Christmas in the Snow

I have been looking forward to Christmas for a LONG time.... I think that our whole family has. Cade loved pulling the rings off of his paper chart he made at school(even if that meant more than 1 ring a day was "accidently" ripped off), Beckam loved looking for Buddy the elf every morning, I couldnt wait to see my family, and Jared was looking forward to a much needed break from the craziness of life.

We loaded up the car...jam packed the car really... and headed out to Utah. We told my family we wouldn't be in until the wee hours of Christmas morning so I was brimming with excitement to surprise them early. We were all happy and smoothly sailing... until we hit Beaver... Dang Beaver.

Jared and I were just about to switch driving duties when I heard him mutter and pull over. I looked in the mirror and my heart sank... police lights. The police officer came to the passenger side of the car and started to lay into Jared. I was totally baffled that the officer was on such a power trip and neither of us had even said a word. We did as he asked, some nicer than others, and waited for him to come back. He found a few other issues to exhort his authority, handed over the paperwork and then started back to his car. I was SO irritated that he had been so mean and did everything in my power not to slap the guy. As we walked away I said, "Merry Christmas," and started to roll up the window. He then, TURNED BACK around and made Jared get out of the car to "talk about issues". I was livid. They spent 30 minutes outside, in 11 degree weather, Jared without a coat, so that the officer could continue his power trip. I may or may not have gotten out of the car and told him we was being ridiculous... Once the officer was done scolding Jared for saying that he was "a good mormon boy from provo" he (the officer) grabed some plastic badges out of the police car and brought them to the boys. Using a nice, friendly, I am the good guy tone. I hate Beaver...

Needless to say we listened to Cade for the next 2 hours talk about being a good guy. He would stick out his chest with his badge on it and say, "look, I am a police officer. I am a good guy!"

Anyway...

Once we made it to Salt Lake the party started. My mom was near tears and my dad was speechless when we walked in... the tears happen often the speechlessness does not. It was so exciting and I could barely wait for the morning to arrive.

Cade was so excited that Santa had come. Everything was an excitement to him... even opening underwear made him jump for joy. (It did help that they were transformers)

Beckam wasn't too sure what to make of it all. He mostly followed Cades lead but didn't understand that he had his own boxes to open... he just wanted to open Cades.

Cade was pretty pumped about his star wars costume that a very clever Santa picked up after Halloween for practically pennies. However, Santa seemed to out smarted when we realized he had grabbed a boys Large rather than a small like he thought. Oops... it will last for a long time :)

Beckam was beyond excited about his bouncy ball and football. He did not put them down all morning. Once he had the balls he was not interested in any other gift. So much for wrapping all of them.

Cade practiced being a Jedi all morning. Pretty sure all of us got hit at one time or another "accidently."

Beck spent the morning in his football stance saying "down, set, hike" and then running in circles dodging everything in his way.

Beck also got a pretty sweet ride that I am not sure if he or Cade was more excited about.

Cade-o got his Leapster and has gone through 3 sets of batteries already.

After the gifts were all done we headed to the kitchen for some traditional buttermilk pancakes for breakfast... There might have been a diet coke or 2 enjoyed by everyone except me. I really do need to catch onto the craze...

Cade passed on breakfast... due to the ridiculous amount of candy he consumed while opening presents and headed out to the snow. The whole drive to Utah he kept asking me if we were going to "the sunny Utah or the snowy Utah." All he could talk about was making a snow angel.

My mom got the grandkids matching jammies. She was so excited to put them on the boys and had talked about it for weeks. The boys were rather happy to be nice and snuggly and really enjoyed just being together. Beckam couldn't get enough of Maddux and just wanted to squeeze him. Which I cannot say I blame him... look at those cheeks... so squeezable.

We had a fantastic Christmas. It was so nice to be together as a family, to relax, to eat, to laugh, to enjoy. We couldn't have asked for anything more.