Christmas Vacation

I feel so fortunate right now to have the job that I do that allows me to take time off of work during the holidays to spend time with my family.  We are in Utah again and I am so grateful.  I will admit, part of me wanted to just stay home this year and do nothing for the entire week that I have off.  I was so not looking forward to any type of drive or packing or cleaning or taking care of other people.  But now that we here, I am glad we came. In fact, the time is all too soon coming for us to go home.  Then it is back to the grind stone and back to regular life.  Oh well, at least I can enjoy this time.

Christmas day turned out to be rather fun.  I still can't believe that my children who are all older, wake up so early that morning.  In fact, they set their alarms to do so and even my adult daughter loves to run out to the living room to see what Santa brought.  We heard the kids up at 6:30 but had told them they are not allowed to wake us up until 7:00.  This year they were not quiet though so we were awake at 6:30.  Promptly at 7:00 they came running in and turned on the lights.  Quickly we had them at least turn the light off. Rob had set a boopy trap along the side of his bed and Skyler soon found it.  He fell to the floor and we all laughed.  They kept trying to put on our slippers but we would kick them off.  It is more fun to try to keep from getting out of bed and we all laugh for about a half hour.  Finally though, we give up.

I think my favorite time of the day is morning prayer. We always kneel around my bed as a family for Rob to say prayer.  Hopefully it helps the kids think for a moment about the true meaning of Christmas.  I sniffled just a little bit when he mentioned Cortnie but I had a good cry the night before so all was okay.  I hated to leave her stocking on the wall all by itself - it looked so lonely and it made my heart ache.  I have to say that I spent a lot of time thinking about her all day but I tried so hard to not let it affect my time with the rest of my family.  We were hoping that she could email us sometime during the day if just for a moment.  I checked my computer every 15 minutes to see if there was anything there.  If she was online at that time, I could quickly email her back and "talk" with her for a moment. We have figured out how to time her emails that way the last couple of weeks and it is so nice.  I think it has helped the both of us cause we feel like we are talking to each other.  Anyway, she finally emailed about 2:00 but it did not come right through - in fact, she only had one minute left when we got it.  I did not even have enough time to email her back and say that I loved her and Merry Christmas.  Instead, all she got was "how much time do you have."  She emailed right back to say her time was done and then she was gone.  I cried so hard.  I did not mean too but I hurt so bad.  I felt like my Christmas had been ruined.  My kids were so wonderful, they let me cry and kept hugging me.  Next year, I get the phone call and nothing will stop that!!

Anyway, back to Christmas. After prayer, we ran to the living room.  It is fun to watch the kids' faces to see what they think about their gifts.  This year Santa left Internet tablets for the boys and luggage for Brittnie.  Of course, there were other things but they were the big ones.  After opening all the presents, Skyler had an electric scooter, basketball shoes, games, clothes and more. Boyd got basketball shoes, an RC car, games, nutcracker and more. Brittnie is all girl and got lots of clothes and shoes.  It is so much harder to buy for them now that they are older plus their stuff cost so much more. We did send a small box to Cortnie even though we had already had Christmas with her, but I wanted her to open something.  She got a family picture and digital frame that was loaded with 60 pictures of family and friends.  She also got letters from home from everybody. 

The rest of Christmas day was suppose to be spent as a family - hence the reason I packed on Christmas Eve.  It did not turn out that way though.  Everyone kind of did their own thing.  They played their new games on the x-box and I just kind of wandered around.  I even payed bills that day. I was really disappointed and kind of hurt.  I was wanting so much more....

We left to come to Utah the next day. It was snowing and I hate to drive in the snow.  I told Rob if it got to bad we were stopping in Cedar for the night.  There were only a couple of spots that were really scary but we made it just fine.  We have had fun hanging out with our family and doing things with them. We spend a day up at LeAnn's house too with Rob's parents.  It was a good time and as always, they seem to help us out with something that we need.

Yesterday was a special day.  My niece was baptized.  It is Coby's daughter, Katelyn.  Remember that Coby has not always been active in the church and is only a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.  Katelyn wanted him to baptize her.  He has been a lot more active in the church lately thanks to a wonderful bishop and friend that he has.  It was so special to see him all dressed in white next to his daughter.  You could tell he was a little bit nervous, but he did great.  I know it meant a lot to Katelyn and it meant a lot to the rest of us too.  Now to get them to the temple.

We only have one full day left here in Utah.  Lucky me gets to be back to work on Wednesday.  I can hardly wait for Tuesday though.  Cortnie will be finished at the MTC that day and will fly out to Omaha that morning. She gets to CALL from the airport and we can talk to her until it is time for her to board her flight. It could be up to an hour.  I am soooo excited!  I am getting used to her being gone (but still dont' like it), but I really miss her voice.  She is nervous about going but she will do just fine.  She will have a wonderful companion to train her and she will touch the lives of so many people there.  If only she can get used to the cold weather.  She should be okay but I have never been there so don't know how cold it really is.  I am so excited for her.  One month has already gone by and we have survived.  I miss her tons but still know this is the right thing for her.  I am already thinking of things to do when she comes home and would love to take a Trip here to bring her back when the time is come. 

Holidays...always wonderful. So glad they were not as stressful this year.  I sure do not want to go back to work and the busy life, but we are very blessed. At least we have jobs and can provide for our family.  I just pray that 2013 will be a grand or even better than 2012.