Catch-Up from Christmas

Between Rita, the accident, buying a new car, a wedding, birthdays (Liam's, mine, my dad's, and Mary Jane's and Steven's within the next few weeks), our 4th anniversary, a trip to Utah, and Christmas, we’ve had a busy month.

As promised, here’s a bit of our Christmas catch-up.

Our complex had a “Dinner with Santa”. Basically free OSF dinner and Santa happened to be there. We went for the free dinner. If you know me well at all, you’ll know I’m not a huge Santa fan. Then again, neither was little Liam:

Once he got a candy cane, things were MUCH better.

Rita, the rat we bought when we lost our first baby, passed away on December 15th after a possible stroke. We knew she was getting older, and it was a blessing to have her passing before our trip, instead of during. We will miss her.

Steve’s youngest brother, Kevin got married on December 18th in SLC. Since Steven couldn’t really take much time off work, and finding a dog-sitter over the holidays is practically impossible, we drove to St. George on the 17th after a half day of work/errands. Luckily, Kevin and Mary Jane picked a 1:00 sealing time, so we didn’t even have to wake up particularly early before heading up, stopping at my parents’ house to drop off the dogs and get a quick haircut, and meet Kristi and the temple at 12:30 so she could watch the baby.

It was really nice to go to the temple again, and the reception was tons of fun. Liam especially liked the lights:

And of course, his favorite person in the whole world (after Mom), Daniel.

He also spent about 20 minutes pushing chairs around and eating dinner (he ate a large adult portion of food and lemonade), but we were having too much fun watching that we couldn’t get any pictures.

And we all really like our new sister/aunt, Mary Jane.

Steven had to fly back to work the day after the wedding and wouldn’t be back until Christmas Eve, so Liam and I spent some fun times meeting our new friend Jared Horrocks.

And spending lots of time with his Kemp cousins.

We mustn’t forget the Man Basket Society Annual Christmas Party. As always, a big hit. The theme this year was Fondue, and inadvertently “Domestic Goddess” as evidenced by the apron, soaps, Christmas towels, fancy dish gloves, and cookbook I received.

Not pictured, but we also went to Cafe Rio with Mike, Catherine, and Daniel. Liam ate his own meal (a quesadilla). Luckily for us, a Cafe Rio opens about 30 minutes away next week.

Christmas Eve morning, after a late night flight for Steven, we went out to breakfast with Mike Cook, and Cortney, Donovan, and Stella Wright. Unfortunately, we went too late for Eggs in the City, so settled for our old haunt, Blue Plate. Liam loved it (it was a toss up between the eggs and the tricycle).

Christmas Eve night was spent at the Annual Kemp Family Christmas Party at my brother Philip’s house. As always, a big hit.

Liam especially loved spending time with his “big-boy” cousins:

And playing Christmas carols with Abby.

My brothers Dan and Arthur put on a Christmas puppet show. It was pretty funny. Wish I videotaped it.

Liam thought it was pretty interesting, too.

And so did all the grandkids, who then set out to do their own puppet show.

But they didn’t quite get the idea of hiding behind the stage.

Baby’s 2nd Christmas was a hit. And contrary to popular belief, he did enjoy his presents more than the wrapping paper. But that's only because we are really good gift givers.

But he enjoyed the candy quite a bit more.

After presents, we dropped the baby off at my parents’ house while they kindly watched him while we went skiing with the Garffs.

My parents gave Liam some toys, but his favorite that day were the dinosaurs (seen here featured with his dinosaur suit from Angie, my friend from middle school).

The Garff Family party was on Boxing day, since Kevin and Mary Jane didn’t get back from their honeymoon in time to celebrate earlier. This too, was lots of fun.

It also included lots of sugar. Liam liked to chase the cookies.

After the party, we watched Kevin and Mary Jane open their wedding gifts. Liam couldn’t get enough of the tissue paper.

Liam also decided it was funny to smell my feet. I promise I had recently showered and have on clean socks. Not sure where this came from, but it was pretty funny.

Unfortunately, Steven had to get back to work. After a few hours of work and play, and quick stop at the Ryberg Family Christmas party on the 27th, we drove to St. George. We then spent the first half of my birthday driving home. Better than spending it with Steven at work all day, I guess. Luckily, we made it home without incident (unless you count leaving my wallet at my parents’ house).

Steven got me a pair of Nike Frees for my birthday. I am super excited to use them.

After work that day, my cute boys took me out for a steak dinner at Flemings.

Liam probably ate $10 of my $45 steak and quite a bit of Steve’s mac and cheese and his own truffle (and a good chunk of mine).. This kid has expensive taste.

All in all, it was a good holiday season. I’ll be glad to see it go to have life slow down a bit though. Until next year.