Christmas Remix

Happy Boxing Day everyone!

I thought I would take this time at work to fill you in on our Christmas holiday. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures right now, they're home on the computer, but I will put them up lickety-split.

Christmas Eve we got up and got going later than planned but early enough to accomplish what we needed. We went to Walgreens to pick up some photos I'd ordered and a couple other little things for stockings. Then we went to Safeway to shop for our Mexican Feast. Safeway was crazy crazy busy, but they got us through quickly and Jilly was in a good mood. We bought tons of food, but it was so good. Then we got home, put Jilly down for a nap, and Steve and I cleaned and cooked and even strung up a string of twinkling Christmas lights. Here's all that we cooked: Mexican Pot Roast (later carved into fajitas), chicken and cheese enchiladas, tortilla soup and homemade salsa. (Trey- The Tortilla soup was a major hit with everyone! We loved it! Thanks for the recipe) My brother came over and played Xbox for the afternoon, he just wanted to hang out with us I guess. It was fun though, and he just gets cuter and cuter with Jilly all the time. He'll scoop her up and play with her or cuddle her while she's drinking a bottle, etc. SO CUTE! :-) While we were in the midst of everything, my work called and told me I didn't have to come in for the afternoon! WAHOO!! It was so awesome.

So I told my family they could come over earlier. I think they ended up coming around 7ish. We ate the food, which was so so so good, and then just hung out. Jilly was in heaven because she could make the rounds, scavenging and begging food off everyone. ;-) After the food and relaxing, we read the Christmas story in Luke 2. About 9:30pm, Steve got a call and turned out it was his brother Greg, a missionary in New Zealand! They ended up talking for like 4 hours! My family left soon after the call came in and took our Christmas presents over to their place, so we didn't have to deal with them in the morning (we have enough stuff with just the baby and ourselves!). I put Jilly to bed, then settled in to watch TV while the lights were twinkling. I figured I'd stay up until Steve got off the phone. I ended up watching several episodes of "Kids By The Dozen" on TLC, following different families with 12 or more kids. It was on all day long, so I saw quite a few. Looks crazy to me, but everyone seemed happy with it. ;-) Anyway, finally after 1am, I was falling asleep, so I went to bed. Steve got off the phone then and came to bed a little later. We were both exahusted!

The next morning, the alarm went off at 7:30am, but I didn't actuallly get up until 8:45am. Oops! Hehehe. We left for my mom's about 10am. We had to wake up my sister when we got there, but my aunt was already there, unloading her laundry basket of gifts. After everyone was up, assembled and settled in with their coffees or other hot drinks, we started opening presents. It was a lot of fun! Jilly was so spoiled! She got SO many books! I unfortunately lost track of which ones were from who, she got 19 at the final count!!! Crazy spoiled girl. And she LOVED the walker toy Steve and I got her. My aunt gave me a cute crafty project , with wooden letters spelling JILLY that go on this stand, plus an earring holder (a screen in a picture frame). Steve got a gift card for Barnes & Noble from her. What else... The Simpsons Movie, Silver Platters gift cards, money, a couple cute snowman bell ornaments that say "Mom" and "Dad", and the Indiana Jones boxed set of DVDs. There might be more, but I'm not remembering right now. After presents, I cleaned everything up while breakfast was made, waffles, eggs, bacon, pineapple, etc. We didn't finish "brunch" until after 1:30pm!!! We decided to push dinner time back a little, because we didn't want to start cooking immediately.

It was decided to watch The Simpsons Movie and let Jilly nap. The little turd would not have it!! She was so so so tired, but wouldn't sleep. She finally cuddled with Auntie Katie (my sister) and fell asleep while drinking a bottle, for about 30 minutes, but then was bright eyed and bushy tailed for a little longer. We tried 3 or 4 times, throughout the afternoon to get her to sleep, but she was not happy with that plan. Luckily, we had no shortage of people to cuddle her and play with her, so she was never bored. Katie and I got everything ready to cook, but eventually ran out of things to do, because we had to wait until right befor the roast was done. So we took Jilly and drove around looking at Christmas lights for about 45 minutes, hoping Jilly would fall asleep in the car. She finally did....15 minutes before we got home! But then I was able to move her into the playpen (miracle that she didn't wake up when I pulled her out of the carseat) and she slept for over an hour there.

Everyone pitched in to finish the meal and get it on the table. We had Roast Beast, Creamed Corn, Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus, Green Beans, Caesar Salad, and rolls, with various sparkling juices. Soooooo yummy. We woke Jilly up for dinner and she was cute, munching on her green beans and asparagus. After dinner, we played Apples to Apples; Juliet wonb the first round, Andy won the second (shortened) round. Funny story: we got Apples to Apples for my bro & sis and so did my aunt! They were both thrilled though, so now Katie can take one to school and Andy can have one at home. It was funny. After the game, we had peach and blueberry pies and then all went home and to bed.

Overall, it was a fun, fairly relaxing day spent with family. We definitely miss our family and friends scattered across the globe, but are happy we have some nearby to spend this time with. We feel very grateful that we were able to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and feel such gratitude for our knowledge of Him and His gospel.

This week will be more of the same. Steve was lucky to get the entire week off for vacation! Since he was going to be home, I told my boss I could work some extra hours since I knew people would be out of town. So it's ended up with me working Wednesday, Friday and Saturday all day. Thursday, I'm taking Juliet to a dentist appointment at 8am, then Jilly has her follow-up appointment with Dr. Cronyn. (side note: I am a little worried about this one, because she doesn't seem really better from the ear infection. She never acted all that sick to start with, then got a little sicker after starting antibiotics, then back to the same. Not better, but not really worse. Hrm....) We will have our evenings home, all together, and it never hurts to have the extra hours, so there you go!

Well, that's pretty much our story. We can't wait to hear all of yours!

Merry Christmas, Happy Boxing Day and Happy New Year to all!!

Love, The Halls