Christmas 2008

What a fabulous Christmas we had this year! We did so many things and got so much - we are so blessed!

MONDAY, DECEMBER 22ND

The first celebration began with our "Adoptee" family - the people that have been as close to us over the years as blood relatives. We all got together at Frank and Rowena Montoya's house and had a fantastic dinner of lasagna, breadsticks, and salad. Unfortunately, we had to take family pictures (see previous posts), but they didn't last very long and then we started to play our white elephant game. There were a lot of fun things to choose from but Jake and I ended up with the movie RADIO and some new nail polish. I told Jake that he has to paint my toe nails now.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23RD

After piano lessons we headed to Alpine to celebrate with our Uncle Ty and Aunt Malinda Rowley's family. We had more lasagna and jam filled doughnuts and played a game where everyone chooses an animal and you have to pass being "it" to different people without smiling. If you smile or laugh, you're out. For example: I was a tiger and Jake was a panda. I would say, "Tiger to Panda." Jake would then have to pass it to someone else before he smiled or laughed. It was more fun than I expected it to be and we had to declare a three way winning tie between myself, Dad Bentley, and Uncle Ty. We played a little bit of pictionary before heading out for the night.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24TH

Jake had work off so we had a great time just relaxing at home and spending time together in the morning. We made breakfast together and I finally got my orange juice! (I have been craving it for quite a while...) At 2:00 we headed to Jordan Landing to watch BOLT with my family. It was a really great movie! It was funny and cute and fun and everything that we hoped it would be and really didn't expect. After the movie we went to Chin Wah for dinner and stuffed ourselves on fabulous hot and sour soup, ham friend rice, and Phoenix Chicken. Our Grandma and Grandpa Dunford came with us to dinner and Grandma Dunford made us all special Christmas pillow cases. It was fun to laugh and eat great food and really set off Christmas Eve in a very special way.

We headed to my parent's house after dinner and read the Christmas story in Luke and in 3 Nephi. We talked a bit about the real meaning of Christmas and what we should be focusing on, not only at this time of year, but throughout the whole year. We exchanged presents as siblings after that - I had Zachary and Jake had Jeremy. I gave Zachary a new sled and we made Jeremy a "dating booklet" to go along with a $20 gift card to Leatherby's Family Creamery. Kayden had me and I got some super cute brown Sketchers shoes that are VERY comfortable. Brynndi had Jake and gave him a 54 oz. bag of Skittles and Mario Party 3 for the N64. She was so cute about the whole thing. The sibling we have is supposed to be a secret but as soon as Brynndi had her gift wrapped she game downstairs and announced, "Jake these are for you!"

After all of the siblings opened our presents, Jake and I gave our presents to my parents. We got my mom some books on the founders of the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence (she's a history buff) and we got my dad a $20 gift card to The Happy Sumo Sushi Restaurant. We finished the evening with Peppermint Dessert and a round of Mario Party 3 back at home. It was a fantastic Christmas Eve!

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25th

I can't sleep when I get excited and so I was wide awake at 5:30 in the morning. (Last year I took a sleeping pill before bed so that I would stay asleep... being pregnant made that an impossible solution this year.) I drifted in and out of sleep until 7:45 when I decided to get up and start getting ready. We got all of our presents together and walked out to a freshly falling blanket of snow. We tried to be very careful on the drive to my parent's house... but between 7800 South and 9000 South on Bangerter the car started sliding. It slid back and forth for a while as Jake tried to get it to straighten out and then spun onto the shoulder in a 180. We were so grateful that we didn't hit any other cars, or the fence at the side of the road. I was very grateful for a calm and level headed husband who got us through the whole situation without panicking and overcorrecting. I know for certain that if I had been behind the wheel we wouldn't have been so fortunate to not have hit anything...

We arrived safely at my parent's house and parked in the driveway in case the plows came by. My Grandma and Grandpa Dunford arrived around 9:30 am and we had a FABULOUS breakfast: homemade wheat pancakes (freshly ground wheat) with strawberry syrup, fresh raspberries, and whipped topping, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and orange juice. After eating to our hearts content Jake went outside to get his laptop in the car and found that it had slid down the driveway and was partially in the road. Again... we were very fortunate and blessed that it didn't slide down even further and go down the big hill across the street from my parent's house, or get hit by another car. Our Father in Heaven was certainly watching out for us!

