Christmas Eve and Christmas in Utah!

We had planned to stay in Texas for Christmas, and were excited about having our own family traditions here on our own. But in November, I realized that Dane's school was out from December 22-January 8! And I started thinking about how that seemed like a super long time to have nothing to do with the kids, and to just be hanging out around here killing time. And the more I thought about it, the more reason there seemed to be for us to drive up to Utah for the break. Tommy's brother Troy and his family were there from Denmark, and we won't see them next summer. My brothers and sister would all be there for the beginning of January to start BYU. We had so many friends and family we wanted to be able to see. So we decided we would do it, but it was already so late that we decided not to tell anyone and to just show up and surprise them. We were so excited about surprising them and doing something really exciting like that.

At first we were planning on going up for a week after Christmas, but then it just seemed like it would be even better to head up the weekend before Christmas so we could maximize our time there. (When you drive for twenty hours each way, you'd better be there for a long time in the middle.) So we packed all our Christmas presents (including a play kitchen!) into the car and headed up on December 22 and 23. 

I have dreaded, DREADED the drive from Texas to Utah ever since we did it 3.5 years ago when Graham was 3 months old. It was so, so hard then, and I thought I could never do it again. But I've realized our mistake--don't do that drive with a tiny nursing baby. This time the drive was totally manageable--the boys were totally entertained by books, audiobooks to listen to, and their Kindles, and Lucy survived. We were so happy to get to Utah, but the drive itself was totally fine. That's a relief since we are planning to do it again this summer (and tacking on a drive to California on top of it too!). 

We stopped in Wichita Falls, TX and played a park called "Lucy Land" to get some wiggles out.

 Staying in a hotel in Albuquerque... such a party with the three kids.

We were so happy to get to Grandma Murphy's house on Sunday night! We stayed at her house in Orem for the night before leaving to go up to Ogden on Christmas Eve.

We called Tommy's brother Kurt, who lives here, when we left Orem in the morning, and told him to keep it quiet but we were in Utah. We wanted to find out what everyone was doing and how we could best surprise everyone. He said they were all at a big mall in Farmington, and he would try to delay everyone and keep them together until we could come meet them. We sped up there and found them as they were leaving H and M, and we ran up and surprised them. It was so awesome!

We all went ice skating at the mall right after. Dane was so happy to see Zach again. 

Lucy was slap happy tired at lunch.

Graham and Maddie. Cute cousins.

We got back to the Leiningers' and they had to shovel some snow off the driveway. The boys were IMMEDIATELY ON IT. They love getting to shovel snow. 

And they spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside in the snow. Heaven!

We were so excited to let the kids play with their cousins. I had a friend ask me, "When you go to your in-laws, do you feel at home or do you have to make sure your kids are quiet and don't break anything?" I'm so grateful that my in-laws' house is almost more kid-friendly than our own! There is a whole room filled with toys that our kids could never get tired of, plus their cousins who come over to play every day we are there. I feel like I don't see our kids for days while we're there--they just disappear and play to their hearts' content and they could not be happier. 

We had the traditional Christmas Eve program that night and then Dane and Zach set out cookies for Santa before bed.

Christmas morning with the kids and baby cousin Axel was so cute. 

I don't know why, but I felt kind of melancholy on Christmas Day. I think it was just a little bit of a letdown after so long preparing and getting ready for Christmas and hoping everything was perfect and then it all being over. It's hard to balance needing to get everything right but also just enjoying the day and not worrying too much about it being perfect. 

Lucy LOVED her new teddy bear, and her necklaces and bracelets the boys helped make for her. 

Graham's favorite present was the new play kitchen, and Dane loved his new Nerf guns. And they're both wearing their new shoes they got in this picture. 

Lucy is majorly in love with Kurt. She talks about him all the time and loves him. 

We watched Home Alone on Christmas Day and the kids laughed SOOO hard and loved it. 

After opening presents, the kids ran outside and built an awesome snowman with Tommy. 

And then we went sledding at a park near their house. Lucy was so cute! I am a sucker for all these snow activities that are still pretty foreign to me, since I've only lived somewhere with snow for four years while in college. (And I guess for four years in Connecticut when I was a toddler, but that doesn't count.) 

On Christmas day, I felt like our kids would have been satisfied if we had just gone home the next day because they had gotten to do so many fun things already. They'd done a ton of snow stuff, played with their cousins non-stop, and had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day traditions. Those two days alone were worth the drive! But we stayed for so much longer and kept having so much fun.