HOLIDAYS and the OTHER CAROLINA SNOW

We get past New Years Day and before we move to Valentine's day we all seem to just try our best to move out of Christmas. We move past the craziness that is the Holidays. We are able to go to the store and find good parking places again. We go to the store and find the shelves full of those things we did not seem to be able to find last month. We look forward to Christmas all year and then by January we are so glad that it is over and gone.

Well, for me, this year is different. This was the best Christmas and holiday season that we have had in a very long time and I wish I can hang on to it and make it last forever. That is not possible and I get that but I really wish it could be. So, I thought maybe if I shared my holidays here I could at least look it up to remember from time to time when the not so great days come my way.

So, it started for us we had a really nice Christmas Eve at home. Christmas Morning was fun and full of nice surprises for the children. IT was a good time.

It got even better on the 27th when I got to see my brother and his family for the first time in 5 years (I visited him 5 yrs ago. It was 7 yrs since he was here for his last visit) . My brother Blaze aka Johnny who now lives in Washington State came for a visit. He came over and I was so happy to see him, his wife Adie'80' and their kids Patric, Briana, Madison (my twin) and Dillon. We hung out and had a good time. Next, that night, we went to my brother Bronson's house for a wedding reception for my nephew Josh. He was married in August but waited till now when everyone would be here to have his SC reception. His wife is from Washington so they were married there and had that reception in August. It was great meeting her.

As a note. Also this month on the 19th I was able to see my other nephew Morgan get sealed to his new wife Jennifer in the Columbia Temple. I almost did not make it in the door. I am so glad I was able to be there. Oh and Thanks President Woodrow!!

So for Christmas, we had new family members and visiting family. It was awesome. Not sure that there will be a time when all of my huge family will be in one place at one time. So to get this many of us together is an awesome thing! Maybe someday we can rent out a building or something. With 11 siblings, who 9 of which are married and my mom has 38 grandchildren, and of those there are 3 married grandchildren, that would be a very large gathering.

Anyway, so because of this visitors, we waited to have our family Christmas get together. On the 28th we got together and just had sooooo much fun! There was tons of food, gifts and more laughter then you could imagine. Just when we thought things were settling down, we moved things outside where we decided to play in what we called

"SOUTH CAROLINA SNOW"

Ok so Bronson works for a paper factory. They balled it up and made a "snow(paper)man", they piled it and jumped into it. They threw it at each other. They jumed through it and they covered each other with it. These kids (and adults) were very creative. I guess for those of who do not get a white Christmas have to be creative to fit in with those that do. I think that although we sweated more and were more comfy in shorts, the paper snow was so much fun! This is a white Christmas we will not soon forget!***I laughed so hard my sides are still hurting. We or really THEY also played some more silly, crazy games and I took lots of pictures.

Then we look off to the beach for a couple of days. While we watched them drag sand right in front of our hotel and Alyssa and I ended up being really sick while we were there, we still had a great time.

We did our best to not be in any one's faces but we were so glad that we could be there and spend time with Bronson's and Johnny's family for the holidays.

Thanks to Uncle John, all the guys were sporting their tourist beach looks. Bron was there too but had to go fly his kite on the beach. Could not wait for the picture. lol

This was our best Christmas yet!!

Sorry it has taken me a while but life is busy so there you go.