Christmas in Calgary

It was a long long drive... but we had a great time!
The sad news is I pulled out my camera to take a picture of the girls on the drive up there and right at that moment my battery died and right at that moment I remembered the one thing I forgot to pack... my camera charger. AAAAAAAAGH.
The good news is that my sister in-laws were nice enough to let me take some pictures with their cameras--I don't have all of those pictures yet so at least I have some pictures.

Here's how the holidays were for each of us.

Isaac: He spent a lot of time in this cool purple bumbo chair and in his carseat (due to the unfortunate distance we had to drive). He got lots of cuddles, hugs and kisses from everyone but did not get very much from Santa even though he's been a very good boy. But truth be told, he really doesn't have any wants besides milk, sleep and some love and attention. The best thing he got was a whole bunch of hand-me-down clothes from his cousin Will--he is thoroughly enjoying those--thank you Auntie Janine! Isaac was a great traveler and did considerable well for being such a little (big) guy.



Lucy: Whenever we get together with lots of people Lucy is either a little Mommy shadow or she goes into Lucy world and constantly has little conversations with herself or with whoever is currently in her imagination. She did a lot of this and we did a lot of observing her and having little laughs about it. But she also LOVED playing with the cousins. Her older cousins were so sweet with her and one time her cousin Alex even came and slept by her and Esther on the floor because she was scared. My nieces and nephews are amazing kids. Lucy was a little wary of her cousin Will who is six months younger then her and a lot more aggressive. But by the end they were having fun together too. Lucy's favorite toy from Santa was a dinosaur robot--she kept asking for a robot for Christmas and since she loves the show "Dinosaur Train" Santa decided to get her a dinosaur robot. She was a little scared of it at first but now she carries it everywhere and calls it her "Special Dinosaur". We did a lot of going from house to house while we were in Calgary and at one point Lucy was exhausted and exclaimed: "I'm just SO TIRED of GOING!!!"

Esther: I think Esther had the best time in Canada. She LOVED playing with her cousin, Olivia. She is the only girl cousin close to her age so she was in Heaven! Nana asked Esther is she enjoyed playing with Olivia and Esther replied, "Absolutely... absolutely!!!" Then after a moment she added, "That means SO FUN!!" After the last time playing with Olivia we were driving away and after a while noticed that Esther was pretty quiet (usually this is when she starts firing off the questions). I turned around and saw that Esther was weeping--the tears just flowing down her face. She has such a tender little heart--I immediately knew the reason for her tears. She had so much fun playing with all her cousins--she really misses them. Even though we now live in a state with a real winter--the cold was a new kind of cold for the girls. We got in the car one day on a particularly cold day and Esther in a panic said, "Mommy! Mommy! Look what's coming out of my mouth!!!" She has never noticed her breath in the cold car before--so that was an exciting experience. It was fun to see Esther get so excited about Santa coming--she really understands what is going to happen so that made it twice as exciting for us. Her favorite toys were the Littlest Pet shop set, a Leapfrog Tag reader, her Cinderella bath doll, and her new purple and black dogs.

The Parents (aka Santa's helpers): We had so much fun hanging out with John's family, eating great food, and just being on vacation together. John loved getting multiple Canadian slurpies (they are different up there--no carbonation) and we both enjoyed lots of ketchup chips and a little chocolate. It was especially fun to stay at both of his brothers' houses. They were such great hosts and it was nice to spend time with them one on one as a family. On Christmas Eve we all went five-pin bowling (a Canadian type of bowling that uses less pins and balls that are half the size). It was so much fun! The kids loved it because they could do it too. John swept the family with his score but you have to remember it was my first time... My favorite part about Christmas eve with the Thompsons is the testimony meeting which really brings us all back to the true meaning of Christmas. I love hearing and testifying of my Savior--He is really everything to me. Then after the kids went to bed that night, John and I had so much fun getting everything ready for the morning--Christmas is a lot more fun with bright-eyed excited kiddos.

Here's a few of the pictures I have:

Auntie Janine reading "Twas the night before Christmas" on Christmas Eve.

This might look like it was from Halloween but actually this was Christmas Eve...

Here's the three little girls passed out in bed--they were happily running on very little sleep the whole time.

Here's my cute kiddos in their Christmas garb from Grandma--SO ADORABLE.

A big thanks to the Canadian Thompsons and Taylors for a great Christmas--we miss you guys!

Come visit soon!