Christmas

We spent Christmas this year with my sister and her family in Georgia. The plan was for everyone to be together, our first Christmas as a family away from home, but with my Dad's last minute back surgery, a slow recovery time, and some poorly timed weather, my parents were unable to leave Vancouver, and spent the holidays by themselves on the other side of the continent with only phone conversations to keep them up to date on the fun activities. We missed them a lot, and though they were always in our thoughts and prayers, it was a huge void in our Christmas celebrations.

Leah was thrilled with her train set. Of all the presents scattered around when she came walking in the room she spotted the train set, said "Wow, cho0-ch0o train!", immediately plopped down and began to play with it. Leah was thrilled with a lot of her presents. Here she is opening her 101 Dalmatians movie (she loves dogs), then hugging it with a high pitched "Awwwwwe," like she does when she hugs her stuffed animals.The girls both got matching dolls. It's the one thing they both wanted most, and they loved them.Sometimes Annie had a harder time expressing her emotions than Leah did. There were a lot of presents that we know she liked, but this expression was all she would give us.

We set up the web cam on my laptop so that my parents could join in the festivities. We would move my mom's head from person to person as they opened presents and they could see what they got and see their expressions. It was a nice compromise to their absence.

It's not a Walton vacation without some board games. We got Chris and Lisa Puerto Rico this year, and it was a hit!

The end of the day. (This is not staged.)

Christmas PJs

Well, I love Christmas, I love pajamas, and I love when my girls match. So it's no wonder that I LOVE our tradition of getting new matching Christmas pajamas! And the girls were really excited to be able to open a few Christmas presents early.

Annie is really into nightgowns these days, so she loved her new Christmas nightgown! And Leah just couldn't wait to put her pajamas on. She immediately started putting them on over her clothes! I'm also going to start giving them a new Christmas book every year. I've heard of other people doing this and I thought it was a cute idea. So this year . . . . the classic Frosty the Snowman.

Our Price is Right Party!

Our Price is Right episode finally aired on Friday, December 5! I decided to wait until our party that night to watch it, so in the morning I met my friend Angie at the mall. I knew that if I was just sitting at home that I wouldn't be able resist turning the tv on! So Friday night, lots of our friends came over to watch the show with us. Dan planned a few games to play, which everyone loved and got really into. First, he had everyone write their name on a piece of paper and put them all in a bowl. He picked out 4 names, calling each contestant to "come on down!" He then showed and described an item and each contestant had to guess the price. The closest bid without going over won the item. The person who won then sat down and a new contestant was called on down. Dan bought all kinds of items, from Milano cookies to advil to beef jerky. Contestants Row, bidding on an item:The Gazdiks, and Heather!, taking over Contestants Row (our bishop, for those of you not in our ward:) Then we all watched the show together! It was so bizarre to watch myself on tv. I felt like I was reliving the whole experience. It was so fun. Dan paused the show when I was about to bid on the wine cabinet (which is what I won to get on stage) and let all our friends place their bid on the cabinet. The closest person won a bottle of Martinelli's! He also paused it when I was playing my game to win the truck. Dan had found a Hot Wheels Ford F-150 to award the person who could guess the correct price of the truck . . . . No on did, which actually made me feel much better! haha . . . . someone did guess the exact price I guessed on the show, so I think they might have won the Hot Wheels truck. Anyway, thanks Dan for taking the time and effort in planning this party. It was so fun to share this experience with our friends!My sister wrote an awesome post on her blog about my family's Price is Right party. And she recapped the show really well, so check it out by clicking here! It was also my mom's 50th birthday on Friday!! Happy Birthday Mom!!

Oh, and if you missed the show and still want to watch it, you can go to CBS.com, click on Shows, The Price is Right, then Video, and find the clip that says The Price is Right - 12/5/2008 Season 37: ep 4451

Breakfast at the Ritz

On Saturday morning, my family did one of our favorite activities: we hit up the breakfast buffet at The Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay. They always give us the banquet room since our group is so large, which we love so we don't have to worry when the kids start running around:) The room has a gorgeous view of the ocean, and Half Moon Bay boasts some of the largest waves in the world. This morning was pretty foggy, but still an awesome view. After we eat breakfast we like to walk down a path to a staircase that leads down to the ocean. It was high tide when we got there this time, so no walking on the beach for most of us, but we had fun watching as a few daredevils (including Grandpa) dared the oncoming waves.

Our California Thanksgiving

I was so happy to be able to go home for Thanksgiving! I was a little sad thinking that I was going to be the only one in my extended family not there, so when Dan popped the good news on me, well, you can imagine my excitement! We arrived at noon on Thanksgiving day (we were able to switch to an earlier flight) and we hit the ground running!

The Thanksgiving Feast was amazing, like always.

The Hulme Clan: all 43 of us. Man, I love these people. My cousin, Robert (the tall one in the back), just got home from his mission in Germany, so it was fun having the Brintons all here from Provo. It was so great being all together.

Our traditional cousins pyramid! The "fall." We were all laughing so hard!
The rest of the weekend was spent following the "itinerary" that Mike came up with. We don't usually make itineraries for our vacations, but with 43 people in 5 different houses, it worked beautifully. People knew where to meet and at what time. But it wasn't too stressful . . . . the perfect blend of relaxing and fun activities. We went shopping, saw movies, ate breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, played volleyball at the church, had Halo nights at Mike's house with 4 tvs, discovered (and bombarded) an awesome new Chinese restaurant, and just enjoyed hanging out with each other. And of course no trip to California would be complete without a few dips in the pool! Annie loves swimming at Grandma's house . . . . even in December!

And finally, a picture of my family, on Sunday before church. And right before Dan had to leave for the airport (I stayed two more days with the girls). Thanks again Mom and Dad, for flying us out for an awesome Thanksgiving vacation!! We had the best time.