Christmas 2008

We had a great Christmas this year. Our December was packed full of fun activities, of course minus a few because of our sicknesses. I will highlight a few, more for my records as I start to create my 2008 Blurb book.

Our annual Pace Christmas Party up in Oakley, UT. The weather is usually decent for us to head up in the mountains, but this particular weekend was the big storm. It took us 2 hours to get up there through Parley's Canyon -- a few of us almost turned back. It was a smaller group this year because so many other people couldn't make it. Every year we try to do some sort of Humanitarian Project together as a family. We've done many different ones in the past, but we went back to Hygiene kits because the kids have more fun with it and they can actually put them together themselves.

Ellie and her Cousin, Karston.

After lunch, a talent show, our humanitarian project, and white elephant games, Santa comes and brings a bag of goodies for everybody. Even the parents get the chance to sit on his lap! My grandma does a lot of work each year to prepare for this event and it's always something we look forward to.

Thanks to my friend, Allison, we were able to plan a neighborhood get together this year in lieu of neighbor gifts. We gathered in her garage on a Monday night to have donuts and hot chocolate. Everybody brought their anonymous donations that night to put in a jar and we gave it to the Utah Food Bank. It was a huge relief to know that I didn't have to come up with a creative neighbor gift and our money was actually going to good use (instead of in the garbage after everybody was treated out).

Ken had a work party that was planned for the Friday before Christmas -- we were suppose to go to The Melting Pot to enjoy great food and friends. However, we had to bail out since we were pretty miserable with our sinus infections. It always seems to go bad for us when we have a nice date/weekend planned. Oh well!

Fortunately we got better just in time for Christmas. This year it was my parents turn for Christmas Day -- so we decided we would go down Christmas eve and spend the night. We watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and then played Pictionary. Santa's gifts were the only ones that they unwrapped on Christmas Day...we had our gifts at home that we did on Friday morning. It was a way to make Christmas last a little bit longer. :) We hung out with my family all day and headed home around 10:30 that night. Of course it snowed like crazy and we drove 25 mph all the way home -- it took us 2 hours (usually only takes 1). We made it home safely and started wrapping presents till 2 am. After having our own little Christmas at home, we headed to Ken's parents to celebrate Christmas with them. We had a great time playing games and relaxing. Grandpa Adams made these cute stools for each of the girls...they loved them. It was sad to see that Christmas was over for another year.