Christmas

For Christmas Kath and I drove to Utah with our families. Lori and Jon, and Steve and Cami live within minutes of each other, so it was fun!! We were sad my parents couldn’t come, but they had fun in Ohio with just the two of them. And of course, we all LOVED our phone call from our youngest brother, Dave, who’s serving a mission in San Fernando, Calif.


We went to see reindeer at Thanksgiving Point.

















On Christmas Eve day we made an 8’ snowman named Snowbot-o because he looked a little robot-ish. It took us a good 2 hours.




In the evening we wrapped presents for a secret santa, and keeping with tradition, we made our famous Monk family fondue for dinner. The smell, the texture, the taste, it was to die for. We also did seasoned meat fondue as well.








After dinner we read the Christmas story and acted out the nativity. Then we put the kids to bed and played games late into the night.




Christmas morning

Christmas morning was fun. We all opened presents at Lori and Jon’s. Analyn played with her presents briefly, and then got bored. I’m glad she’s not old enough to be super excited about presents, yet. That means I don’t have to spend as much on her! She did love walking around looking at other people’s gifts, though.
One of the most fun gifts was my parents’ gift to all of the guys. They got them all miniature, remote-controlled helicopters. You should have seen all 4 of their faces light up like little boys when they opened the boxes. For the next half hour they sat, heads bent over their new toys, trying to figure out how to assemble them. The helicopters were pretty cool.









Rec Center
Lori took Kath and I to an awesome rec center near where she lives. It’s got a huge kids’ area with a playground, a lazy river, and a baby area. And it’s heated. Analyn loved it.


Looking at Christmas lights on Temple Square


Cool Project
I made some antique cake stands for Lori for Christmas. You find a cute plate and either a candle holder or a goblet for the base. Glue them together and voila! While in Utah Lori, Kath and I found more darling plates and goblets, so we each made our own cake stand. We used them to display our food on New Year’s Eve.



New Year's Eve
Me, Kath, and Lori all dressed up and nowhere to go. Not much you can do with 4 little kids at home and no babysitter. But we still had fun. We dressed up for dinner and took pictures, then threw on our pajamas and played games for the rest of the night. Lori’s husband was the only guy there, because Jason and Thad left earlier in the week to return to work, and Steve got sick New Year’s Eve day. We felt bad that Jon was stuck with three moms in pajamas on the biggest party night of the year; not that he's a partier or anything, but I'm sure he missed his guy friends.







On the last day, we dressed the kids up to play in the snow; before the adventure was through, they were all crying because they were cold and wet. Was it the lack of warm snow gear, or the fact that they just hate snow?









And last but not least, on the 29th I turned 25! celebrated with my brothers and sisters that night, and Thad and I celebrated it tonight. We got a babysitter, and he made me my special birthday dinner, that my mom made every year on my birthday for as long as I can remember. It's my favorite: popcorn shrimp, steak, chicken flavored Rice R Roni, and we added steamed veggies and sparkling cider. So we had a quiet candlelight dinner, just the two of us. He also bought me a bluetooth for my birthday. I've been wanting one for a while, b/c one: it's illegal to talk on your cell phone while driving in Cali, and two: it would be nice to talk to my sisters and still be able to do other things at the same time. Thanks for a wonderful birthday, Thad!!! I love you!