After our wedding and honeymoon, we went back to Ohio to get in some major family time. Aaron had just come home from his mission and I wanted to get to know him better, but we also just wanted some lay low relaxation time at the farm. Every four years, BYU has 3 weeks off for Christmas break as opposed to its normal 2 weeks, so this year we got lucky!
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On Christmas Eve, Mark and Emmy wanted us to come by because Mark had purchased a coat for Jake and wanted him to try it on. They also had a selection of coats for me to go through and pick one! When we got there, Jake's coat was Eddie Bauer and SO nice. It's black and fit him perfectly, and thank goodness he has it because it's been snowing like crazy here in Utah. Mine was one that Mark had purchased Emmy but she didn't really like it, but it's a purple-ish color and perfect for skiing so I took it! It was also awesome for me because I had just left my coat on the plane in Cabo. Duuumb dumb dumb.
We had Christmas Eve dinner at Uncle Scott's house which was really fun. We played this board game called Mysterium (because Taylor... and the rest of the Blackwelders are master board-gamers) and drank so much sparkling grape juice.
Christmas fell on a Sunday so we only had it for one hour. There were some good talks given and we sang some traditional Christmas songs then headed back home. It was funny to me that even though there are small kids in the family, we didn't wake up at 6 AM and rush to open gifts. We got back from church and probably waited about another hour or so before opening gifts. The Blackwelders do it starting with the youngest kid opening one gift all the way to the oldest person there. It's a fun way to see each person open a gift and see their reaction (even though that's my least favorite part when I'm the one opening gifts). Jake and I shared opening gifts rather than opening two on each of our turns and it was awesome. Jake's mom is seriously amazing and went out of her way to get each child and family member a gift, even though we all only drew one name!
I had picked Lillie's name because she's pretty simple to shop for. In Mexico, I got her one of the cute traditional Mexican dresses but when we got home, Jake and I went to Petsmart and got her a fish. Just a little beta fish that isn't too hard to take care of. She named the fish Piglet and said it was her favorite gift, even though it might not have been Tracey's favorite... hahaha. Still a success, though!
The following Tuesday, we all went to dinner and a movie. I think we purchased 14 tickets for this movie. . . there were a lot of us! We were rushing from dinner to find seats, but we still were only able to get seats in the front row. Luckily Ralph kept us stocked up on popcorn and soda to keep us all happy. After the movie, the kids went to the game room and Bridger showed us his skills on this stacker game where you get a mini prize or a major prize which is like a Michael Kors purse or something. He literally missed the major prize by one click about 3 times. Jake and Tracey and Lillie also played some dinosaur killing game. It was pretty funny.
Just this past Wednesday, Jake, Aaron, and I were "grubbing". I had no idea what that term meant, either. But basically it means cutting down the small trees in between the bigger trees. At least that's what we were doing... Anyway. We were cutting down these small trees and cutting down vines and all this stuff that was overgrown and making the forest look ugly and putting it in a pile to burn. The fire was cranking pretty good as we were tossing more and more stuff on there. I was putting a couple branches in the fire and my face felt really warm but I shrugged it off. I jokingly told Jake I burned my eyebrows off but he checked me and said I was fine. And then AARON... he was putting stuff in the fire pretty close and then the wind switched on him and he stood up, his face probably feeling pretty warm too, and he asked, "Did I singe some of my hair?" I was like, "You singed it all!!!" Hahahaha, oh my gosh it was so funny. His hair on top and on the sides, his eyebrows, his eyelashes, his mustache, and his entire beard was burned. I was wiping it off his face and he was like, "Stop! I want to take a picture!" And then we went in to lunch at Tinker and Emery's, Tinker pointed out that I had singed my hair too. We were all laughing, and Jake was gloating because he hadn't singed any part of himself. ;)
One thing I learned from these past two weeks at the farm is that the boys are soooo into board games, while the girls are not. They are ALWAYS playing some kind of game. Near the end of the week, the most popular game was Euchre which is some card game, but earlier in the week, they were playing Risk, some train game, and had boxes of other games sitting by waiting to be played. I was "busy" during the majority of the time they were playing games... those boys are so competitive! Jake did request that even if I don't play, I sit by him while he plays because he "likes to be at least on the same floor as me." Gotta do what you gotta do...
The farm is so fun. Feeding the animals, being with family, watching movies, eating lots of cereal, cleaning up boots, hot tubbing, watching Lillie and Ben and Bridger play fight, watching YouTube videos, listening to Moana songs over and over. . .
We're already looking forward to when we get to go back in the summer!
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