Christmas Update

Alright, I know I'm a blog slacker, but I really do have good intentions. I was lucky enough to see a lot of friends and family over the holidays, which must be my excuse on why I'm so behind on blogging about it. :)

Christmas 08 was fun, cold, snowy and also done in shifts. This year each of our had slightly different agendas and in order to make everyone happy we "celebrated" with each child on it's own day.

As most of you know, Amanda LOVES horses. She has an Aunt and Uncle in VA that have horses, so she flies out there when she can to ride horses with her cousins, chase foxes and gets extremely spoiled (lucky girl!!) :). We celebrated with her about a week before Christmas and before I flew to UT.

Chase loves the snow, climbing and being with his best bud, his dad, Dave. They drove up (yes, they were kind enough to "demand" that I fly to Utah while they drove) and spent a couple days climbing on the way up. They had higher ambitions to do more hiking while in Utah, but because of all the snow, they didn't get more than a couple hikes and a ski trip in. Dave, Chase and I spent Christmas Eve with both families, Christmas morning with our family and than saw Dave's mom on Christmas as well.

Of course, we couldn't forget about Moni!!! Monica didn't get home from U Mass until Sunday (Dec 21st) due to a snow day on her last day of finals. What made her most happy was to be home in her own bed and be in the warm weather, so she passed on the trip to Utah. We drove back (yeah, I sucked it up) from Utah and she came over and we got to celebrate one more "gift giving" night.

It was fun to extend the holidays as long as we could. Holidays are such a great time to be near family and friends. Even though sometimes it's hectic and not a vacation, I wouldn't change the hustle and bustle for anything! All the craziness of our families, all the snow storms, all the thoughtful gestures is what makes Christmas memories.

Girlfriends Rule!!!

Can I just say I have great friends!!! I really enjoy going back to Utah and getting together with all my friends.
This year was no different. While in Utah, I had a chance to have a couple girls holiday parties with the help of some friends hosting their homes. I've been having a girls Christmas party for several years and we always have a good time with lots of food, fun gifts and alot of laughing. This year we had to brave a major snow storm, but once we got to Kristen's, her house was cozy and we partied into the wee hours. We had a group of seven friends and than a couple days later, another group of us got together at Katie's for more fun. We do a gift exchange...this year was "Some of my favorite things" and there were some great gifts- a coat, purses, gloves, make up, chic flicks, etc. I just want to send a shout out to all my girls for the good memories.