Prince and Tori's Wedding

Prince and Tori were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Prince lived with my family for about five years during high school. I was only home for about a year and a half of that time. After the ceremony, there was an open house for them at my parent's house. It was a special day for them, and we wish them all the best as a married couple.

Nana's Birthday and Sledding

We had lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate Nana's birthday. Emma was ridiculously hungry and screamed for the first little bit until we could get situated and some food in her little tummy. Then in the evening we headed to Nana and Papa's so that that women could decorate for Prince and Tori's wedding reception and the kids could go sledding. Emma had her first sled run and then came inside to warm up from the biting cold. Benjamin did have an injury as he got a rope burn from Hannah's sled. He was a good sport about it, and I never saw any tears.

Skiing

Stephen and I got away for a day and went skiing to Sundance. It was so good to be together all day without children. A huge thanks to my mom and sister for taking care of the little ones. We only skied for half a day, but we were gone all day with the drive, equipment rental, freeway traffic, etc. The slopes were great with a fresh dusting snow, and we ate a delicious lunch at the Founder's Grill at Sundance. We split an onion tart for our appetizer, and it was simply divine! I want to try to recreate it, but I am afraid that we would even come close. After eating all the yumminess, oh the warm apple pie was divinity, we hit the slopes again and Stephen got off on his own while I stuck with my favorite easy run. We had a fabulous day!

Socks

I should be blogging about Christmas and all the festivities, but that involves uploading a bunch of pictures and I just don't feel like it right now. That will have to wait. My post tonight is going to be about socks. When I went in for a D&C for the miscarriage, the nurse put some gray hospital socks on my feet. You know the kind that have no heel and white plastic nubbies on the bottom for some traction. The kind that have a very thin elastic string around the top and don't stay in place at all. On that day, nothing felt better than getting those fuzzy socks on my cold feet lying in bed awaiting the procedure. In a strange way those socks seemed to warm my heart a bit too. And everyday since that day those gray socks sit in my top drawer just waiting to be put on after a bad or hard or upsetting day. I would have thought that I wouldn't have ever wanted to see those socks again because of the memory they hold, but instead I relish the warmth those gray socks bring. On each disappointing, discouraging, sad, depressing day those gray socks find their way out of the drawer and onto my feet and each and every time since that first day they bring me comfort, warmth, and a bit of inner strength that I didn't know that I had. I refer to those days now as my gray sock days. For Christmas, my mom gave me some new socks. I tried them on tonight, and they are even softer and warmer than those gray socks and even have a bit of aloe in them. They are pretty fancy and might take the place of those gray socks for my bad days. But I have a feeling on those days when I need strength the most, the gray socks might just make their way out of the top drawer again.

Christmas Day

Of course Christmas day started, at a very reasonable 7a.m. I might add, with seeing if Santa came. He, in fact, did come and left lots of goodies including a baby gate for Emma at our house with a picture and a note that it wouldn't fit in the airplane so it got left beside our Christmas tree. What a thinker that Santa is!

Santa found the knife set that Benjamin has been dreaming of for many months!

He also got a shaving kit which has been a huge hit.

Emma did some investigating herself.

First thing that Benjamin did was use the new knife set and cut up some tomatoes.

It was a playmobil Christmas for Benjamin. He got four different sets from Mom and Dad.

Stephen got the new Photoshop Elements in hopes that my scrapbook pages will be easier and faster for him to process. Benjamin got this Fur Real puppy from Emma, and he is in love with this. In fact, Emma is as well. She learned the work "dog" while we were in Utah and now says it when she wants to play with this puppy.

My parents came over as well as Andrew and Kelly for Christmas breakfast. It was the traditional egg casserole and Grandma Ruth's french hot chocolate. After that we headed to Nana and Papa's for Christmas dinner and opening more presents from Nana and Papa.

Aaron and Andrew and Kelly's new dog Chico. This is my favorite picture of the day!