Salt Lake for Christmas

We love going home to Utah for Christmas. Living away makes Christmas more fun because we are always overjoyed to see our family and friends and we get to sleep at our parents houses and have a two week vacation. We didn't do a very good job of taking pictures this year but here is what we've got.

One of the things I love and miss about Salt Lake is the mountains. They are so majestic and gorgeous. And oh, the skiing, there's nothing quite like it. Tyler and I were lucky enough to go skiing four times in the two weeks we were there. Twice by ourselves, once with my family and once with his.

My parents redid their main floor between Thanksgiving and Christmas and boy were we surprised! The kept it a secret from us and I'm glad they did because it was such a fun surprise. Everything looks gorgeous and it made the house feel so much more warm and inviting.

I absolutely love playing games with my family. We always have so much fun. We played lots of games while we were there but one of my favorites was definitely the Minute to Win It games we played. One of the games you have to get a cookie from your forehead to your mouth. It's quite hysterical.

Christmas Eve was the Haslam Family party. We drank the traditional pineapple slush and Santa came so the kids could sit on his lap. We opened our ornaments from Grandma & Grandpa and had some good laughs looking through old photo albums. Jamie, Whitney and I tried to recreate this gem from 2002.

After the Haslam party we went back to my parents' house to open our Christmas pajamas, have a spiritual Christmas message and then watched old videos of Christmas morning.

Christmas morning we opened our gifts at my parents house, then had our traditional Christmas breakfast on my mom's China. After that we went over to the Kents' for opening gifts and more breakfast. Jen, Missy and I all got Blendtec's from Blair and Diana.



  

That night we went to Grandma & Grandpa Shields' for their Christmas party. 

My dad, brothers and I spent most of one day building this snow fort. I had never built one before and it was quite fun. My parents got their hot tub working again so of course we had to get into the fort in our swimsuits and then run and jump in the hot tub.

We were even able to squish four of us in there for lunch and hot cocoa.

New Years Eve we went to Biaggi's with my family for dinner, then headed over to the Hank's. We played the Game of Things, caught up with old friends, ate delicious treats, played Just Dance on the Kinect and drank Martinelli's and kissed our spouses at midnight. 

Last year Dawson and Missy introduced us to Lowe's Xtreme Sports in Provo. We went down with my family and had a blast. Me, Tyler and my dad and brothers all did double front flips. We were pretty proud of ourselves. 

Tyler has a pretty impressive toe touch.

And what's a trip to Utah without going to Nielson's? 

We had so much fun and already miss all of you wonderful people!