Christmas MegaPost

Most Christmas posts are really long, and I apologize that mine falls into that same category, but I promise I won't name all our gifts and I'll try to be concise yet thorough when I can. This will, after all, be printed off in a blog book someday for our posterity to read.

This year we went home to Utah for 20 whole days! We did a ton of things and our trip went way too fast. Emerson did great on the plane both ways...probably the best he's EVER done, and he's always been a good boy. It helps that he's obsessed with any type of "CARS!" and loved watching them out the windows of the airport and the plane when we boarded.


We did the typical back-and-forth between families thing which is good and bad. We try really hard to be fair, and there are always fun things going on both places, so we end up being a little tired by the end. But here are the things we did.

One of our favorite things to do when we go to Utah is eating at our favorite restaurants. We hit Cafe Rio twice and saw the Nydeggers there, took my parents to dinner for their birthday at Robintino's, got cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, ate at Tio's (yummy Mexican food), Winger's, The Pie, and probably lots of other yummy places that I'm not remembering right now.

We saw lots of movies: Invictus, Sherlock Holmes, The Blindside, and The Princess and the Frog. We would recommend all of them, although I think Blindside was our very favorite.

We also saw a number of sporting events. Uncle Scott and Aunt Ashley bought Emerson this adorable hoodie when they were here for Thanksgiving in honor of the BYU-Utah game, and Emerson had an occasion to wear it to the Utah basketball game.

He's really into the game. Any of you wives or mothers seen that look before? I guess they start young. Don't worry, I didn't try to ask him anything while he was in this state.

He loved being at the game and would stand up literally every five seconds in his little seat and clap and then sit back down.

He had fun sitting on Pa-pa's lap too.

One of the traditions in Ben's family is drawing names and making homemade gifts. I decided to get my craft on and whipped out some cards for my mother-in-law. It only took me several hours.

You didn't know I could be crafty, did you?

Giving and receiving our homemade gifts

I forgot to get a picture of Ben giving his to his sister Jenny, but he made her some awesome crocodile pajama pants with a matching corn bag. He doesn't want me to tell anyone he can sew, but he can. BEN CAN SEW.

Another huge highlight of our trip was going to Logan to see our BFFs the Humpherys. Their cute little girl Sadie is 3 months older than E and is quite the charmer. We ate at Firehouse with them and hung out until it was time for the Aggie game. We used to go with them before we had kids...and it was quite different then.

Not sure why Emerson always has a blank look on his face, but take note in the rest of the pictures and you'll see what I mean.

Such cute little munchkins

We were happy to be back in the good old Spectrum. E was thrilled too, as I'm sure you can tell by the expression on his face, especially since he was only there in-utero.

I know I've mentioned before that E likes his "shows" and Grandma and Grandpa J were nice enough to get him some among lots of other generous things (like his train shirt and conductor pants, books, firetruck, vehicle puzzle, and others I'm sure I've forgotten!) and he really wanted to watch his new show when we were all watching something else. Grandpa had the good idea to set up his show on his laptop and set his little chair in there so everyone could be happy. Hence this picture:

Every time he wanted to watch that particular show, he'd find Grandpa's laptop and rub his belly to ask "please". I dare you to say no to that. Seriously, show me someone who can say no to that when they've seen it in person and he starts saying "pease? pease? oh pease?"

We were able to meet up with the Humpherys in Salt Lake another time and went to Discovery Gateway together. Discovery Gateway= Children's Museum. It's a reciprocal museum with COSI so you can get in for free if you have a pass to COSI, but to be honest, it feels a little grimy and small compared to COSI. And the water smells like mildew. *Shudder* But it's hard to complain too much when it's free.

Sadie and E had a good time.

We also made it to Temple Square to see the lights.

Along with our pet horse, chewing on his bit.

I'm not sure how many hours E spent playing with this little train, but I think it was in the hundreds. He'd have to kiss it goodnight every night and would ask for it as soon as he woke up. He even had a hard time sitting down to eat because it NEEDED to be played with. Any advice from moms of other little boys with train obsessions? It's cute, but seriously everything he says is laced with "choo choo".

We went sledding at the Christensen cabin and E hated it. He wouldn't even sit in the sled on the flat part. But he got some cute new boots out of the deal. Daddy found them at Burlington Coat Factory. They're really funny and stubby.

Uncle Brad got really good at giving E horsey rides and even put up with E's little claws on his neck.

Grandpa bought E a little Ute jersey for the Bowl game. Even Ben had to admit it was adorable.

And the last, but not least fun thing we did was ride Trax with E. We took a short ride to Temple Square earlier in the trip and it ended in tears because E couldn't part with the choo-choo. So we surprised him and rode it just for the heck of it our last day and I think he said "choo-choo" about a thousand times. I'm glad he's so easy to please right now. The $4 was worth it.

Some other random tidbits: We did our regular Johnson Family Christmas Eve with a movie and Chinese food. We spent Christmas morning with the Christensens and E got to see his only cousins in the whole wide world and they gave him an awesome train set. We spent Christmas night with the Johnsons and partook of a delicious buffet of all the best food. We were so thrilled to see each and every one of our siblings during the break, even if they didn't get back until January 2nd at 7:30 a.m. after driving straight through the night from Disneyland where they finished their internship. (You know who you are, Natalie.)

We played lots of games with both families. We did sealings and took family pictures with Ben's family. E got lots of nice gifts from both sets of grandparents. Ben got to attend the BYU bowl game with his dad and brothers. I got to go to lunch with my high school friend McCall. Grandma and Grandpa J as well as various aunts and uncles generously babysat while I was able to go out a few times without carting E along. I hope I'm not forgetting anything...I'm sure I am, and I'm sad I didn't take more pictures of the "normal" stuff, but I always forget, don't I?

None of us were ready for the trip to be over. Thank you for everything, family! We miss you already. Can't wait to see you soon.