This year we spent Christmas in beautiful, but snowy and FREEZING COLD, Logan, Utah with Logan's family. We also had the pleasure of bringing my dad along with us, which is always fun for me. We knew we would have lots of Christmas and baby shower gifts to bring home, so we made the stupid choice to drive because we knew we wouldn't be able to get it all onto a plane. Driving to Utah from Saint Louis is always a very long two day ordeal (13 hours to Denver one day, about 9 hours to Logan the next day), and it just became longer this trip as we kept stopping for me to go to bathroom. Again...and again...and again. Logan affectionately patted my tummy at one point and said, "You really just have the bladder of a squirrel, don't you?" At another point he also tried to limit my fluid intake, which didn't work out well with my hacking cough. I was not particularly amused. By either incident. :) But, eventually, our car arrived in Utah, complete with a very tired and cranky pregnant woman whose back was aching like nobody's business. Next time I'm seven months pregnant, we are FLYING! I don't care if we have to ship it all home or pay the extra airline fees. I am never repeating that ordeal again! We
picked up my dad in Denver and he drove over with us. He then went to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my sister Rachel and her in-laws in Pocatello, Idaho, and he returned to spend a few days with me before flying back home. It was great to have him around, and he was a great sport, playing all sorts of strange games for long stretches of time. One of the most frustrating things about our visit was that the McKennas all love to play the game Rook NON-STOP. (See picture above of Logan, Reed, Elise, and Grandma Jo playing said game.) Usually I don't mind too much because I am getting a lot better at it from all of the practice over the years, but this visit I could
not win. I got creamed at every turn, and I was beginning to loathe even the WORD "Rook." The one exception to that was the night that Logan and I played versus Reed, Logan's dad, and my dad. My poor dad. He has no Rook-playing experience, but he did his darnedest. And Logan and I creamed them mercilessly. It was a good night. :) Apparently, Christmas Eve is a formal event at the McKenna household. I'm not sure how I have been in the family for four years and not been aware of this sooner, but it was quite a shock to me when I was told in no uncertain terms that I would have to go put on a dress on Christmas Eve, even though it was just immediate family and Logan's adorable Grandma Jo coming for dinner. So I poutily took off my stretchy pants and put on makeup, pulled on a dress, and tugged uncomfortable nylons over my fat belly. (Which, by the way, ripped open in the back because my butt is too big for them now.
My dad took great delight in this incident. I did not.) :) In the end it wasn't so bad to be dressed up, but I must say that I was a little indignant at being forced into hose and a dress when certain other family members didn't even bother to put on
shoes! Once I got over the shock of being required to dress up, it was a perfectly lovely evening. We had a fancy dinner by candlelight, decorated the tree, and then Reed read the Christmas story from the Bible and we stopped to sing all of the Christmas carols from the hymn book that correlated with the verses being read while Grandma Jo played the piano. (Well, everyone else sang. I tried. And coughed.) It was a lovely evening, many pictures from which are included in this entry. Christmas Day was more low-key, but even better, as we were showered with gifts! Gotta love that! Among the gift highlights from the McKennas was a big box of baby-themed scrapbooking and stamping stuff for me, things for Callum which will be discussed in The Crazy December Part II, a bunch of new dress clothes for Logan to use during rounds in the hospital starting this summer, and a gift certificate to Le Nonne, Logan's favorite restaurant in Logan, a fancy Italian restaurant that we can not afford to go to unless it is our once-a-year big anniversary dinner. (See the picture below---where I have changed into my PJs---and take a look at Logan's face. Can you feel the excitement??? I can.) My dad did something completely unprecedented this year. He actually bought us gifts!!! Usually he just gives us a check
.jpg)
and the surprise comes Christmas morning when
we show
him what he bought us. :) This year he gave us a digital camera (we have been borrowing his and need our own for when Callum arrives) and surprised us with a Kitchen Aid mixer. Hooray! When we registered for our wedding my dad kept telling me not to register for expensive stuff like that because no one would get it for me and I would look greedy, and so on and so forth. Well, we ended up not registered for enough things and with tons of gift certificates, so my sisters registered for the Kitchen Aid mixers and got them. I have been bitterly using my crappy non-Kitchen-Aid mixer that doesn't mix thick doughs well ever since. Apparently he's sick of hearing me whine about it. :) Logan was especially delighted because he is the real chef around here, and he has been longing for one and trying to convince me to use our combined Christmas or birthday money to get one for years, but I always say it's too expensive and it can wait. He says my dad did him a big favor by taking the decision out of my hands. :) One random fun thing that I did over the break was learning to emboss from my mother-in-law, who seems to be the expert in all things crafty other than scrapbooking, which she doesn't do at all. My sister Rachel said it sounded "Bore-o!" but I love stuff like that and I had a great time. I made 50 baby-themed thank you cards to use for my showers, and then I was enjoying myself so much that I went to Michael's and bought a big pack of multi-colored cards to make a bunch of random cards for myself. (Thank yous, birthdays, love, etc....totally randomly themed. I was just trying out all of her different stamps.) It was highly entertaining to me and easy as pie. I love it when things look impressive but they really took you little to no talent and skill to do. That's the best. Sadly, I just revealed that to you all, so now you won't be nearly as impressed if you get one of the cards from me. Just humor me and pretend you are. :) Overall, we were very blessed (and spoiled!) by the gifts we received, and we had a great Christmas with family!
