took all eight adults to watch over the seven littles.
We ended the night in true Henderson fashion: a movie at the AMC theater. The one with reclining seats. Half of us went to Frozen, the other half went to Anchorman II. And because we are super old fuddy duddies, when we got home we weighed our options. 1. Wake up at 6:30 am on Christmas Day to exchange gifts with each other… 2. Open them when we got home from our movie so we could sleep in an extra hour. We chose the latter.
When we arrived at my parents’ house Christmas morning [45 minutes late] my family was all raring to go. We exchanged gifts, discovered our stockings, and drank our traditional Christmas sodas instead of breakfast. The highlight for me was giving my mom her National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation village set. A family tradition in miniature Christmas village form. The RV is my absolute favorite.
Then we were off to my Grandpa’s house to exchange more gifts.
After eating lunch we visited my Grandma down the street and got to see my uncle, aunt, and cousin who are visiting from Nevada. Then it was off to Ogden for dinner at the Henderson’s. Pictures don’t do it justice really…20 children scrambling around, wrapping paper flying here and there. It is always a blast!
Zach and I got a front seat for all the action. Dinner AND a show…
We also watched home videos of previous Christmas mornings thanks to Mark’s excellent camcorder skills. Little Zach melted my heart…he still makes this face, actually.
It was a fantastic Christmas. Each year I feel overwhelmed with how blessed Zach and I are. We have incredible families, are lucky enough to both be working, a warm home, and each other. I’m glad we had the chance to reflect on all of that along with the reason for the Christmas season. So grateful for the gospel in our lives.
The days between Christmas Day and New Years Day were pretty eventful. Zach’s brother Tony gave us his Jazz tickets for the Lakers game and we got to see the Jazz come away with a (one of their few this season) victory!
I also had an Post-Christmas Party with my girlfriends, including Alison who is in town from New York. We dined at Arella in Bountiful and exchanged gifts afterwards at my house. No matter how long we go without seeing each other – we pick right up where we left off. Also, baby Jase joined us…
And because I hadn’t gotten enough friend-time, I met up with some of my old roommates/high school friends to dine out at Cafe Trio. It was so great to see these girls, it doesn’t happen very often [I believe that the last time we had dinner was 3+ years ago?]
New Years’ Eve was spent with our neighbors and friends; the Reeds and Martineaus for a delicious spread. Love those families, and their little boys who crack us up! We ended our night at Zach’s friend’s house sipping on Martinelli’s and plotting about our resolutions.
New Year’s Day my family decided to get our bowl on in good ‘ole T-Ville. Turns out, a surprise to us, after 1:00 pm things get crazy with some Cosmic Bowling. The girls killed it – leading by over 50 points.
2013 has been good to us. Bring it, ’14!!