Christmas Eve

First off, a disclaimer.  Yes, I know that it is late January and I am still blogging about Christmas. 
And I am ready to move on and talk about other things. 
And I definitely know that the few people who read this blog have no desire to see ALL the pictures I've been posting from our trip. I'm really sorry, and please feel free to skip and skim.  
However, this is the only successful way I have found to document our family history, so I feel a need to make a pretty detailed record for us to print out.  I'm almost done, and then we will move on with 2012!


After our day of sledding we returned to Grandma and Grandpa's house to make dinner and start the Christmas Eve festivities.  We were making Brazilian Black Bean soup, rolls, and baked potatoes. Yum - perfect for warming us up after a cold day in the snow. 

Joseph wanted a job, so I gave him a peeler (for the first time) and set him to work on carrots.

Oh my, what a mess he made with a pile of carrot shavings. But, he certainly had fun. There wasn't much left of the carrots after they were "peeled," so it's a good thing we had some extra in the fridge!

After dinner we gathered costume pieces and planned our Christmas Eve play. Brandon, who has been the shepherd for the past many years, wasn't here to play his part. So, Dan took over that role. Bailey continued in her role as Mary, Aubrey performed an encore as the angel of the Lord, and Joseph was . . . . Joseph, of course.  And this year we had to wrap up a stuffed hedgehog to represent the baby Jesus. Grandma's toy closet was slim pickings when it came to finding a baby doll.

I asked Bailey why she looked so upset in the photo below.  She said she was busy acting out the final scripture we read in Luke 2: "And Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." So she is pondering, not sulking.

After a great spiritual discussion about the meaning of Christmas, the kids opened a few gifts: pjs for everyone and two new Christmas storybooks.

 And then the kids set to work on their letters to Santa.
 

They each found a spot upstairs to set their stocking and letter to Santa and then they settled down in front of the TV downstairs for a Christmas movie marathon.  Luckily, we were all pretty worn out, so the marathon only lasted about an hour! I guess I forgot to get a picture of the three air mattresses lined up in a row - but it was pretty cute.

We were all excited to see what Santa would bring!

On this spot, 22 years ago

It was right on this bridge (which is near the Tree Room Restaurant at Sundance Ski Resort) that Dan proposed to me 22 years ago.  Because we stayed in a nearby cabin with Grandma and Grandpa Springer during our Christmas trip, one day  we decided to re-enact the proposal and take the family to see the very spot where all the magic happened.

First we all sat down in the living room of the lodge and Dan told the story from the beginning.  The kids groaned deeply and incessantly through the entire story.Ooooh, groooossss, lovely-dovey stuff and kissing . . . . .

And then we loaded our crew up and drove down the road to the ski resort.

First we walked around the beautiful buildings which house the restaurant and took a few pictures.

Then we walked down the pathway in search of the "proposal bridge" over the creek (When Dan retold the story this time I learned something new! A few days before he proposed he had driven up to Sundance and had walked around until he found a suitable proposal spot. And I thought we just happened upon the perfect picturesque bridge in the woods!) 

 

And we found it. 

So, we re-enacted the proposal. Our kids continued to groan from the sidelines.
(By the way, now there are cabins on the other side of the bridge.  I guess there have been a few changes in 22 years.)

It was fun. And I'm still glad I married this man.

Winter Wonderland - hard to find but worth it!

So, we had quite a dilemma during out time in Utah. We had flown to Utah over Christmas break and promised our kids they could play in the snow. We even booked a few days at a cabin in the mountains, sure that there would be plenty of snow for every possible wintry activity. But the snowfall is truly pathetic this year.  One of the days we were in Utah there was a dusting of snow.  Very unimpressive.

We did our best to enjoy the snow at the cabin (see previous posts), but the snow quality was poor, and there wasn't a good place to sled.

We explored our options and wondered if we should give up on sledding.  And then Grandma and Grandpa had a brilliant idea.
 
They drove up to their property in the mountains by Heber and discovered lots of perfect snow for sledding. 

So a few days later - on Christmas Eve Day - we loaded up the car with enough winter gear to outfit a small army, hot chocolate, and at least three cameras, and we drove an hour to Heber.  We spent many hours sledding, and it couldn't have been more lovely. The sky was blue, the snow brilliant white, the scenery unmatched.
 

 We were in a winter wonderland.
 
 
Dan and Grandpa spent a lot of time giving the sledders a push and then towing kids back up the hill.

We had a choice of sleds.  A round coaster . . .

and a modern version of a Radio Flyer, which is supposed to be more comfortable and higher-tech. . .

But by far the favorite sled was the old fashioned Radio Flyer.  It FLEW down the hills!

 

We brought our own little port-a-potty, which we positioned in a private corner of Grandma and Grandpa's land.  It was a bit cold, but better than nothing!

We took time to play in the beautiful snow.  And apparently Bailey stuck her whole face in a snowdrift?

Even the adults had a chance to sled.

  We sledded up and down the hill until we completely wore everyone out.
 

 
Most of our sledding was on a long, fairly gradual hill. There was a much steeper hill around the corner. After the kids were done, Dan and I decided to ride together on the Radio Flyer down the steeper hill.  Grandma and Grandpa captured the photo and video of our terrifying ride.  Let's just say that I was positive that we were going to break multiple bones - I just didn't know which ones.  Dan was steering the sled, and his foot slipped off halfway down, so we were just hurtling super fast toward a bunch of trees.  Luckily, we managed to run into a snowbank, and no harm was done!
 
 After a few hours our hands and toes were numb. Some hot chocolate from the thermos in the car helped.


But Bailey was just DONE and ready to go back to Grandma and Grandpa's to get ready for Christmas Eve festivities. 


It was a magical day. What more can I say? And there was more fun in store over the next few days!