Christmas 2018

On Christmas Eve, Josh and I made an unexpected trip to Missoula to meet a buyer for Jonah's motorbike. Jonah had recently purchased a different motorcycle from an individual, and wanted to sell the one he got last spring as it was too high geared to be a good trail bike for him. It snowed all the way over the pass on our drive and the whole time we were in Montana. I was hoping for a white Christmas in Salmon--but alas, it didn't snow in Salmon. We met up at a gas station right off the interstate. It was the weirdest sale Josh and I have ever been a part of. The fellow wanted to try out the bike, but he wasn't wearing good shoes, and because it was snowing, his shoes were really slippery. He kept flooding the bike because he kept gassing it when he kick started it, which was unnecessary. Because he kept flooding it, it would stop and he had to start it repeatedly. On one of the starts, his foot slipped, and his leg became gashed by the foot peg. The cut was pretty deep. He told Josh to load it into his truck while he went inside the gas station to get some bandaging supplies. He came out a few minutes later and said he needed to go to the hospital to get some stitches. By this time, his pants surrounding the wound were completely soaked with blood. He had borrowed a truck from a friend and had driven over from Spokane--Missoula was the half-way point for both of us (about 2.5-3 hours distance). We felt bad that he had to go to the doctor on Christmas Eve, and drive home such a long way with an injured leg! As he was signing the paperwork before we left the parking lot, he lost his glasses, and we spent 5 minutes looking for them--they had fallen in between the seat when he bent over to get a pen. It was just crazy! However, the sale was made, and we turned around and drove back home, and he followed us as far as the hospital on our way.  

When we got back to Salmon later that afternoon, I worked on the food I was taking to Hailey's annual Christmas Eve party that night. I made some salsa with chips, and took some homemade O'Henry bars as well. We headed to the party around 6:00. It was so much fun! There was a ton of good food, as always, and the company was delightful! There was a bit of a rivalry between the guys and gals during the board game competition--the guys have won the past 2 years! The girls had a strong showing at first, but the guys won in the end. We played a fun new game called "Banned Words" and played "Mad Gab" as well. We left around midnight.

My friend Heather sent me this surprise Christmas gift in the mail.

I love the earrings she made! And I listened to the CD on Christmas Day

as I was cooking dinner.

Hailey giving directions for the new game. The Williams family, 

Jones families, Oliverson family, and Hobbs family were also there. 

We slept in on Christmas morning, until after 9am!! This was the first year that there wasn't any unwrapped gifts from Santa. Because we went on a week-long family vacation starting the day after Christmas, we didn't have as many gifts this year. Each boy was limited to $75 in gifts due to the expenses of the family vacation (this was the first time we've ever gone on a vacation for Christmas!). When the boys got up, they opened their stockings first. Since there wasn't anything too exciting in the stockings, I gave them all scratch tickets for the first time ever, that way they could have SOMETHING to do on Christmas morning! Ammon was so excited when he saw the scratch tickets for him, because he thought he was finally getting them now that he's an adult (Josh and I always give them to each other in our stockings), however he was a little disappointed when he realized his brothers also got them too!! Nobody won it big, just a few bucks for each of them, but at least it was something different that they weren't expecting!

We ate our breakfast of French toast and sausage, and then started our rotation of opening gifts. Each child picked a gift from under the tree, and then we watched each one open the gift, before they returned to the tree and started the next round. It was very quiet and relaxing, and I enjoyed being with my family! There weren't too many rounds of gift-opening, but that was okay: we are getting to the point in our lives when the children have most of their needs and wants filled. 

This was Jonah's main gift: Bluetooth speaker & earphones

Tim and Barb brought these back from Las Vegas

for Ammon. He collects golf balls!

This was one gift that Kanyon didn't ask for, but was

happily surprised by! He LOVES this game!

Micah really wanted some dressy church shoes similar

to Ammon's. He looks so handsome in them!

He loves those flat bill hats!

They got identical guitar cases to hold the guitars that they got for their birthday. 

  

This was his only "toy" gift this year. He picked it out

with Grandma's Christmas money. He loves hula hoops!

This one even lights up, too! 

The after-effects of Christmas morning in the living room!

Jonah with his gifts

Kanyon and all his new stuff

Micah with his new loot

Ammon with his newly-received presents

  

After we cleaned up Christmas, the boys started working on a puzzle of the nativity that Aunt Tiffany gave us and Josh and I started preparing dinner. That evening, we ate turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, creamed corn, stuffing, and orange coconut salad.  The sister missionaries Sister Smith and Sister Contessa joined us for dinner, and a few rounds of the game "Cover Your Assets" before they had to leave to Idaho Falls for Zone Conference the next day. It was so fun having them here with us! I just love those two ladies! After dinner, our family watched a few Christmas movies like "Elf" and "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation". It was a super relaxing Christmas at home!