Christmas surprise

Holy Moly.  I just realized I never published this post about Christmas!

On Thursday, December 20th I was talking to my mom.  I was missing my mom.  It is hard  living far away from family, you don't get to share your kids with them.  My kids are so gosh darn cute and I want my mom to swoon over them like I do.

So, my mom calls Friday morning and tells me to do something crazy and drive to Utah for Christmas.  I tell Paul this crazy idea and he saids, "ok".  I just laughed.  We were prepared and perfectly happy staying home for Christmas.  It was crazy to drive 24 hours with 3 kids who constantly fight in the back seat and  5 month old twins!  Paul goes to school and I start doing laundry and thinking.  He comes home that night and I ask him again if he was serious.  He said sure.  I wanted to see my mom, I wanted to see my sister.

I called my dad that night and told him we were coming.  We didn't tell anyone else.

Saturday morning we left!  We gave our neighbors the fresh produce in the fridge, packed the presents in a Tupperware bin, downloaded a few audio books, turned off the Christmas tree lights and closed the garage door.

It was exciting traveling to Utah.  The babies were perfect, absolute angels.  The older 3 not so much...but  better than I expected.

We walked into my parent's house around midnight on Sunday.  My dad had met us up the canyon, he snuck back into bed with my mom.  We crept into their room and surprised Gigi!  She was so surprised!  It was the best.  

The next day my mom called Amber and told her she broke her foot and needed her to come over and help.  My sweet sister hurried over anxious and worried about my mom.  She was also so surprised.  It was so fun to be with her kids.  Just look at Josie girl and little Fischer.  Aren't they the cutest?!  The first thing Josie said to us was, "you finally got money to come!".

 COUSINS

 Papa holding the twins.

 Christmas morning.  Ruth had a hard time waking up.

 We got out of our car on Sunday and didn't get back in until Thursday.  It was awesome.  We just hung around in our pj's most days.  The kids played, made snowman, went sledding...we had no agenda.  

On Friday we took the older 3 to Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  It was freezing.  Paul wanted to give the kids a chance to see the lights, feel the spirit and hopefully have some impression on their hearts. After seeing the Christus at the visitors center we went outside.  David saw a red stain on the cement and said, "Look mom, Jesus's blood."  

It was a fun Christmas!