The Holidays

Wow… I am way behind on blogging. To catch up let’s go over the holidays. Our Holidays started with a small Thanksgiving at our apartment. We had been invited to go to a couple of other people’s home for Thanksgiving but we were excited to have our very own Thanksgiving. Tyson made a wonderful turkey and I made all the fixings, well most of them.

It was such a beautiful and warm day that we decided to go on a hike after dinner at the Latta Plantation. We didn’t even have to wear our jackets.The rest of the night was spent relaxing, watching movies, and eating leftovers. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I thought I was going to be lonely but I wasn’t at all.

December was spent doing the usual Christmas preparations. We decorated the apartment and since Tyson didn’t have a house to put lights on this year he put lights around our deck. We also drove around checking out lights and spending time at the SMALL Christmas Village set up down at Birkdale. One house close to us had their lights set up with music. A sign would tell you what station to tune into and watch the light show.

In this picture Tyson and I are trying to make both Lilly and Herbie look at the camera.

Our apartment complex brought in Santa for all the kids to see. We brought Lilly
down to see him. She did not like Santa and cried the whole time. Before we saw Santa we taught her how to say Ho Ho Ho. After we saw Santa she refused to do that trick anymore.

On December 19th we did a small Christmas together before flying to Utah. This way we didn’t have to bring all of our presents with us. Lilly and I had gotten sick this week so it was a snuffle-ie Christmas. Lilly was very cute at opening presents. She enjoyed ripping everything open.

On December 21st we made our way out West. I am always nervous about flying with Lilly but she always ends up doing pretty well. Usually she only gets fussy the last 30 minutes of each flight. I don’t know how she knows when we are 30 minutes from landing but somehow she figures it out.

While in Utah we had several family parties including a Harris Christmas party, a Ballard Christmas Day party, a Ballard sibling party, and a Harris New Years Eve party. They were all a blast. It was funny playing games with the Ballard siblings. I am surprised how shocked everyone was about how competitive the Ballard’s are. I think the Harris’ knew that about me from day one (or the first time we played Pounce). We also went to the lights at Temple Square, Tyson went shooting with the Wiricks, we eat at Sonora Grill and Café Rio (both of these are very important ‘To-Do’s’ for Utah), we spent an afternoon at the instant care, and both Tyson and I had a chance to hang out with friends. It was so much fun seeing everyone, Lilly loved seeing and playing with all of her cousins.On Christmas day we opened presents with the Dave Ballard family and Richard and Gloria. Lilly had a good time opening presents with Luke, Isaiah, and Layla. Usually she liked their presents better then hers and we couldn’t keep her away from the stairs.
Lilly wanted to thank Grandma Harris for teaching her how to go down the stairs, the Kippen’s for letting us stay at their house, Gloria for babysitting, Richard for letting us use his car, and everyone else for being so nice to her.