Christmas

Between traveling for Thanksgiving and for Christmas we are wiped out!! We LOVED having so much time with family. It is also nice to be home and have things calmed down for a bit. We drove to Utah for Christmas, Cade's birthday and the New Year. The drive there was awful (bad weather mostly) but the drive back wasn't bad. Thank goodness Cade is a good traveler in the car-better than I am sometimes! He loved watching all the trains that we passed by. Perfect entertainment! A little of our Christmas:

 Cade loved loved loved the snow! Anytime we got out of the car he would head over to the many piles of shoveled snow and plant his feet or hands right in it. Cole took him sledding a few times and he loved it. He would even go by himself. Did you notice the color of his snow boots? We needed to get him some so we went to DI (Deseret Industries-Goodwill or Salvation Army equivilent) to get some cheap ones. These were the only ones we could find and they were perfect!! Except the fact they were pink. But we went with it. At the sledding hill Cade saw a little girl also wearing pink snow boots and said, "Hey look!! We're matching!!" We told him they are Rylee's and she is letting him borrow them... ;)

On Christmas Eve Cole's parents took us to the Heber train where we all wore pajamas, had hot chocolate and cookies, met Santa, and sang Christmas songs. It was the PERFECT thing to do on Christmas Eve. It was really fun. Again, Cade and trains....sensing a theme??

That evening we went over to Grandma Ratcliffe's house for good food and good company. Cade had so much fun with his cousins. It was fun to see them interact since the last time Cade saw them he was about 18 months. 

Christmas morning was so much fun!! We of course let Cade sleep in as long as he would so we didn't get started till about 8. Cole's parents and siblings came over to watch the fun. Santa brought Cade a......can you guess... a train and Rylee the classic stacking rings toy. They were both pleased! Cade and Rylee got tons of fun stuff and were perfectly entertained the rest of the trip.

 

Later in the day we went to Cole's Grandpa's house for more good food and good company. Rylee got to meet more new people for the first time including her great great grandma (she will turn 102 this year!).

Later that night we went to my grandparents house for a cousins party. Shan and Matthew were there as well as Michael and Kelly and their family. It was fun to catch up with everyone. We also had a white elephant exchange, snacks and lots of laughing!

We had a great Christmas! Thanks to our wonderful loving families!!