Snippets

You may not have noticed, but I am about a month behind in blogging. I feel like that's just what happens when you spend about a month on vacation, right? Since I'm sure you're all tired of the Christmas recaps, though, I'll spare you all the details and share just a few snippets from our December trip home for the holidays.

*Andy came home*

Matt's little brother Andy came home from his mission in Slovakia. His flight was almost an hour early and Matt got off work late, so we raced (whilst obeying traffic laws, of course) to Utah to make it in time. Glad we did!

Note: I dare you to find cuter kids than our nieces & nephews (and my baby brothers, of course). Seriously.

*Playing with friends*

We always have such limited time when we come home that it's hard to squeeze in seeing friends! This time, we planned ahead and had a great time catching up with everyone.

*Music and the Spoken Word*

One of my family's Christmas traditions is to attend Music and the Spoken Word the Sunday before Christmas. No one can sing Christmas carols quite like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and it's such a great way to start the home stretch into the holiday. We even caught a sunrise over the mountains on our way to Salt Lake! (That is an extremely rare phenomenon for me.)

*Lights at Temple Square*

Is anyone's Christmas ever complete without seeing them? I think not.

*Caroling at the Huntsman*

My best guy friend from high school, Jason Long, passed away from leukemia two years ago. He was treated so well at the Huntsman Cancer Institute that HCI holds a special place in all our hearts. The Longs go caroling to the patients there every Christmas Eve, and we're lucky to be invited along. It's always such a neat experience.

*The Nativity*

My family experiences the story of Christ's birth three ways at Christmas time: reading Luke 2, watching the Luke 2 video that our church produced, and acting out the preschool version of the nativity--costumes, props, set and all. This year, Matt & I were Joseph & Mary and my Gabey Baby was the cutest little shepherd you've ever seen.

*Pixie!!!*

We Grafs have an elf, and his name is Pixie. He peaks in our front window each of the three nights before Christmas and lets Santa know whether we were good or not. And if we were good, Pixie leaves presents on our doorstep before heading back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. It's the most fantastic Christmas tradition ever, dating back generations of Grafs, and the kids eat it up like candy. Observe their reactions to seeing him peek and you'll know what I mean.

*Christmas Morning*

I'm so glad my parents kept having kids because honestly, how boring would Christmas morning be without them? This year, my brothers even let us sleep in until 5:30.
Oh yeah, and Santa came for me & Matt, too.

My big gift to Matt was the trip out to Colorado that we made last weekend. I'll blog about that next. And you'll want to see it. Promise.