Well, it is now officially 2016 (and several weeks in by the time I’m finishing this), and it is just as good a time as ever to post a recap of our Christmas vacation on the blog. First off, this was my favorite Christmas ever and mostly because it was the first one spent with my lovely wife, Angela. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Angela’s vehicle registration expired back in October, so Utah was our first stop. On our ride up there, we were actually pulled over just outside of Nephi, Utah, for the expired registration. Thankfully we were let off with a warning and went on our merry way to Morgan. Once there, we passed out, when to some of Angela’s sister’s basketball games, and her Dad took care of the car registration for us, as well as changing the oil. Once that was wrapped up, we drove to Boise where we would spend the remainder of our Christmas break. Here are some the highlights from the trip. Click on to read more (plus a great pic of Ang)!
Our first big activity once we were in Boise was that we got the Three Amigos (now including spouses!) back together for the day to have some fun. We gave our spouses the opportunity to experience one of favorite activities from growing up: Pojo’s! Pojo’s is just a simple family run arcade that Jordan, Kyle, and I would often go to on weekends to spend some dollar bills that were burning holes in our pockets. Normally we all were very good at landing Jackpots but none of us were able to get them. Nonetheless, because we were so close to getting them so many different times, we had plenty of tickets to get lots of Frootsies (fruit-flavored Tootsie rolls). That’s the picture above. We met together later that night to play a fun game of Reverse Charades and to get a picture of everyone together.
The next day, everyone finally arrived in Boise and we met my dad and his wife for bowling. Ang and I both managed to score more than 100 points. We later went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered one of those pay-per-the-person meals. We ended up with way more food than we should have but it was delicious nonetheless.
Christmas Eve was fairly standard. We ate lots of food, and visited the Reindeer at a nearby funeral home (odd, I know). I also got one of my Christmas wishes! J Because this was going to be the one last big Christmas gathering for all of us kids at my mom’s house, we were able to request things we wanted to do. One of mine was that we would order Pizza Hut for Christmas Eve. Pizza Hut specifically been the place that we’d get Christmas Eve pizza, but in the years since I had gotten home from my mission, it has evolved in to homemade pizza, which is fine and tasty but not the same. Haha, it was wonderful eating all that. After that, the nieces and nephews opened their matching pajamas and maximized the cuteness factor in the room. Opening PJs on Christmas Eve was another tradition for my family growing up. I was kind of bummed the adults didn’t get any. 😛 Oh, and Jimmi and Kaley also spent the night over as well, which was a first for Jimmi. J
Christmas involved opening up a bajillion presents. Okay, maybe not that many but it sure seemed like it. Ang got me an England shirt, eggs and bacon socks, magnetic refrigerator words, an xbox controller accessory, a picture frame, key finder, and some other things I can’t remember. Angela got a Honduras shirt, nail polish, a penguin pillow, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and book on temple symbolism. Then we saw Star Wars Episode 7 and ate Christmas dinner.
That next Saturday, we went sledding at a hill on Kaley’s property, which was a blast because there were some pretty awesome wipeouts. Also that day, my mom provided an evening out with just us kids and spouses with money she saved from selling things on Craigslist. We first went to Mongolian BBQ, and I learned that cilantro is good on that stuff. We then went to a mystery house. These mystery houses are places where they lock a group of people in a room with clues that eventually lead you out (they give you hints along the way if it seems like you’re stuck). The theme for the specific one we went to was the “The Lost City of Z.” We got really close to solving it (one clue away) and everyone seemed to be having lots of fun. Personally, I didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else because I felt behind and seemed to be looking in all the wrong places, but it was exciting to see all the clues come to light. Regardless, I still want to give it another try.
They next day we commenced the 14-hour drive back to Los Angeles in all its thrilling fun glory.
