a Utah Christmas

 

We went out to Utah for the second half of December.

Mom was getting surgery to get her second hip replaced and it had been too long since getting everyone together.

{leaving Atlanta...}

{...and arriving to my mountains}

{the kids were delighted with the tiny bit of snow left on mom's lawn...little did they know they were in for more later}

{Curt's mom was in town on a trip that overlapped ours by a day and came over with Kenny to visit}

{view from mom's hospital room...only stayed there for a few hours, we checked out and I drove her home by dinner time, beating that night's snow storm.}

{I shoveled for the first time in a looong time}

{more snow for the kids to play with}

{Curt went back to Atlanta for a few for work, so we just hunkered down at mom's for her recovery. I did some prep work for a school competition I'm participating in in January.}

{while on a call for that this dude was being a pill so I made him come sit still in this chair and be quiet so he didn't disturb my meeting...he fell asleep} 

{oranges...Christmastime staple}

{Londynn came to play for the day}

{mom got sick of being inside so she dragged us for a walk, she decided she was good without crutches for the next walk}

{Curt came back and David and Kelsi came for dinner Sunday. One of these nights Melynda came over and we stayed up late introducing her to the show Ted Lasso.}

{Lane and Kinsey came and visited Tuesday}

{Evie is in love with babies}

{there's a lot of standing at mom's kitchen sink looking at the mountains for me when I visit}

{tried to see a bunch of people the week of Christmas...never catch as many as I want and caught less on camera. This is from dinner with Tony's little sister and her girlfriend. I also got ice cream with Sharee and dinner with Sheena. Curt visited with his old roommate Helaman, went to Kenny's house one morning, caught lunch with Sean and dinner with a couple cousins.} 

{saw Lane's basement that's being finished}

{this is what it looked like the day after we left, after painters had been in}

{floating entertainment console Lane has built from scratch to go on that accent wall}

{making cinnamon rolls Christmas Eve and prepping what I could for the big Christmas family dinner the next day}

{such a magnificent Christmas Eve sunset, I couldn't stop taking pictures}

{mama's house is fun to be at at Christmastime}

{bedtime wind down}

{then Curt and I stayed up wrapping presents and watching "the Italian Job"

{in a Christmas miracle the kids slept in and we had breakfast before presents}

{One of Evie's presents was some eyeshadow and she immediately set to work on little brothers}

{and then it was time to make dinner. Dad and Jann brought honeybaked ham and lots of dessert}

{Jann had just had surgery too, getting a plate out of her hand}

{McKay adopted Melynda as his buddy for the evening and hardly left her side}

{Nora happily participated in one of Evie's "salon visits"}

{Kinsey was an amazing sport and let Evie do another makeover}

{we had a recovery and cleaning day and then it was off to the airport to go home}

{fun to see the construction at the airport}

{we arrived fairly early because it was a busy travel day, then our flight was delayed too, so we had some hang out time}

{on the plane, notice that patch of blue sky...}

{...and then the snow squall that everyone's phone had buzzed like an amber alert about rolled in as we were driving to the runway. So we couldn't take off.}

{and we sat and sat and sat. thank goodness for headphones, screens, and snacks}

{and we got snowed in, deiced, and then after all that we didn't have enough fuel to get to Atlanta so we went back to the gate to refuel. And then the crew was going to time out and they had to find a new crew. So they deplaned us. And we trekked to find pizza and the kids lay all over the floor at the gate as we waited some more. And then we finally got back on and took off at almost 11pm. And then we landed in Atlanta and the airport train wasn't running because it was the wee hours. And so Curt took an Uber to our car, came and picked us up at the international terminal, drove to the domestic terminal where Des and I ran in and got our luggage, and we drove home. Finally able to fall exhausted into bed at almost 6am. Thank my lucky stars that the kids were SO GOOD during all of that. Kind of can't believe that they were.}

Phew, that was a long one. Good vacation. Can't wait to come back and see the people we missed.