Christmas Catch Up!

I think we've finally recovered from our Christmas break. We're back to a semi-normal routine and Dicie is back in school. I'm finally getting around to blogging about our whirlwind Christmas!

We started out with Mia's 2nd birthday on the 15th. She seemed to enjoy her presents and cake. My favorite part was watching her try to blow out her candle. When she blew she would stick out her bottom lip and blow as hard as she could, but she only managed to blow upwards making her bangs flutter! It was so funny to watch and eventually Dicie and Dallin were more than willing to help her blow out that candle.

On the 20th we packed up all our gear and gifts and began the trek to Utah for Christmas. We made it as far as Twin Falls and stayed the night there after multiple phone calls from various family members warning us of bad weather ahead. I had really wanted to make it to Orem that night, but after all the phone calls we realized that the Lord was saying, “How much more of a warning sign do you need?!” We made it quite safely to Orem the next day.

The first item of business was the Furr Family Christmas Program. Way back at the beginning of the year I had a moment of inspiration and came up with an idea for the program, so I took on the task of writing it all. It was a twist on “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. I wrote the story in a play format with a narrator and speaking parts, so everyone got a chance to play a part in the program. Of course there were lots of songs and a band number. Overall, I think it went quite well and we all enjoyed it, as we do each year!

The next big event was Christmas Eve. We went to (Great) Grandma and Grandpa Furr’s house for dinner and enjoyed seeing the various cousins and relatives. We got back home and managed to cram nearly 20 people into Grandma and Grandpa’s little house! Won’t Christmas be nice next year in their new big house? We put the kids to bed, but not before snapping a few pictures of their anticipation for the big day!



Christmas morning came around and everyone slept in! We rolled out of bed at 7:30 or so. Dicie was very excited to see if Santa had come while Dallin and Mia didn’t seem to grasp the full meaning of it all.

Santa DID come and the kids were so excited to see all their gifts. Dicie received a puppet theater and 2 dozen assorted puppets. She loves it! Dallin got a Lightning McQueen race track and cars to go on it. He had a blast sending the car around the track about a trillion times. Mia got a new doll stroller and a cute little newborn Cabbage Patch doll. She loved it and figured out how to give it a bottle straight away.

We opened all the rest of our gifts, along with the rest of the Furr Family. It was a real wrapping-paper frenzy! Some of our gift highlights were my new set of stainless steel pots and pans, Brett’s set of nail-guns, and Mia was pretty excited about all the candy in her stocking. For my parents’ gift, I brought home ALL of their pictures from the beginning of time, organized them (an excruciating process), scanned them all into the computer, and put them onto CD’s. That was my favorite gift to give because of the hours and hours and hours of time I put into it.

At one point, in the midst of our gift-opening, our camera got dropped while it was open and it landed right on the lens and the camera broke. It was very sad! So we spent the rest of our trip in Utah without a camera of our own. We borrowed my Mom’s camera to take pictures a few times, so that was nice.

A few days after Christmas we went up to Aspen Grove to visit Jim and Kim and their family. We brought along Grandpa Furr, Corey, Melinda, Tracy, Brady, and Katrina and we all went sledding on the big hill there. It was pretty chilly, but all the kids had a lot of fun sledding. Mia and Melinda were actually the first to sled down the big hill! We also had a great time visiting with Jim and Kim and seeing Aspen and Madi. Jim took Brett and Grandpa on a tour of the new building at Aspen Grove and they really enjoyed that.

On Thursday, after Christmas, we drove to Twin Falls and spent a few days there. The Brouwer family was there, as well as the college kids, and Dave and Kathryn and the twins arrived a day or so later. We had so much fun visiting with everyone and playing games together. We also bought ourselves a new digital camera while we were there.

On Sunday, right after church, we headed home to Boise. We arrived home that afternoon and nothing has ever felt so good! As much as we enjoyed our trip, the best part was coming home. But the fun wasn’t over yet! A few hours after we got home, Brian and Kimber arrived to spend New Years with us! We had fun with them here. On New Year’s Eve day we took them down to Lee’s candy store, then went downtown to go to lunch. That night we played lots of games (Twister was the kid’s favorite), had lots of treats, and watched a movie. Brian and Kimber headed home the next day, but we sure had a fun time while they were here!

Well, that concludes the novel about our vacation! Overall, we had a great time. I love the Christmas season. I love all of the traditions, spending time with family, and most of all - celebrating the birth of our Savior. I look forward to future Christmases as our children grow older and we begin to establish our own family traditions. I also look forward to this new year, especially the next big event in our lives: welcoming a new baby boy into our home! It will be like Christmas again for me.