Christmas 2008

This year, Kristen's family came up for Christmas (minus Marty, who had to work). Kristen took the whole week off so that she could relax and play with them. Mom, dad, and Alex arrived Monday afternoon and Jenny flew in Wednesday night. The week was filled with sleeping in, last minute Christmas shopping, and movies. Alex's birthday was Monday, so he was given Wanted on DVD as a gift and the kids watched that (pretty violent, which is why it was rated R for "Really good"). For Christmas this year, we all drew names because of our tight budget and almost everybody got DVD's (you probably can tell this is our favorite pass time). Scott got The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Krissy got Prince Caspian, mom got The House Bunny, Dad got season 7 of The Waltons, and Jenny got 24 the video game for Playstation. Marty, who will get his gift when the Blackburns get home, got season 3 of Prison Break.

Early Christmas morning, Scott and Kristen went over to the Baker/Hymas' to open gifts. As usual, the kids were ready and waiting and looking very cute in their new pajamas that they opened up on Christmas eve. The kids made out like bandits this year, which makes us all happy and they were so cute to watch opening their gifts. Aiden, of course, got lots of construction-related gifts and tractors. Scott got a gift card to Lowes so that we can finish our bathroom and Krissy got a nice leather jacket that will go nicely with her work and church environment. We both also got 72-hour kits. Irene got two nice coats, one winter coat and one dress coat, as well as getting a Rubik's cube. Terry got shotgun shells and some other items that we can't remember because it was kind of early in the morning for us. The Hymas clan also got a Wii system with accessories and a game, which I'm sure will prove to be fun for the entire family at some point. Later that day, we all went over to the Baker/Hymas' for Christmas dinner, which was (as usual) superb! The fixings included turkey, vegetables, stuffing muffins, green bean casserole, yams, mashed potatoes, and rolls (we may have forgotten a few items, but that is what we loaded our plates with all the same). After dinner, we all gathered in the family room and chatted while making room for delicious cheesecake and apple pie. The Blackburn/Bakers headed home sometime after 6 pm and either retired to bed early or watched television, not able to move because of overeating.

Friday, we took Jenny up to Brighton for some snowboarding. The canyon roads were decent for the most part, although the snow had begun to stick when we picked her up. Most of the canyon drivers were driving safely for the conditions and we made it safely back. The rest of us just kind of lounged around that day and watched more movies that evening. Saturday morning, the Blackburn's left for Winnemucca, where they would stay overnight, and continue on toward California Sunday morning.

After the Blackburn's left, we went to Best Buy to buy Scott's "real" Christmas gift (Krissy had ordered him one, but it was back ordered and then later found out that Scott didn't wish to have it, so she let him pick out his gift), which was an MP3 player and a video game.

And that ends our Christmas weekend. We are not looking forward to returning to work, but that is a necessary evil and we are grateful to have jobs.