Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve was a busy day. Eric and I made abelskivers for his aunt Kris this morning, before Eric went out with his dad and Lillie to run errands and to take a car to the airport for Tyler and Jen who would get in late that night. The roads were terrible because of the snow and so they were gone most of the day. Eric's aunt Kris, his Mom, and I spent the entire day in the kitchen preparing the most delicious dinner. I only did little things to assist, but man, that was a big job for them. It did pay off, the prime rib, turkey and everything else was so delicious. Kris' family came over and we ate and then reenacted Luke 2 and opened presents. Henry got a little batman car and Lillie got Sophia Snow, a little FurReals kitten. Too cute. It was getting late when everyone left, so we tried to put the kids to bed, multiple times. Lillie was so antsy for Santa to come that she couldn't sleep. Finally around 10:30 they fell asleep! Christmas morning came around 8:00 when we woke them up because they had stayed up so late the night before. I see now that we took mostly videos of them opening presents and such, so this is all I have of photos. Lillie got a guitar, pajamas, and a pillow pet dream light from Santa. Henry got a remote control Bigfoot, a Buzz Lightyear gun and pajamas from Santa. And don't forget the trampoline that was waiting for them at home!! Grandma and Grandpa gave them adorable backpacks that Grandma made, a dachshund that Grandma made for Henry and coloring packet for Lillie. Eric and I didn't get gifts for each other, but did get nice sweatshirts, a clutch, and a two-sided tooth brush that Eric loves, from his parents. It was a really nice morning. I love that we took it easy this year, concentrating more on giving than on stuff for ourselves and our family. I didn't have the guilt of having spend so much money on frivolous stuff for ourselves like I have in years past. It felt good. Then we had abelskivers once again, seriously, we can't get enough of them. Too delicious! I spent the rest of the day in the movie theater watching Les Miserables with all the family, minus Eric and Grandpa who stayed behind to play with kids. I felt guilty the whole time about them not being able to be there, the movie was awesome. And that was it! We spent time that night and the next morning packing for the cabin.

Once there was a Snowman

The morning after arriving in Saratoga, we woke up to snow!! Not long after breakfast, the kids were begging to go make a snowman. Grandpa obliged and the kids had fun making Frosty. I didn't realize til now that we didn't get a picture of the final product. Oops. He was cute. Grandma was nice enough to lend her scarf and so he was a very stylish snowman too.

Four Generations in St. George

We rolled into St. George the afternoon of the 22nd. We ate dinner then took the kids up to Tuacahn, an outdoor amphitheatre to look at Christmas lights. We were surprised to find out that there was a lot going on there! Camel rides, horse drawn wagon rides, carolers, pictures with Santa, and a live nativity presentation. It was cold outside and we were not prepared (Eric was wearing shorts), but we stayed to listen to the carolers and see the live nativity. Seriously, it was really cool. I wish we had had our camera for pictures. A live nativity makes it so much more realistic and was a good way to refocus on the true meaning of Christmas. Henry loved the "wisemenses" and the live animals, including a camel, walking on stage. We then went back to his Grandpa's house where me and the kids went to bed while Eric stayed up chatting with his Grandpa about his days in the military. The next day was the Sunday, the 23rd, we went to church there and had lunch at Eric's uncle's house. We ate abelskivers! Anyway, this is a picture of four generations. Eric's grandpa is so great, he's 87 and is so full of life. He's the picture of health and is as sharp as a tack. I think this was the first time he'd met Henry, so we were really glad to have been able to stop and visit them.

A Change of Plans and a Pit stop in LV

Hmmm... not sure how to sum this story up. On Friday, the 21st, we packed up all of our stuff into the Civic and got on the road to drive to Washington to spend Christmas with my family. I had been nervous about the road conditions of the mountain passes and so I'd been watching the weather all week. We knew there was a good chance it wouldn't be good. But all day it said that it was snowing and you'd need chains, but the passes in northern CA and southern OR were open. So after picking Eric up from work I told him to check the pass conditions to see if it was better to push through tonight or stop short and tackle them in the daylight. We were about 7 or 8 hours from the mountains. Anyway, we found out that the I-5 at the Mt. Shasta pass was closed for about 40 miles. Also, we found out that they were expecting 3-4 more feet of snow in the next 2 days, so we didn't know when the passes would reopen. Our trip on good roads was already going to be 18 hours. We had bald tires and had yet to buy chains. We have no winter coats, gloves or boots. We tried to see if there would be a better route through Reno and up but the Sierra Nevadas were also expecting major snow and was a lot longer route. We tried to see if there were any Amtrak tickets available to get us up to Portland and then take a rental car from there, but they were sold out. So, because of the uncertainties of the situation, we very reluctantly gave up and turned around about an hour into our trip. We were all devastated. The kids and I cried the whole way back to our house. Seriously, I don't know if I'd ever been more sad. We pulled into our driveway and just sat there. I couldn't bring myself to go inside. The whole time we'd been communicating with my mom, who said if you can't come this way, you should try to go to UT to spend time with Eric's family. So, we checked the road conditions to UT, which were clear, and called Eric's parents to see if we could head their way. After we got the ok, we went inside our house for a potty break and then headed back out onto the road. We drove all the way to Las Vegas, getting to the Luxor, where we would be staying, at 2 am. The next day we hung around town checking out our two favorite hotels, Bellagio and Venetian, before heading to St. George where we would meet Eric's parents at his grandfather's house.

