It took a lot of planning, and saving, and effort to get there but it was so worth it.
We left the Friday morning before Christmas and made it as far as Albuquerque where we met up with Grandma and Grandpa McKneely and Andy and Laura's family. The next day we made it the rest of the way into town and to our beautiful home! When we arrived the home was decorated beautifully for Christmas and our children loved running around exploring. Each family had their own room and bathroom which made things so nice!
Sunday morning we set in to watch Miracle on 34th Street in the movie room (cute movie) and attended church in a ward in Heber. The first building we went to was closed, the second actually didn't have a sacrament meeting when the church website said they would, and finally we found a ward at a third church building. There was a beautiful musical program with some very talented ward members and a memorable congregational rendition of Handel's Hallelujah chorus. I don't think that should EVER be a congregational hymn but we gave it a try. That afternoon we enjoyed a walk in the snow and while the driveway was shoveled some people started building a snow fort. We enjoyed countless cups of hot cocoa and continued to our whole time there. That evening we had family scripture study and it was wonderful when each of the children wanted a turn reading a verse. It was a powerful thing to have 18 of us there together reading from the Book of Mormon!
Monday was supposed to be a ski day but it snowed and there were some concerns about it being too cold and miserable for the kids so we built a snowman, played in the snow around there, went sledding instead. That was pretty fun. We found a place in Park City that was a perfect hill with stairs we could use to climb back up. Matthew liked it as long as he was the only one who was able to go down with dad.
And seeing as how it was Christmas Eve, that night was FHE with our Nativity re-enactment. Here's how the roles got divvied out....
Kaitlyn was the Angel, Sam was the inn keeper, Lindsey was the Star and Matthew was Joseph. Then all the uncles were the 3 "wise guys". It was superb!
Christmas Morning dawned and it was exciting. 20 people can make things drag on, but with little ones it's always exciting. Matthew woke up saying, "Santa came! I like Santa!"
For us Christmas was simpler, we decided to make memories this year, our children were warned that gift giving would be light in exchange for the experiences of sledding, skiing, tubing, snowball fighting and tromping in the snow. And Stephen decided to become Santa himself and built a few presents this year.
Lindsey got a much desired doll bed. We had every intention of making her one but as a ruse we announced we'd be making a bed for her cousins and would just make her one at the same time. When talking about the one he'd make for her cousins, she burst into tears saying how badly she wanted her own because Kaitlyn didn't let her use hers as much as she'd like. It was so sad I almost spilled the beans to let her know one was coming. But waiting was worth the reaction. She was SO HAPPY! She even got a bit misty and was just smiling and giggling. She then proceeded to carry it all over the house in Utah giving Freddie the most luxurious sleeping spot imaginable.
Matthew also got a homemade present of a puppet theater made by dad. Being child #4 is always a challenge to figure out WHAT to get him that we don't already have that isn't just adding more junk. The idea came one day when watching him play with a theater at the library. It was a hit with him and all the kids--what a great present.
Kaitlyn got roller skates and Sam got to see a picture of an assembled new bicycle that couldn't make the trip.
Stephen also busied himself making a doll bed bunk bed for our nieces and a shelf for mom and dad mckneely for their TV in the TV cabinet. He swears he'll never take on so many projects again, but he's been super stressed at work lately and woodworking is an outlet for him so I tried to be supportive even though his workshop is also my parking spot.
Christmas afternoon brought more fun in the snow, the arrival of Joseph and Liz from Boston, and a wonderful feast of ham, potatoes and rolls!
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