We started off the holiday on Friday by heading up to Boise to ride a holiday train with Cody's entire family. It was so fun to get all if his siblings an their families together. Watching the cousins all play and dance on a train was the highlight of the train ride. One of the servers knew how to make balloon shapes, there were a lot of swords and puppies. They served a turkey dinner and it was all decorated for Christmas. The next day we all exchanged gifts and read favorite Christmas stories and headed to explore the capital building.
Monday felt like a Saturday with reorganizing Ellie's closet and cleaning up the laundry/utility room. For Christmas Eve we invited Cody's parents over and made fondue. They had never had it before and it was fun to share one of my favorite family traditions with them. We watched Elf and I have decided it is so much better watching it with people who have never seen it before, their faces were priceless and we all laughed a lot. We also invited them over for an amazing Christmas dinner of turkey and mashed potatoes. Another tradition is drinking sparkling cider and it was interesting to learn that they had only ever had martinellis once before!
I have trouble with baking, especially bread and cinnamon rolls. For Christmas Cody got me a bread maker! I was really surprised and so excited that I made some that day, although I wouldn't recommend mashing potatoes right next to it because it will make it fall. Next time it will turn out perfect though.
We got Ellie a giant teddy bear and she got a play kitchen from grandma and grandpa. The awful thing about being in a time zone that is two hours later is that we can't FaceTime in the morning, I didn't think they wanted a call at 4:30 their time just to see her reaction. Kids stockings are much more fun to put together than adult ones. Her favorite thing was an electric toothbrush. She carries it around for half the day!
The day after Christmas we headed down to Utah for a short trip and by short I mean we left Wednesday morning and got back this morning (Friday). It was fun to get to see my sisters family, grandparents, and my aunts family visiting from Arizona.
My favorite part about this Christmas hasn't been about the presents, even though they are very much enjoyed and appreciated. My favorite part has been hearing from family. I miss my family and sometimes have a really hard time being so far away from everyone but I am so thankful to be able to communicate and keep in touch regularly. We got a Christmas card from my grandparents in Alaska that mentioned missing seeing us this Christmas and I bust into tears. We got a fun package from my mom that included books that we used to read at this time of the year. I think a lot has to do with the fact that my dad is retiring and my mom is starting to go through the house getting rid of things to move and won't be in Alaska anymore. I called her and told her I got her package and we both started crying on the phone, I swear there is something in our genes. Christmas just isn't the same without the whole family and maybe it won't ever really feel like a complete Christmas for a few years.
I've seen those teddy bears at Costco! haha they are so cute but I don't think our apartment could hold it! and we were in Boise for Christmas too! (well, close by there, about an hour away) I'm glad you had a good time with your family! The pictures of Ellie are darling.
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