Our Christmas/New Year in Utah, 2009

Well, this blog could be as long or short as I want it to be, depending on how many details I feel are necessary. Unfortunately, for you, I have a lot to say. . .On December 18th we celebrated Christmas as a family. Cooper opened his gifts and it was so enjoyable to watch. This is the first time in his short 2 1/2 years that he understood what to do with a wrapped gift! However, he is very detailed oriented like his father and insisted on removing and handing each ripped piece of paper to us before he would move on to the next piece, so funny! Here Cooper is in his new shirt and Daddy opening up his AquaDoodle so they can draw together. On Friday we started what should have been a 10 hour drive that turned into 14 hours! Due to snow in a place where they never get snow, we were held up on the road for over 3 hours!! Oh well, by the time we reached Logan we were ready to enjoy the swimming pool, hot tub, T.V. and bed in our hotel room.
Saturday morning we joined my little brother Erin and his Bride in the Logan Temple for their wedding. It was beautiful and FREEZING COLD!

I really enjoyed taking many, many pictures and we enjoyed a relaxing lunch at the bride's grandparents home along with all the family that could attend. During this weekend we also had the opportunity to see an old friend, Julia. We took her to dinner and attended her single's ward with her.
This was a first for Joe and he had such a hard time understanding how you could get so many good looking single people so close together and not have all of them married! We had lunch at Julia's apt and it was lovely to relax and spend time with her.
Come Monday we had a family Christmas party at Joe's mom's home and it was great to have so many of our family together. The only ones we were missing were Joe's sister and family in Michigan. Pretty good turn out for the terrible weather Utah was having at Christmas!
On Christmas we had Joe's mom come to my parents home and we shared a quiet lunch and visit, again more presents for Cooper since Santa visited. He is such a lucky boy. We have had 5 different occassions to open presents!! It was really enjoyable after the craziness of our first days, to just sit and relax. The rest of our visit went by without a hitch. We shared our time between our two families, our best friend Chris M. and running errands. We did lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Jarvis, bought a Durango, built a snowman, saw all our brother's and sister's new homes (the ones that have moved since we last saw them, anyway) and had lunch with an old mission friend of Joe's, went to dinner with Chris and his parents, and watched movies. All in all it was a great trip, even it I did come home with a sore throat. We traveled safely and are happy to be home. Happy 2009 Everyone!!