In years past, I used to dread when a big snowstorm would roll in.  But with a one-year-old in my house [and no commute to Salt Lake for work] I couldn’t have been more excited when I saw the forecast for this week.  Sloan has experienced snow before – but not to this extent.  She is actually old enough to play in it now.  Monday, during Zach’s lunch, he came home to build a luge for Sloan to slide down in her snowsuit.

She also discovered she could EAT the snow.  Which was possibly the highlight of her whole week.  She doesn’t look thrilled – but she tripped out when we took her inside. 

Monday evening – for FHE – we went with Mark and Jeanene to Rodizio for Zach’s birthday dinner.  Yes, his actual birthday was in September – but we are a little behind on birthday dinners currently.  Sloan loved watching the snow fall through the giant windows and later would enjoy (even more) the servers bringing skewers of meat to our table every 30 seconds.  

Mid week I dressed Sloan in her gingie jammies and we decorated a gingerbread house.  We had some structural issues – hence the peppermint columns – but everything turned out alright.  Turns out Sloan doesn’t care for frosting – but she sucked on the gingerbread child that was included in the kit for a solid 20 minutes.  We’ve had a lot of mail being delivered.  Family members are sending gifts for others to my house so they can keep them a surprise.  Don’t even ask to see inside my pantry if you come over until AFTER Christmas Eve.  It looks like a FedEx delivery truck inside there.  Sloan loves a good mail day – she loves even more when stuff we can actually open shows up…

This week Sloan got a lot more goodies in her advent calendar.  My favorite was “One reading of Dad’s favorite Christmas book”.  If you haven’t read The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher – YOU MUST.  It is a Hendo Family favorite…as it should be.

Saturday a few of the Hendersons went down to Las Vegas for the BYU vs Utah Football game.  In a strange turn of events – the wives weren’t actually invited to the game.  Instead, we were told we could “go to lunch and go shopping”.  We flew down Saturday morning and I can honestly say it was the best football game I’ve ever been to.  Sorry, Zach… My parents watched Sloan for the day.  She was in heaven – doing all the last minute Christmas shopping my parents had to do.  She thrives in a public setting…

We weren’t even there for 12 hours [the shortest amount of time I’ve ever been to Vegas] but we managed to have lunch at the Wynn Cafe – please get the Asian Chicken Salad…please, shop at Fashion Show Mall – Zara IS FINALLY OPEN, hit up Caesar’s Forum Shops, and have dinner at Joe’s with the boys once the game was over.  I’m pretty sure after Zach saw the damage that was done at the NIKE store he probably wished I would have just gone to the game, but like I said:  best game I’ve ever been to.

We flew home around 8:00 pm – saying goodbye to Vegas at night is my favorite view of the flight home.

The next morning was church bright and early.  I had to teach the lesson in Relief Society (just a sub, obviously) and afterwards we made our way to the Henderson extended family Christmas party at the Layton Skating Rink.  Sloan could have watched her cousins all night and played in blow-up land for the rest of her little life.   She also has fallen hard for Lael’s infamous sugar cookies.  I couldn’t even sneak a bite without her mouth gaping open for a taste.  

This upcoming week is already going to be bananas.  We have a family or friend party every night leading up to Christmas.  Even though the schedule is daunting – I can’t wait to see all my loved ones and count the days down to Christmas.  THREE more sleeps until the big day!