Christmas Highlights

We had a blast this Christmas! We were able to go to Utah for 9 days; we were in Provo from the 19th until the 22nd and then went to St. George until the 29th. There was tons of snow in Provo and Robbie couldn't have been happier! He couldn't wait to put on all the snow gear and take his daughter out to play...well, as you can tell she wasn't a huge fan :) Maybe next year she'll love it! I think there were a couple days when Robbie cleared the driveway more than once...and he was in heaven! We'll probably eventually end up living somewhere that has snow, for his sake :) Robbie's sister and brother were also going to be with in-laws for Christmas so we had the Harmon family Christmas a few days early. It was so great! We did something neat this year where Mark and Robin (Robbie's parents) sent us all $50 a few weeks before Christmas for all of us to do something for someone less fortunate. Then, before we opened gifts to eachother we went around and shared our experiences. It was really neat for the entire family and I think brought us all closer. And the best part was that besides exchanging gifts with the siblings there were only a couple other gifts given. It was really a more meaningful Christmas because the more memorable part was the time spent together...and not the gifts. Some other highlights were Bree getting to go to the Bean Museum with Grammy and Grandpa while Robbie and I were packing to go to St. George. She would go up to every animal and roar... "Raaaahhhh!" And we finally got to meet our new neice/cousin Gracie. Bree felt so special and wanted to hold her and give her kisses every time she cried. Oh we had a great time in Provo. Thank you Harmons!

Our Christmas in St. George wasn't necessarily white, but it sure was wonderful! My brother Taylor came home from serving a mission in Russia and it was so great seeing him! I was pregnant with Bree when he left so it was so fun having Bree get to know and love him. (First thing he said when he saw me was, "Haven't changed a bit sis!") It was fun having the real Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and both were filled with fun! Some highlights:

The Penny Game (this is a Christmas Eve tradition in our family...so fun and hilarious. It goes like this: My parents have several wrapped gifts on the table in front of us. Everyone is given 50 pennies. The first person chooses a gift (but is not allowed to touch it, shake it, move it) and the bidding begins. The highest bidder wins the gift and opens it. Now the fun part is that only two or three of the gifts are actually something good, the rest are all gag gifts from the dollar store. Robbie is notorious for winning the best gifts and this year he won an IPOD for 26 pennies! I on the other hand won a basket, candy, and some plastic fighting gear from the dollar store. It's always so fun to see eachother spend tons of pennies on the funniest things, and then others win gift certificates and ipods!);

We borrowed "Rock Band" from our neighbors (thank you Copes) and had a blast. Robbie was the best on the drums; Bear Paw breakfast...my favorite place! (So yummy!);

Skiing at Brianhead (of course I wasn't part of that, but the guys had fun!);

Bree deciding that she wasn't going to sleep until 3:00 AM (how random? It was the weirdest thing cause she's always a good sleeper. We tried everything, letting her sleep with us (and we NEVER do that), taking her to the bathroom, just letting her hollar. Finally we just shut the door with her in her bed and went and slept on the couch so we couldn't hear her. Something to remember I guess...or not);

Grandma's New Playroom!! This was the highlight for Bree. My mom and sisters painted and finished a little loft upstairs off of my sister's room and made it into the cutest little playroom! Bree was in heaven! (I'm sad I didn't take any pictures!) All she wanted was to "go upstairs" and play. Thank you Grandma!

Just being together was of course the best part of all. (Even though we are missing my brother Kurt who is on a mission in Finland) Families are the best!

It was the perfect amount of time away and then we were ready to come back home to NC. Robbie and I decided to save our gifts until we came home and we celebrated just the two of us on New Year's Eve. It was perfect. Our own little Christmas. I have the most wonderful husband who treats me like a queen. And I surely don't deserve it! Life with him just gets better and better every day!

2008 has been great...and we're excited for 2009!