Don't judge our appearances in these photos. We did not shower or change our clothes from the day before, our trunk was jam packed and so we didn't want to pull everything out to find clothes.

Lundstrom Tradition: Abelskivers

Eric's mom's family is of Scandinavian descent, and so they have the tradition of having abelskivers, essentially round pancakes, every year for breakfast on Christmas morning. You dip them in powdered or granulated sugar, jam or whatever. Anyway, at that time, we thought we would be in WA for Christmas and so we did them for dinner the Sunday before we were supposed to leave. They were and are so yummy. I think we're going to have to make them more often than once a year from now on.

I found this note that Lillie wrote for my parents. It says: I love you.  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.  I love Grandma and Grandpa.  I love it when I find things like this because even though her spelling may be way off, she's sounding things out.  She's taking on difficult words.  It makes me so proud!

Christmas in Solvang

 Eating some traditional Abelskivers in town.  They were good, but we can make them better.

 Some of the buildings.  The whole town is done like this, in the Danish/German/Scandinavian style.

 Old woman in the shoe

 This town is only 20 minutes from where we live, so we come pretty often to eat, shop and play.

 Family picture at the Hans Christian Andersen park

Medical Group Kid's Christmas Party

The medical group put on a Christmas party at the beginning of December. The kids got to do four different projects before Santa and Rudolph showed up to hand out presents to the kids. Henry was in love with Santa. It was a fun little party!

Gingerbread House

Ward Christmas Party

I cannot get my photos to rotate or upload correctly, so this is all I've got. Lillie is assisting in holding the Christmas star in the nativity picture.

Christmas Cookies

Before Christmas, a little group of us got together for a play date and decorating Christmas cookies with lots and lots of frosting and toppings. If a little is good, a ton is way better.

Lately...

Lately we've been busy getting ready for Christmas. I've almost gotten all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped. Lillie found the trampoline that was going to be pretty much the only thing the kids were getting this year a week or so ago. So, we've put it up in the yard and the kids have loved jumping on it. Good call on the tramp! Henry has still managed to fall off twice, but has not slowed him down. This weekend we finally got around to putting up some Christmas lights on the house. My kids LOVE seeing the Christmas lights around the neighborhood and town. It's still warm enough in the evening to go on walks and check out the lights. SO FUN! That is one good thing about Californians. I don't know if it's because it's not too cold and so they'll stay outside longer to put up all their lights or if it's because they're trying to compensate for the lack of winter weather, but there are so many decorated houses around us. It's great! We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday and Santa was there walking around during dinner to give candy canes to the kids. Henry ran straight over to him and gave him a big hug when he first saw him. It was cute. He is crazy about Christmas. He asks daily if Santa's coming today. He boasts about being on the "naughty ist" as if that's the cool thing to do. He is always talking about the Buzz Lightyear gun that Santa WILL bring him. Anyway, there was a really impressive program at the party and Lillie held the star during the Nativity Song. We were lucky enough to be able to get some time off, so we will be driving to WA for a week to spend Christmas with my family. It's been a long time since we've been there for Christmas, so I'm really excited. Well, excited for everything but the drive. I'm just worried about the road conditions. Fingers crossed! Lillie had her last day of preschool last week. We had to take her out because it was too expensive. She loved it and I loved it, but we just couldn't justify the price. So we'll be having school at home instead. On the last day as we were driving home I looked in my rear view mirror to see silent, giant tears rolling down Lillie's face. It absolutely broke my heart. She is quite the social butterfly and will miss preschool.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Today I am so thankful for my little family. I feel so blessed to have the three of them in my life. They bring me such happiness and joy, I often wonder how I got so lucky. I love you guys! I am also thankful for Eric's and my family, I wish that we were able to spend today with them. But I am so grateful to have friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving with us, the Thomas' have been such a blessing for us and our kids. I don't know how we would have survived living here without them. They're awesome. I am thankful for Eric's job and that I am able to stay home to be with my kids, I love it. And most of all I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father. Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

This Monday we traded off picture taking with our friends. This is the best one of us. Both Lillie and Henry had their moments of not cooperating, so I'm very glad to get ONE. Just need to photoshop out a few crazy stands of my hair. This will probably be the Christmas card. Send me your address if you want one. :)

Christmas Outfits

My kids wore the Christmas church clothes that my parents sent them today. They looked soo cute in them, but wouldn't cooperate enough to be in a picture at the same time. Sometimes we struggle.

My Birthday Pic

Sunset of my Life

Took this picture on Monday at Wall Beach. It's kind of a metaphor for my life. The sun is setting on my 20's. Last Friday I turned 29 and for the last month or so I've kind of been freaking out about oh no, the past 9 years were supposed to be the highlight of my life?? I've felt like the last 9 years were all school, school, school and poor, poor, super poor. So I've been worried about what I needed to do to make this next year the best ever. Now that I've had my birthday (and am therefore, older and wiser), I've decided that my life so far has been just fine, great even, and that anything to make this next year awesome would be really expensive and therefore out of the question. It is a pretty sunset, though.

Finally, Halloween 2012