Christmas

We spent Christmas at Brian Head Resort in Utah. We arrived on Tuesday, 2 days before Christmas with no snow on the roads, very little snow on the mountain and clear skies. Luckily, the weather report promised 18 inches of snow before Friday so we were hopeful for a White Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, Will went skiing with Taylor and Evan went snowboarding. The rest of us (Taylor's mom and brother Jackson, Emma, and I) stayed at the cabin and played games (mostly Rummikub), napped, watched movies, and ate until the boys got home. That night, an exhausted Emma (traveling is so hard) went to bed before dinner even started and Will (who had napped at about 4pm after skiing all day) was up and ready to stay up late for Christmas Eve. We had a yummy dinner of chicken cordon bleu, baked potatoes, and broccoli (mostly prepared by Taylor). Then we played some more games, talked, and before Will went to bed we read the Christmas story in Luke Chapter 2. We had thought about doing a Nativity scene but decided there weren't enough people so instead we had Will help us read. Like we usually do when we read scriptures together as a family, we read a line and Will repeated it. There is something so touching and sweet about a toddler saying the words in the scriptures. He may not understand everything, he may get distracted, and he may mispronounce a lot of the words, but you can tell that he knows he's saying something good. After we read the story, we talked about what happened the night of Christ's birth and said a family prayer before sending Will off to bed. We hope that everything we had talked about the month leading up to Christmas had somehow stuck with our almost 3-year-old.

Our kids had a rough time sleeping at the cabin (both in falling asleep and staying asleep) but we did our best to make it work. Early Christmas morning (at about 2am) I stumbled down the stairs to get a bottle of milk to help put Emma back to sleep and there was snow falling outside. It was pretty magical to see the start of our Christmas snow. Little did I know that bit of magical snow turned into two days of nonstop snowfall. At first light we couldn't even see across the street to the ski lifts. It was definitely a White Christmas--my first ever. Yep, this California girl had never had snow on Christmas.


We spent the morning opening presents, eating crepes (somehow I've become the official crepe maker of the Moss family), and watching the kids play with their new toys. 

We all look a little crazy but this was the best picture of all of us on Christmas.

Love this sweet girl.

Giant Steps lodge across the street.

Will had a very hard time sharing his new dump truck. If he wasn't guarding it on the couch, it was in his room... because he put it there... so nobody else would play with it...

We really hoped that the roads would be plowed and clear enough for the rest of our family to come up, but unfortunately most of them (Garrett, Maddie and Taylor's Grandma) weren't able to make it up the canyon. But Marty had a truck so he, Hailey, Colt and Carter were able to make it! They didn't get there until just before bedtime so it was a little chaotic... ok very chaotic (but what do you expect with 4 kids under 3?) and the twins, like my kids, didn't sleep very well. But the next morning was much better. The kids played and chased each other and watched some of their new movies. The boys went skiing (the big boys, not Will) and Hailey and I were planning to join them for a half day after lunch. Unfortunately, Marty and Taylor came home and basically told us it was bitterly cold and snowy and we probably wouldn't enjoy it much (my husband knows me very well). So instead we spent most of the afternoon inside looking at the snow with blankets, a fireplace, and (of course) hot chocolate (my favorite part of skiing anyways). 

I also learned that if you trap me inside with huge windows, lots of light, cute kids, and my camera... well, you end up with lots and lots of pictures.

Will loved his new Lightning McQueen slippers.

The boys who braved the cold (minus Evan who was still snowboarding).

When the big boys got home we took the little boys outside to play in the snow, bundled up like a bunch of little marshmallows. The twins barely lasted 10 minutes and Will (never one to miss out on anything) told me he wanted to go inside too. Once inside Taylor asked him if he wanted to go sledding so we put all of his clothes back on and went back outside into the cold to sled. Will loved it. If it hadn't been so cold (it was 12 degrees, people) and if the snow hadn't been so deep to climb up to the top of the hill, I think Will could have done it for hours. Instead we lasted about 20 minutes then went back inside. The Larsens went home that night but we were so glad they were able to come up and play with us!

The next day was a beautiful bluebird ski day... but of course it was the day we were supposed to go home. The snow had finally stopped, leaving behind a huge wall of snow that took Taylor, Evan, and Jackson about 2 hours to shovel through. We finally got the truck out on the road and headed home. It was a beautiful drive through the canyon with fresh, bright snow covering everything. We decided to stop in Parowan to give Will another chance at sledding. There was a small hill near where Taylor's grandparents used to live that he and Hailey would sled on growing up and thanks to the fresh snow it was a perfect spot for Will to sled. We even managed to form a little accidental jump and Will thought it was hilarious. It was a great trip. A little cold, a little crazy, a lot of snow, and a lot of tired little kids--but overall a great, memorable Christmas. I would definitely do it again.