Christmas Vacation in Idaho!!!

We spent our week of Christmas fun in Idaho with Matt's family. It has been a while since we have spent all of Christmas with just one side of the Family. Wait. . .oh that's right we have never been with just one side of the family. We have always done the "go to one family and then leave mid party to make the 3 hour drive to see the other family." This year my family was spending Christmas in Ohio with my brother Cameron and his family. We celebrated Christmas two Sundays before with that side of the family and then they all took off. The weekend before we headed to Idaho to start the fun. We started the party Sunday with the Clinger family party, then Monday night with the Ottersberg family party, and the fun just kept going. We enjoyed seeing family we hadn't been with in a while.

We spent the two nights leading up to Christmas helping "Santa" assemble the fun stuff. All Sammie wanted for Christmas was "Food for her babies" so that is what she got. Santa brought Sammie a Kitchen with lots of fun food. She was over the moon. She kept making food for us all day long. Oh she also got DORA shoes and will not take them off.



Eston got a basketball stand and loved shooting hoops but had to stand on someones legs to do it. He thought he was pretty special. He was more excited to just be with everyone and kept trying to figure out how to open the gifts. It was fun to watch him this year.



We have been trying to figure out why anybody bought them presents when they were completely happy with the wrapping paper and the boxes. That entertained them for about an hour or two.



We enjoyed our Christmas in Idaho so much we stayed two extra days and kept the party going.

More Christmas Fun!!

So Along with all the fun we had with Christmas in Idaho. One night Matt's mom decided that everyone needed a foot massage and soak from her. Sammie took the first honors. She had never had one of these and thought if she ever were a princess it was now.



So the foot massage entailed the following services. A foot soak with bath salts for aroma therapy, hot rocks on the bottom, a foot rub while soaking, she put lotion on our legs and feet with an additional massage, and then wrapped to keep warm at the end. As she finished up each persons massage she thanked them for coming and said that we were each entitled to a piece of cheesecake for an after massage treat. She was quiet professional. Matt took his turn and couldn't stop laughing for a few reasons. The first was because his size 14 feet didn't fit completely into the tub that was being used. So he had to adjust and B was because he is so ticklish he just couldn't stop. I think he enjoyed it. I might be able to talk him into going to a SPA for our anniversary next week.

ZOO Lights!!!

We thought that it would be fun to take the kids to see the Lights at the Hogle Zoo. The kids love the Zoo and the love lights. Zoo + Lights = fun (right?) Not so much. We got there early so it wouldn't be quite as cold or crowded. We had mass amounts of blankets, hats, gloves, coats, and treats. Sammie was so excited when we walked through the front gate. And then 3..2...1.. (wait for it) she started to cry and I don't mean a little cry it was a full blown melt down. Anyway we started through the zoo and the whole time Sammie is crying and I am trying to calm her down which usually isn't too hard. By the time we are as far from the front gates as we possibly could be, I realized that Sammie had wet her pants and everything was wet. No wonder the girl was screaming. However as I mentioned leaving she would cry harder. So I managed to get in one family picture before leaving.



We headed up to the gate and left, but not before Eston started in on the chorus. The two of them cried the whole way home as if the world had ended. Yes, we all lived but what was thought to have been a fun family tradition for the future has turned into one more thing on the list of things that we won't even discuss for another 10 years. (Hope the zoo is still doing it then.)
Oh, the coolest part was the 3-D glasses that we bought. That was almost worth the whole ordeal. When you put them on it makes any light, even the moon, into a snowman. So cool. I am supposed to buy about 20 pair for my mother-in-law. It made for lots of fun on Christmas Eve.