Christmas Day

Brian and I traveled home to Chester, Idaho on Christmas Eve to spend the holidays with my family. It is quite the journey to get there. We took a cab to the airport, two connecting flights to get to Salt Lake City Utah, a shuttle bus to get to Rexburg Idaho where my family picked us up and drove us 20 miles to home. We woke up at 4:00 am EST and drove into the driveway in Chester around 7:30 pm MST. Long day.

It is all worth it, though! As we drove up the road to the house, I felt myself begin to relax and knew that I was home. We made it in time for some festivities, including opening pajamas and some last minute gift wrapping. We fell into bed exhausted but content. 

The Christmas tree was beautiful as always and so full of memories. It was fun to see all of my childhood ornaments. My favorite one on my parent's Christmas tree is a little gold-colored metal ballerina with my name engraved on it. I always liked to hang it at the top center of the tree so that it would dangle and glitter in the lights and so that I would be able to find it easily. My siblings decided that they didn't like that so they always move it to the bottom-most branch of the tree just to drive me crazy. True to fashion, I found my poor little ballerina hooked to the lowest branch. When no one was looking I moved her back up to her rightful position!

The next morning we woke up around 6:30 am to open presents. As a rule, us siblings tend to be early risers on Christmas day. Partly because my dad always had to milk cows in the morning but also partly because we were too excited to wait. So in reality, 6:30 am is fairly late for Christmas morning.

Usually I get really excited about the presents on Christmas morning, both giving and getting them. However, this year I was just excited to be with my family. Everyone was home this year except for my younger sister, Jamie, her husband, Danny, and their three kids: Carson, Kaylee and Sophia. They were greatly missed. It's just not the same without everyone home.

Everyone was very generous, as always, and we had a lot of fun seeing what everyone got. It was just wonderful to be together. I hadn't been home in two years. They are all going to hate me for posting these Christmas morning photos, but this is all I took, so it must be done.

brother Tyler, sister-in-law Kelsey, dad Tim and mom Annette

brother-in-law Scott and sister Kiley

brother Luke and sister Annie

brother Tyler and sister-in-law Kelsey

I got Brian some video games and a new razor and he got me some circular knitting needles and a kit with knitting accessories. Now I need to figure out how to use them!

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner of turkey and ham with a myriad of side dishes. It was so good. My Grandpa (mom's dad) came to dinner and it was so good to see him. There was game playing, teasing, food, movies and naps throughout the day. It was perfect! There truly is no place like home.