Christmas in Gilbert, AZ

It was time to get out of the cold and test out our new CR-V with a road trip down to Arizona for Christmas. As mentioned in the Thanksgiving post, we hope to be able to rotate as much as possible the holidays between mine and Michelle's families while we still can. We headed down after I got off of work Tuesday afternoon. The weather wasn't looking very good and we hoped to get off as soon as we could finish getting things together. My sister's friend Steve was traveling with us so as soon as he got to our house we were off. Michelle hates to drive in the snow so I took the first shift. The weather got slightly better as we got out of Salt Lake and Provo, but had its moments on and off as we headed toward Beaver. We saw several accidents off the side of the road and that made Michelle nervous. There are two main routes to get home and just under 200 miles into the trip you have to decide which way to take. Because of the weather we decided that through Vegas was probably the safer way. I think we made the right choice. We made a dinner break in St. George and decided that rather than staying the night in a hotel we would just push on through and get into Gilbert in the early morning. Michelle took over driving for a few hours so I could rest a while, Michelle is nice like that, and then I finished the trip and took us into Gilbert around three in the morning.

Early afternoon on Wednesday my sister Rachael received her endowment in the Mesa, Arizona temple. She had been thinking about doing it for a while and finally decided she was ready. Everyone in my family was able to attend except for my sister Becky who had just had a baby a few days earlier. It had been a while since I had been to the Mesa temple and it was even better sharing it with Rachael for her first time. Afterwards we all went out to Joe's Real BBQ. I loved it.

On Christmas Eve we spent time at the park with my nieces and nephews and at night we had our traditional get together with my Father's side of the family at my cousin Nicole's house. We always have ham, which my Dad usually provides, along with an assortment of foods and soups. After the food we have the kids dress up and act out the Nativity Story. My sister Emily was put in charge of the show and asked if I would sing a verse of Oh Holy Night to set the mood and then Michelle and I could play Mary and Joseph at the beginning because Michelle was with child. After our minute of fame the little one took over the part. In fact there were two other Mary's during the production. It is always a picture moment and reminds me of when I was younger and Papa, my father's father now passed away, would read the story while we all acted it out. At the end of the evening the kids always get a paper bag full of little treats and toys. Mita, my Dad's mother, still alive at age 96, would give us paper sacks when we were little and they would always have money, a bar of soap, and a little pack of tissue in them. It seems a little odd to me know, but as a kid it was something I always looked forward too. Before we left we made sure to get a family picture with Mita.

Christmas morning has changed a little since I was a kid, but it basically is the same. We got up and opened our stockings. The contents are usually candy and then little wrapped presents. When I was a kid I would always get batteries, a roll of film for my camera, and pens or pencils. This year both Michelle and I got shaving gel and razors. Don't worry Michelle's were for her legs not her face. Once some of my other family members came over we opened presents and then had our traditional butterscotch pull-aparts, scrambled eggs, bacon, and orange juice breakfast. Later on in the day my sister Christin and her family came over and we watched them open up their presents and then we hung out the rest of the afternoon and evening.

On Saturday my Mom helped put together a baby shower for Michelle, details on that in the next post, and then the rest of the day we just relaxed and spent more time with family before leaving bright and early Sunday morning. We had a great time with my family and we wish we had more time, but both Michelle and I had to work the next day. The weather on the way back was much better and we ended up taking our usual route home.