What I did on my Christmas vacation

Well...Christmas and New Years are over. The last couple months have flown by for me, and the last two weeks zoomed by faster than ever before. The sad thing is, looking back, I can't even remember everything what kept me feeling like I was seemingly so busy. We had two work Christmas parties (mine was definitely the better of the two), a night of sledding on a golf course (and now Lillian refuses to walk on any amount of snow no matter how small), a marathon of painting at work, the end of boot camp (and sadly, I don't think I'm fitter than a 5th grader), loads of Christmas shopping followed by loads of Christmas wrapping, and a trip to California. I know there were more things in there, but it's all a blur.

But we had a fantastic Christmas. Lillian got an art easel from Santa and is loving it. After opening presents Christmas morning, we drove to Roy and opened more with Erik's parents. Well, really...Lillian opened more. For the second year, Erik and I opted for the more adult, responsible gift of a freezer full of meat. But it's best if it just stays in the freezer. Plus, wrapping it would be a pain. Lillian, however, made quite the haul. I don't know where we're going to put most of it, but I guess we'll find some place. With a birthday in just over 2 weeks, we're going to have stuff all over the place.After lunch, Lillian and I left for the airport. Lillian had never met my grandmothers (her great grandmothers), so my mom and I made the trip to Modesto to see them. We stayed with my mom's mom and had a nice visit. On Saturday, we made the half-hour trip to Oakdale to my uncle's. My dad also came up from Arizona, so Lillian was able to spend time with the whole family. My dad's mom didn't know we were coming, so it was a fantastic surprise for her. It was so nice that Lillian was able to spend some time with family she doesn't get to see often.

But, it was also nice to be home. Since our babysitter doesn't tend kids between Christmas and New Years (and the University decided not to give us the time off like they have for the last 5 years), I took some vacation time. I had a million things planned for that time off, but not much of it panned out. I did start one of the books I got for Christmas, and I bought the new paint and painting supplies for the kitchen, but that's about all the progress I made.

On New Year's Eve, we made the trek to Springville so Lillian could open her presents from Nana and Grandpa Len. On the way back, we made a pit stop at Cabella's. Oh. My. Gosh. It was like a zoo...only you could get closer to the animals and it didn't stink. I had no idea such a place existed. But disappointingly, they didn't have snow pants for Erik. Or at all for that matter. Foremost outfitter my foot. The rest of our New Year's Eve was spent with the gang going to dinner, of course; playing games; and having a rowdy time. What can I say...we're a crazy bunch. ;)

Our final event before heading back to work was sledding out in Mendon. They have some great hills out there that are best reached by snowmobile. We left Lillian with Karina (where I probably should have stayed, too) and headed up. Watching people go down the hill on their tubes made me think about those annual combined YM/YW tubing activites. You know, where you pile four, five, six, as many people as you possibly can on a tube and see if you can all stay on. That in and of itself is great fun, but the best part was really the anticipation of getting on a tube with one of the cute YM or, even better yet, getting in a position where they had to put their arm around you so everyone fit in the tube. Yeah...good times. Was that really the wholesome activity the leaders were hoping for? At any rate, this tubing was nothing like that. I just said it made think about it. This tubing was really more of a luge. In fact, the green sled we bought for the golf course adventure sent Jared and his brother-in-law all the way to the road. That included a trip through the canal. And if we needed snowmobiles to get there, you can imagine how far they went.

I ended up just watching the fun since I'd hurt my back the night before. I figured that since I could barely bend over, I shouldn't be bouncing down a solid sheet of ice. Oh yeah...did I mention that it had rained the night before so there wasn't any nice fluffy powder to do the sledding on...

But the vacation is over. Tomorrow I have to report to work and get back to real life, I guess. But I still need to paint my kitchen. I suppose that's one way to extend it all just a bit longer...sort of...not really. Dang.