Another Merry Christmas

Christmas time seems to go by so fast! One minute I am not in the Christmas mood and I don’t want to put the tree up yet, and the next minute it is over. Our season was cut a little short this year too because Matt caught a lovely cold the week of Christmas and just couldn’t go out and do Christmassy things.


Luckily I caught him before he got sick and took him to Temple Square with me to see the Christmas lights. There wasn’t any snow to speak of, and it wasn’t too cold either – which is nice compared to the past few years when we have been there. We parked out by the Library and took Trax in to Temple Square. It was crowded, but it was nice. There was a gathering of Santa Clauses downtown that day – I think they were doing a bar crawl – but it was fun to see them all walking down the street singing Christmas songs. I liked it!

We had the Haun Family Christmas party where my nieces and nephew as well as my cousin’s kids were lucky enough to get a chance to speak to Santa! They were cute- still really shy or just downright scared when it comes to the jolly old guy, but I really liked seeing that-brings back good Santa Claus memories.

Then before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve! I was lucky enough to be able to work most of Christmas Eve (note the sarcasm) so we were kind of late to our Christmas kick off. We were also kind of late because we had to load so many presents into my little Corolla! We were filled up like Santa’s sleigh. Christmas Eve started at my sister Chrystie’s house. My Brother and his family were in town from St. Louis and it was nice to have a chance to talk to them also. We ate pizza and junk food and just spent time together. It was fun watching my nieces and nephews jumping on my Brother in law. I also liked how my baby niece Cora kept calling my brother “Pizza Guy”. She woke up from her nap and he was there, and pizza was there, and that made sense to her. She was still calling him pizza guy days later.

After spending some time there, we went to Matt’s Grandparent’s house to spend the night. We are really glad they let us crash there so we can start our really early morning a little less early. But morning came and we rushed over to Matt’s sister’s house to watch her kids open presents. They were super patient and even waited until we had some breakfast before they opened the gifts. I don’t think I ever had that kind of waiting power. While we were waiting for everyone I had fun playing balloon volleyball with the kids. I also loved when my nephew Cameron came downstairs all dressed – then he figured out it was Christmas morning – and we next saw him come down in his pajamas again. So cute! My niece Cailey was adorable and every time she got something she was excited about she would turn to the person who gave it to her and yell “You did not get this for me!” Cute.

After presents there we drove from Bluffdale to North Salt Lake for the second half of breakfast and presents. It was wonderful chaos when we got to the house. There was wrapping paper and presents everywhere! The kids were just finishing opening their presents when we arrived, and that was seven kids opening presents from parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents – so there were lots of gifts. Lucky kids!

We took time to open all our gifts and then clean up the mountain of paper. The kids had a chance to play with their toys. My nephew Dax is in love with Dinosaurs, so he received several that morning. He was trying to carry them all around at once. My other nephew Drake was carrying around a little stick we gave him in his pants as a sword. Very cute (my little brother used to do that too – but I think he had an actual sword).

After my sister’s house we took a drive back up to our house. I was suffering from Matt’s cold on Christmas so I was happy to take a 20 minute break and recover before we went back out for more fun! The next place for fun was my Grandma’s house in Layton. We got there and it was already bouncing with fun. My oldest niece and nephew had pulled out the piano rolls and were pumping away at the player piano. The piano has apparently lost the volume control – so not much conversation was going on, but it brought back memories of when we would do that at Grandma’s when we were kids. We had some yummy soup and some other treats. Some of my cousins and my aunt and uncle showed up and we had some small conversation when the piano would take a break. (my nephew also found the accordion – but that stayed downstairs).

After Grandma’s house we went back down to Matt’s Grandma and Grandpa’s house. This is where we wrapped up Christmas. We had some dinner and watched the kids play with their favorite toys from the day. We played some Jenga and Don’t Break the Ice. But before long we were all tired from having such a good day and it was time to go home!

Another Merry Christmas.