My family picked us up at the airport in SLC, then we went to the Grand America to check out the giant gingerbread candy house. We were going to check out the lights at temple square, but no one really felt like it, so we skipped out and went to dinner at Zupas in Draper instead.
It was fun to have almost everyone together including....
Elder Dallin Jack!! He returned from his mission in Tokyo Japan on December 21st, just in time for Christmas celebrations!I always thought it was so wonderful to have our families so close together cuz that meant we could spend the holidays with both families, but this trip I felt the stress of trying to get equal amounts of time in with both families. We spent Christmas eve with the Creer clan in a big family party complete with Christmas ham, white elephant gifts, and hot chocolate chugging. Dustin's grandparents brought HUGE white elephant gifts and Dustin and I agreed that we would be the ones to end up with them, just cuz we were the only ones who wouldn't be able to bring them home on a plane. And guess what.... we were right! Check out my sweet new fireplace cover.... that is currently residing at my parent's house.
Dustin's gift he ended up with is a Nutcracker set for the 12 days of Christmas. It was actually pretty cute, but is also hanging out with Cowboy Santa and his posse of snowmen.Christmas day we spent with the Jack fam complete with stockings from Santa, Christmas sugar plum ring, opening lots of presents, Christmas sacrament meeting with the home ward, and a Roast Beast dinner.
The day after Christmas, Dustin and I headed up to East Canyon with the Creers for a couple days. Now our normal December trip to East Canyon is filled with lots of hot cocoa, sledding, and building snow igloo slides.
This year there was NO snow, so we spent the vacation playing a lot of Just Dance 3 and Michael Jackson dancing on the Wii, watching movies, and shooting guns. I shot a gun for the first time in my life! At first we thought I was slightly retarded, but then realized I'm really just left eye dominant and needed to shoot left handed. And then I was a bull-eye every time. Okay, not every time, but I think I'm a pretty decent shot for a beginner!After East Canyon we spent some more time with the Jacks, celebrating my Momma's birthday, introducing them to Just Dance 3, and lots of Carcassonne.
New Years Eve was spent playing, that's right, Just Dance 3! with the Creers. We saw The Muppets with the Creer clan, which was cute, but not as AMAZING as I was hoping. Then we had a dance off, Ticket to Ride Germany, Uno, and a countdown with bubbly to 2012.
New Years day brought a missionary homecoming talk by recently returned Elder Dallin Jack at an early 9 AM. He gave a great talk and it was fun to have family over for the afternoon. We love our Jack family and we don't always get to see them!
The rest of our time in Utah was trying to spend as much time as we could with family and friends. Of course I had to visit Roberts Crafts with it's store closing 75% off sales and was super excited to get 21 items for $21 including tax!
We flew back to Portland on January 6th and were happy to see our apartment and car untouched while we were gone for 3 weeks. The day after we got back, we were sure to stop by Target to pick up our own copy of Just Dance 3 on the wii. It was so great to be with family and back in Utah for so long because we probably won't get to spend that much time with them for a while, if ever!The holidays were very happy and the Christmas was very merry! As busy as December always is, it really is the most wonderful time of the year when you get to spend it with family!
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