Christmas 2008

Since we weren't going to be home for the week surrounding Christmas this year, we decided not to get a live Christmas tree, but instead dug out the little metal standby from the basement. Finn absolutely adored the tree with its lights and ornaments which he rapidly learned to identify as star, angel, frog, fish, snowflake, etc....paying particular attention to the macaroni angels (an old time favorite of Hudson's). My pre-Christmas project next year will be to make a few replacement macaroni angels.

The snowy and icy roads created treacherous conditions for our drive to Bozeman, but we made our way, slowly, surely and safely with Chris behind the wheel; setting a record long drive time of nine hours. After a car spin out in front of us and the first car off the road we placed our bets on what we'd see on our journey. The numbers continued to climb as we drove with a final tally of:
9 vehicles off-road and a boat - as one of these was an overturned truck hauling a large boat
1 snowplow accident
1 spin-out
I'm thankful we weren't included in any of these statistics! Who knew that having to replace all of our tires last week due to a slashed sidewall would be such a blessing in disguise.

Our stay was memorable. Much time was spent in the kitchen preparing Christmas traditions such as lefse, date cookies, and popovers, as well as just working together to create plain ole good meals to share. I'd be in trouble if I ate that well every day!

The cousins played hard:

Giggles filled the air, as did noises of trucks driving and crashing. Kids tumbled to the ground in hugs. Madison popped back and forth between assembling the annual Christmas puzzle with Mom, Amber and I (especially motivated by the horse theme), becoming a tennis pro on the wii and playing alongside the smaller kids. Hannah and Finn swapped toys; Hannah checking out Finn's phone or trucks and Finn carrying Hannah's baby around. They crawled up the stairs side-by-side like partners in crime or were spotted playing silently together in the guest bedroom. Finn and Isaac were all about trucks, trucks, trucks, whether it was books or toys. Apparently Isaac said one night, after they'd gone back to their house, that Finn was his best buddy. I bet if Finn could speak that many words, he would express the same sentiment. He often sat in awe of his big cousin and soaked up all his actions.

Unfortunately our camera died half-way through the trip so i'll be relying on posts from Amber to fill in the shots of the adults playing hard: between intense wii competitions of boxing, bowling and tennis and our crazy snowmobile adventure to Little Bear Cabin...... there's more to come.

and now for the parting shot of Finn dancing in Grandpa's baby boots. I wish I had his moves on video as his tap dancing two-step accompanied by a enormous grin was so adorable.

It feels good to be home but it is so hard to be far away from family again!