highlights

I was home for two whole weeks so I'm obviously not going to tell you everything. I already did that to my roommates.

Here are the highlights:

Secret Santa
I really wanted to do a Secret Santa service for someone this year so on Christmas I helped my mom wrap some presents and we took a bunch of food and a few other gifts to a family nearby. We waited for them to answer the door and as soon as my mom pointed to the pile of goods the woman who answered said, "Holy crap!" Best response ever. I think we really made it a special Christmas for them and it warmed my heart. Although it was minimal, I'm so glad I got to play a part in that experience.

Christmas
We celebrated our Christmas a little differently this year. My older sister, Amy, and her husband, Brandon, and my nephew, Josh, were in Wyoming for a few days over Christmas so we waited to do a few traditions until they came to Iowa. On the actual Christmas day we went to church, had an amazing brunch at home, took some naps, watched my little sister, Blair, open her presents from Santa, delivered Secret Santa gifts, and watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. We left out stockings, family presents, and the nativity. It felt different but it really helped us focus on the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of Christ. I am a full supporter of traditions and all of the magic of Christmas but it was kind of nice to separate it for that day. I knew we would get to do everything that made Christmas Christmas but on the actual holiday we got to focus on Christ, and that made a big difference to me.

Blair's awesome gifts

Blair and Dad playing with an elephant. It moved when you touched it.
Probably the closest thing I'll ever get to a miniature pet elephant.

Second Christmas
When the Despains (my sister and her family) finally got to Iowa we were thrilled. We celebrated Christmas a little more a couple days later and it was great. We filled the stockings, wrapped all the presents, got our scriptures ready (tradition to be explained), and you could feel the magic. In our family, since there are so many of us, we each have one person that we give a gift to. Along with giving them a gift, we find a scripture that reminds us of that person, or describes qualities that they have. Before we give them their gift, we read the scripture and talk about why we chose that scripture. Everyone cries and hugs and then we give our gift. It's my favorite tradition. We started doing it a few years ago and I'm so glad it stuck. I had Abigail this year and I made her a picture frame with a picture of us, burned her a CD with some of my favorite songs, and included a coupon for a lunch date with me.

The frame I made Abigail. I was really proud of how it turned out.

I gave my dad a bag of Trader Joe's dried apricots (it's tradition for me to give him dried apricots) and I gave my mom a wooden nativity that I made.

My mom gives us an ornament every year and this year we got the cutest cupcake ornaments. My dad also had gifts for us and this year it was a volleyball! We all got a different color and I am so excited to use mine. One of the funnest gifts was a remote control helicopter that my dad got from my brother-in-law. I loved it. It was so cool to see it flying around the house. Josh had a love-hate relationship with it. He would beg and beg us to fly the "popter" and as soon as we started flying it around he would started wincing and whimpering and mumbling "no, no, no" until we put it away. Poor confused child.