HAPPY CHRISTMAS, RON

Only a week or so late but hey! Here's a little bit of our Christmas in Utah.

For Christmas Utah gave us snow. And snow and snow and snow! It was lovely. The mountains were bare when we landed but by the time we woke up Christmas morning, everything had been covered in a freshly dusted topping of white. It was pretty magical. The boys went sledding and the girls did jigsaw puzzles. My niece Morgan filled us in on her secret for 45-minute showers: she brings her iPhone into the shower with her in a ziplock bag, tapes it to the wall, and then watches an episode of Parks and Rec while she washes her hair. Right? I'm still basking in the genius of this idea.

This is Brandon. Brandon is my husband. It's funny how after 11 years of marriage one can still discover new things about one's husband and his family. Such as: how deep an aversion to planning in advance some people can actually have. You know by-the-seat-of-their-pants types, right? Change-your-mind-but-forget-to-mention-it-to-anyone types? I'm finally getting into the swing of it, learning not to ask, "So what's the plan today?" and just paying attention to the subtle cues and rolling with it. One day, someday, I swear I'll be so chill. I'll be, like, the chillest person on the planet. All thanks to Brandon, the chill despot. I finally got past the thing where my inner planner goes on overdrive to compensate for the lack of planning, and now I'm like, sooo almost there.

Anyway, inflatable reindeer ring toss games.

My niece Jaycey got a Polaroid for Christmas that she instantly put to good use, terrorizing all of us when we least expected it. :) I rounded them up while she was out of the room and really looked at all of them, all of the faces in the family, the aunts and uncles and grandparents cousins, and I realized, you know what, these are an AMAZING keepsake! Ultra candid and horribly embarrassing and just so human, you know? I think I'm gong to need to remember this for next year on Christmas morning. I snapped a quick photo of our three so I could always remember. Brandon looks especially good here I think. :)

Huck was in little boy heaven on earth with his cousins. He idolizes them and they were so, so, so sweet with him. They wore him out clean good, and I got all the exhausted big baby snuggles a girl could want at night. That's some heavy duty mom heaven on earth right there. We are in cousin withdrawal now. Brooklyn is in stark shortage of cousins, somebody needs to fix that for us.

When in Utah there are a certain number of things one must do in order to fully experience the Utah in all the Utah glory. 

FIRST: Eat at Cafe Rio, at least thrice. The pork salad. 

THE PORK MOTHER EFFING SALAD.

SECONDLY: Fondle at least one of Courty's boobs. I don't know, you guys. This was such an awkward moment for my chest. My girls finally realized in that moment the full extent of their breastly inadequacy, and they still haven't recovered. I'd told them! I mean, I knew they sucked! (HAR HAR) I don't know how they called themselves boobs all this time, when THAT was parading around needing actual support and things. But, anyway. 

I dreamed about nursing that night. It was very Freudian.

THIRDEST: Try whatever currently trendy food situation is happening in Provo. It was a Dirty Diet Dr Pepper double header! In a Swig vs Sodalicious showdown, I vote the Sodalicious sugar cookie the superior sugar cookie. Though both tasted mostly like sawdust. #wompwomp. Swig's DDDP was more carbonated than Sodalicious's, so take from that what you will, and soda accordingly.

LAST OF ALL: Boardgames, the national past time of the Holbrook clan. There were lots of board games going around. Most of the Holbrook classic board games are above Huck's skill level, though for his dad's sake he managed to get really into Candy Land for a minute. His dad may live to regret it. I think these photos of an edamame-fueled Chutes + Ladders game rather depict the thrill of victory and agony of defeat quite nicely, actually.

Chutes & Ladders is a pretty cruel game, yo. 

(Penguin cheerleaders.)

And then we had MORE SNOW. 

And it didn't strand us this time. 

My father-in-law's assortment of funny Russian hats for the win. :)