Grandma and Grandpa Dunford gave us our present from them in the morning (usually we get them at night but I got Jake some things in his stocking to go with it): a Game Cube with 2 controllers and Super Smash Brothers Melee! I already knew about it (obviously) but I am happy to have it because Jake and I love playing games together. Jake was really excited and was so much fun to watch. He is the best about making gift givers feel so good about themselves.

My parents also gave us their gift: a new Samsung BL103 Digital Camera! It is a bright red color and is very adorable. I had a great time taking pictures throughout the day and although I am very inexperienced at taking pictures... I am learning! Make sure to take a look at our Christmas 2008 Scrapbook. Sorry that some of the pictures are blurry... like I said, I'm still learning!

The boys hit the driveway with an army of snow shovels to attempt to clear a path for the cars to get out. There was 2 feet of snow drift blocking the garage and our car was now buried in the snow. We slowly made our way to Grandma and Grandpa Dunford's house and the boys hit the snow again to try and clear the 2 feet of snow in the driveway so that all of the cars could park off of the icy road. After about a half hour of shoveling we were finally ready to open our stocking presents! In the Dunford household we all sit in a big circle and open our presents one at a time. (We always make sure that we have the same number of presents.) It takes a really long time but then everyone gets a chance to Oooo and Ahhh over the rest of the families presents. Here is how the haul turned out:

JAKE: 4 new N64 controllers, 2 USB N64/PS2 PC Adapters, Kung Fu Panda Soundtrack, Elantris by Brandon Sanderson audiobook, Homestarrunner Everything Else Volume 3, a new GORGEOUS tie, a wireless internet card with WPA security capabilities, a polygonal Rubiks cube, Mario Kart Double Dash for GameCube, Super Monkey Ball 2 for GameCube, and 1 GB of RAM Memory for his Laptop.

SHAYLA: IQ DVD, The Kid DVD, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium DVD, Christmas collection DVDs (It's a Wonderful Life & White Christmas), 4 baby books, a cool tortilla warmer, a very nice spatula, a 2009 Fix-it-and-Forget-It Calendar, a recipe book of all sorts of chicken recipes (I love chicken!), a new 1 1/4 inch curling iron, a treble clef necklace charm, 2 Soft Lips Chapsticks (cherry and pearl flavored), a 2 GB card for my new camera!, Set Cubits game, and a new ring to fit my swelling, pregnant fingers!

Needless to say, it was a very fun time and we got so many great things!

Immediately after stockings were finished we headed out to my Grandma and Grandpa Troff's house. I wasn't feeling real well at this time, besides being extremely tired, and so I didn't eat a whole lot of the extensive spread of food. Jake had about 20 shrimp that they had over ice with lemon and cocktail sauce. They looked really good and I would've liked to eat more... but that comes with growing this little girl! Oh well! We got some more wonderful things from that side of the family including a picture magnet board, the game Sorry! Sliders, some pictures from my late Grandma Pat, a "Return with Honor" plate, and my grandparents gave us a chocolate orange with President Grant smiling outside of one of the windows of the box. (I.E. a $50 bill.)

We stopped by the Bentleys after this and visited with Jake's parents for a while. Most of his siblings were gone to a movie. We were supposed to have a big Christmas dinner at their house but Jake was too full and his siblings didn't get home before we had to leave. His parent's gave us a $25 gift card to Applebees, a $5 gift card to Blockbuster, and the family edition of Cranium. Sounds like the ingredients for a great date night! We gave his parents our presents at this time also: we gave Dad Bentley a big can of cashews and Mom Bentley a framed crocheted doily that said BENTLEY with hearts around it.

It was back to the Dunfords after the Bentleys and my grandparents gave out the rest of their gifts. My Grandma Traci wanted us to have something to open with everyone else so she got us the Deal or No Deal DVD game. She is so adorable and generous! Jake laughed when I opened it and said, "There is your nursing game!"

I had some small sandwiches and pomegranate salad (I was starving by this point) and we played with our new toys for a while before heading back home on the treacherous roads. I was supposed to take my car home last night... but I didn't feel safe driving by myself on the roads. I am so glad that I didn't because the roads were extremely bad and Jake spent another half hour when we got home shoveling our driveway with Joann and her kids. Crazy snow!!!

What a wonderful holiday it was! We have been so extremely blessed - it continually amazes me! As we celebrate the birth of our Savior it still is a wonder to me that in doing so much for us during his life on this earth that He would continue to do so much for us throughout our mortal experience. I hope that each and every one of you had such a fantastic Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year!

Love Always from the Bentley Family