This year we spent Christmas in beautiful, but snowy and FREEZING COLD, Logan, Utah with Logan's family. We also had the pleasure of bringing my dad along with us, which is always fun for me. We knew we would have lots of Christmas and baby shower gifts to bring home, so we made the stupid choice to drive because we knew we wouldn't be able to get it all onto a plane. Driving to Utah from Saint Louis is always a very long two day ordeal (13 hours to Denver one day, about 9 hours to Logan the next day), and it just became longer this trip as we kept stopping for me to go to bathroom. Again...and again...and again. Logan affectionately patted my tummy at one point and said, "You really just have the bladder of a squirrel, don't you?" At another point he also tried to limit my fluid intake, which didn't work out well with my hacking cough. I was not particularly amused. By either incident. :) But, eventually, our car arrived in Utah, complete with a very tired and cranky pregnant woman whose back was aching like nobody's business. Next time I'm seven months pregnant, we are FLYING! I don't care if we have to ship it all home or pay the extra airline fees. I am never repeating that ordeal again! We
picked up my dad in Denver and he drove over with us. He then went to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my sister Rachel and her in-laws in Pocatello, Idaho, and he returned to spend a few days with me before flying back home. It was great to have him around, and he was a great sport, playing all sorts of strange games for long stretches of time. One of the most frustrating things about our visit was that the McKennas all love to play the game Rook NON-STOP. (See picture above of Logan, Reed, Elise, and Grandma Jo playing said game.) Usually I don't mind too much because I am getting a lot better at it from all of the practice over the years, but this visit I could not win. I got creamed at every turn, and I was beginning to loathe even the WORD "Rook." The one exception to that was the night that Logan and I played versus Reed, Logan's dad, and my dad. My poor dad. He has no Rook-playing experience, but he did his darnedest. And Logan and I creamed them mercilessly. It was a good night. :) Apparently, Christmas Eve is a formal event at the McKenna household. I'm not sure how I have been in the family for four years and not been aware of this sooner, but it was quite a shock to me when I was told in no uncertain terms that I would have to go put on a dress on Christmas Eve, even though it was just immediate family and Logan's adorable Grandma Jo coming for dinner. So I poutily took off my stretchy pants and put on makeup, pulled on a dress, and tugged uncomfortable nylons over my fat belly. (Which, by the way, ripped open in the back because my butt is too big for them now. 
My dad took great delight in this incident. I did not.) :) In the end it wasn't so bad to be dressed up, but I must say that I was a little indignant at being forced into hose and a dress when certain other family members didn't even bother to put on shoes! Once I got over the shock of being required to dress up, it was a perfectly lovely evening. We had a fancy dinner by candlelight, decorated the tree, and then Reed read the Christmas story from the Bible and we stopped to sing all of the Christmas carols from the hymn book that correlated with the verses being read while Grandma Jo played the piano. (Well, everyone else sang. I tried. And coughed.) It was a lovely evening, many pictures from which are included in this entry. Christmas Day was more low-key, but even better, as we were showered with gifts! Gotta love that! Among the gift highlights from the McKennas was a big box of baby-themed scrapbooking and stamping stuff for me, things for Callum which will be discussed in The Crazy December Part II, a bunch of new dress clothes for Logan to use during rounds in the hospital starting this summer, and a gift certificate to Le Nonne, Logan's favorite restaurant in Logan, a fancy Italian restaurant that we can not afford to go to unless it is our once-a-year big anniversary dinner. (See the picture below---where I have changed into my PJs---and take a look at Logan's face. Can you feel the excitement??? I can.) My dad did something completely unprecedented this year. He actually bought us gifts!!! Usually he just gives us a check .jpg)
and the surprise comes Christmas morning when we show him what he bought us. :) This year he gave us a digital camera (we have been borrowing his and need our own for when Callum arrives) and surprised us with a Kitchen Aid mixer. Hooray! When we registered for our wedding my dad kept telling me not to register for expensive stuff like that because no one would get it for me and I would look greedy, and so on and so forth. Well, we ended up not registered for enough things and with tons of gift certificates, so my sisters registered for the Kitchen Aid mixers and got them. I have been bitterly using my crappy non-Kitchen-Aid mixer that doesn't mix thick doughs well ever since. Apparently he's sick of hearing me whine about it. :) Logan was especially delighted because he is the real chef around here, and he has been longing for one and trying to convince me to use our combined Christmas or birthday money to get one for years, but I always say it's too expensive and it can wait. He says my dad did him a big favor by taking the decision out of my hands. :) One random fun thing that I did over the break was learning to emboss from my mother-in-law, who seems to be the expert in all things crafty other than scrapbooking, which she doesn't do at all. My sister Rachel said it sounded "Bore-o!" but I love stuff like that and I had a great time. I made 50 baby-themed thank you cards to use for my showers, and then I was enjoying myself so much that I went to Michael's and bought a big pack of multi-colored cards to make a bunch of random cards for myself. (Thank yous, birthdays, love, etc....totally randomly themed. I was just trying out all of her different stamps.) It was highly entertaining to me and easy as pie. I love it when things look impressive but they really took you little to no talent and skill to do. That's the best. Sadly, I just revealed that to you all, so now you won't be nearly as impressed if you get one of the cards from me. Just humor me and pretend you are. :) Overall, we were very blessed (and spoiled!) by the gifts we received, and we had a great Christmas with family!
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