Christmas Captions

We have returned from a 12-day trip to St. Louis! The kids missed one day of school (Wednesday), and I think everyone is glad it's the weekend already. We had a great (and I mean GREAT!) time staying with Kyle's sister Jill and his mom Karen. We arrived on Christmas Eve just in time for dinner and a party. The car rental agency gave away our RESERVED minivan, and there were no other renatl cars at the airport that seated 6 passengers. Luckily we found a nice Muslim taxi driver with a Toyota Sienna minivan who was willing to transport us and all of our luggage. $85 later we arrived! Karen and Jill's family share a large, comfortable home with plenty of room for visitors. And there were lots of visitors. Our niece Hannah was married on the 27th, so all but one of Kyle's siblings flew in for the wedding. Our family hasn't been to St. Louis since we moved from Michigan in summer 2008, and it was fun to be back. I had the eerie sensation of feeling exposed the whole time I was there. Guess I'm used to tall evergreen trees and hills and mountains everywhere. Kara missed Oregon every day it was too sunny, but the day after we got home she said she wanted to go back to Aunt Jill's house. Kate was adored by everyone (except maybe Kyle, since she came in bed with us every morning and enjoyed kicking him in the back). Now we're home and almost unpacked. The Christmas decorations are coming down tonight. Here are some (as in 20) snapshots of our holidays:

Stockings! The kids got to open these before church. They were chomping at the bit to get to the presents, but we had to wait.

Traditional Christmas breakfast. Each child requests an item. Makes for an eclectic mix sometimes, but this year ended up in the perfect combination.

The sorting of the presents begins.

We had lots of downtime waiting for our turns to open gifts. And since we didn't have a lot of gifts, it was a very relaxing couple of hours. Santa forgot my iPad 2 though. Bummer.

Kate figured out the fun.

Jillian opening a new DS game.

Jillian gave her cousin Rianna moral support as she went to get her ears pierced on her birthday.

Hannah and Alex got married! The had a long engagement by Mormon standards, so I think they were both so happy the day finally arrived.

And she looked much better than me. Of course!

We visited the St. Louis Zoo on a warm day. The gorillas were out!

And Jillian's beloved penguins.

Jill and Emma and Byron came with us. The kids loved their new cousin (by marriage) Byron.

Uncle Scott filled Kate full of sodas.

Kyle bought 15 gourmet sodas on New Year's Eve and we all had fun tasting them. Some were quite strange. Some were quite delicious. Most were too sweet for me!

On New Year's Day we caught the last evening of an amazing light display at at Catholic Shrine. The kids got to ride a camel.

We also saw a very cool nativity set made out of Legos. Hayden would love to be a Lego designer when he grows up.

We took the kids to the Arch for the first time. It was a very windy day. You could feel the arch moving from the top. There is a decent museum below the arch and lots of other things to do.

The view of downtown St. Louis from the Arch.

We also ate amazing barbeque here (which is saying something for the girl who hardly eats meat), enjoyed frozen custard at Ted Drewe's, saw a movie, played tons of games (I won some!), stayed up way too late, and ate way too much. All in all, just about perfect.

Whew! Longest post of the year. Hee hee.