Thursday, January 07, 2010

Christmas in Montana

Tom had to work Christmas Eve this year so we decided to leave for Billings Christmas afternoon. This year was our FIRST year having Christmas as our own little family! For eight years we've been traveling to see family! I was worried it would be boring or sad not being with others, but it was actually REALLY nice and fun! Christmas Eve Tom made awesome steak fajitas. Then we drove around looking at Christmas lights. Gillette has a park where they set up lights and it's set up to music... it was pretty cool! We came home and had hot chocolate and ice cream floats. We helped the boys decide on leaving popcorn and hot chocolate for Santa.(I was too lazy to make cookies) This was also the first year that the kids understood anything about Santa/reindeer/Baby Jesus/etc. Evan had a lot of questions about Santa and a lot of questions about Jesus' Birthday too.... he kept insisting that Jesus wanted cake for his birthday and kept asking when Jesus was coming to his party! hahaha Also, earlier in the day, Evan was "inspecting" our fireplace and saying,"Santa can't fit in there, he get stuck!"



Writing Santa a letter and leaving a snack. Check out Carter EATING the popcorn! LOL!




Playing with a few of their new toys Christmas morning.


We attempted a new tradition of eating a breakfast of waffles, vanilla ice cream, and warm syrup on top (Crazy, I know! we got the idea from some old friends in Boise) It's really good, but you can really only eat one before you feel sick! Then we packed up and headed for Billings.



It seems like I only get to see some of my family one or two times a year, since everyone is so spread out, so we were super excited. One of the biggest highlights of the trip was meeting our newest nephew Ryde!!! It made me realize how much I miss being around and holding little babies! What a perfect little cutie!


I love when it's so easy to make them smile!



Susan and Sarah.


Grandma and Ryde


Uncle Todd home from BYU


Mel and Dave


ANDERSEN COUSINS!



Just the girls!


Evan, Nathan, Liam


Carter wrestling Eli


Beautiful Jordyn


happy Sarah


After tripping on a stair, my dad broke his foot while we were all there!



What a great week in Billings. What else did we do? I met up with some old friends for lunch (pictured above), went and saw Avatar in 3-D, played games, watched a couple movies, lots of shopping (I miss great shopping!), went out to breakfast, spinning class and working out at the Y, New Years Eve party, and of course lots of talking and catching up!

3 people who like me:

One mom said...

It looks like you had a lot of fun! Sometimes the best memories come from the time that you break away from the family (the whole family) and just become your own unit. We haven't made the break yet, but we talk about it every year. It is always fun to see how you guys are doing.

Jenny Moore said...

Emily, your Christmas looks great!
I love when you start making family memories with your own little family! Hanging with the larger group is also lots of fun!!!

Unknown said...

We should try to photoshop me into the group picture at Dos Machos! hahaha. Love that you posted more stuff. Where are Carter's birthday pics though?!
It was wonderful catching up with you! I hope you smell of vanilla right now. :)