Over Christmas Break

What an amazing Christmas Break we had --- It started with Jessica and Tate's arrival in Cincinnati.  I drove up there on Thursday evening so I could get them in the early morning - they took a red eye here.  We slept in, then Tate had a phone interview at noon.  While he was on the interview call, Jessica and I drove to find a McDonald's for breakfast.  YUM!

From the hotel, I took the kids to the Newport Aquarium - we had a blast - there is a separate post for this.

Unfortunately it took Devon a few days to get here.  He was due in Friday evening at 10 pm, but his flight was canceled out of Denver so he was stuck there for the night.  Then his only option was to fly into Indianapolis Saturday at midnight.  We had to put him up in a hotel there too, because the weather was so bad that night.  I drove up early Sunday morning to get Devon and then we drove back and immediately went to church so we could take the sacrament.  I'm so grateful to have a child that completely and utterly understands and appreciates the atoning gift of our Savior so much that he wanted nothing more than to get to church to partake of the sacrament.  While there, Devon was also able to see Steven Saxey (he spoke in church for returning home from his mission).

The whole break was filled with wonderful, funny, precious moments with Jessica, Tate, Devon, Robert and Mark and I.

Monday we took the whole family to see Rogue One - the next Star Wars movie - we all LOVED it!!!

On Tuesday evening Betsy brought Chinese food home for everyone to enjoy before we had a special family outing.  Betsy and Mark treated the family to go see "A Christmas Carrol" by Charles Dickens at Actors theater.  Tickets were $80 each, but they were so worth it.  We were third row back, slightly to the right of center stage!!!  Every dressed up the the evening - it was magical!!!

Wednesday, Tate and Jessica celebrated an early Christmas with us because they had to leave around 5:00 to catch their flight to spend the rest of Christmas break with Tate's family, but as we were on the road (not far) for Cincinnati, Tate received a message that their flight had been canceled.  Oh my Gosh!!!  No way.  And to make it worse - Frontier Airlines had no flights until Friday.  CRAZY!!! We felt bad for them because they are going to miss so fun times with Tate's family, but it was out gain!  We got to have two more days with them.

Since Jessica and Tate were with us an extra day, we took the family to Longhorn Stakehouse on Thursday night.  It is Betsy's favorite restaurant because it has the most delicious Ribeye stake.  Our dinner was delayed and delayed.  We had a fun time waiting for the food, but it was poor service.  The manager and waiter felt so bad, they gave us everything at 1/2 price.  What a great deal for us.  The whole meal only came to $45 dollars.

Friday, we drove Tate and Jessica up to Cincinnati and said our goodbye.  We sure love them and will miss them.  They are the cutest couple!  So full of love and appreciation for each other.

We did all our traditional Christmas activities - baking and decorating cookies and ginger bread houses!!!  We also had our traditional shepherd's dinner by candle light on the family room floor and watched the Polar Express (well 1/2 of it because Devon didn't want to be up after midnight so that Santa could come).  LOVE HIM!!!

Christmas was awesome!!!  Everyone had a wonderful time opening their presents and being filled with the love that everyone has for each other!  It's a special time.  We really miss Marissa which made it all the sweeter to get to SKYPE with her Christmas afternoon!!  She looks great and sounds fantastic.  Devon and Robert had a great time talking with her, so did Mark and I.  It was so hard to say goodbye but we eventually had to let her go.

After Christmas Devon, and Robert had fun playing games with each other - it was so wonderful to have the family home for a while.  Devon had to leave Saturday for BYU, so he could get settled in, get his books and  to leave with time incase he wad delayed again...