A day at the Cabin

The day after Christmas we headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the family cabin in Brighton.  We haven't been there for a few months, and it was nice to spend some time up there with my family and enjoy the beauty of the snow-frosted trees and untouched snowdrifts.

Ethan and Shawn started the morning off with a snowshoeing excursion. I'm starting to think Ethan and I are really going to have to get our own so we can go together.

We played a lot of games, watched a movie and of course, played outside. Ethan and Annie and I hauled in wood for the fire via sled and got stuck up to our thighs in snowdrifts. We had a snowball fight with Ethan where Annie and I had the advantage because we had sleds we used as shields. We roasted marshmallows over the fire and made s'mores.

And of course, we went sledding. We had a few races where no one really one because we were too busy grabbing the other team to slow them down and we all ended up in a jumbled pile at the bottom of the hill.

Don't you love his monkey suit? He looks hilarious in it. It was Soren's half year/six month birthday and though we didn't celebrate it with cake or anything, we took him sledding for his first time. He wasn't impressed. No smiles, just oblivious to everything going on, so we only did a couple runs.

Christmas 2009, from Alison's perspective

We had a wonderful Christmas, full of family, fun and remembering Christ. It was Soren's first Christmas, and although I can't really say he knew the past few days were any different from any others, I know he did have fun being the center of attention through it all.

We started our Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve, when we headed over to the Taylors house for the annual Reed Family Christmas Eve get together. After dinner, each family performed a skit or song or something. It's better if you just watch.

Since my dad worked Christmas Eve and Neil is in Paraguay on a mission, we had a perfect amount of people in our family to perform "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Soren, of course, was Rudolph (as I'm sure you figured out in the first picture), Ethan was Dasher, Annie was Prancer, Ruth was Dancer, Rachel was Vixen, Sam was Comet, I was Cupid, Mom was Donner, and Shawn was Blitzen.

Here are the other families: (Alison's note: my computer just crashed, so I am going to try to upload them a little bit later)

Afterward, Soren sat on Santa's lap for the first time. He was not impressed.

We had to head home before the festivities were over because it was waaaay past Soren's bedtime, so we missed the annual white elephant gift exchange a la 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. But it was a lot of fun, and we were glad to introduce him to the tradition.

Christmas morning he woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and earlier than usual. Instead of putting him back to sleep we decided to open presents already. haha. He didn't really know what was going on, and he wasn't even interested in the paper! He's had a lot of fun ripping open presents the past couple weeks, so maybe the novelty has worn off a little. I honestly think his favorite part of all the presents was watching other people open them (both his and our own).

 

After our house, we headed over to my parents'. They were all excited to open presents with him, but he wasn't into it, again. However, he was still just as fascinated watching everyone else open theirs!

Soren got something I really, really wanted him to get: the Baby Beluga cd by Raffi. I grew up listening to it, and we've already listened to it a bunch. Thanks Mom and Dad! 

They also gave him some really cute tennis shoes that he'll be able to wear in the spring or summer. Ethan loves that he already has his first Nikes. Haha.

The rest of the day we had a Christmas dinner with the missionaries (one of which is my cousin, who is serving in the Salt Lake Mission) and we hung out and played games . It was a ton of fun to just spend time with everyone together. The day passed by too fast!

 

If only they were REAL houses...

I would totally move in! On Friday we decorated gingerbread houses with my family.

It's a tradition I remember from when I was a little girl that I'd like to continue with my own children.

My mom is a pro at making the gingerbread as well as doing the decorative frosting on gingerbread houses, so we stuck to the basics and just stuck the candy on - gumdrops, M&Ms, peppermints, red hots, snowman peeps and of course, candy canes.

Annie, Rachel, and I stuck with red and green on our house. Ruth and Sam even had a chimney on theirs with Santa in it.

And here's a classic shot of Soren and Rachel doing a "Zoolander" pose. Hilarious.

A Grandma's influence

If I say so, mom is lagging a little behind on her blogging. She's been busy, and a good part of it is because she's been being such a great grandmother.

For example:

She's already working on helping him become an excellent ladies' man. The other day I caught her watching the long version of Pride and Prejiduce with him. And now, this:

Chocolate. Don't worry, she didn't feed him any. Mostly she is just trying to subtly rebel against Ethan, who told her last night, "Don't let me EVER see you feeding chocolate to my son." Of course, those of you who know my mother will know that is like asking her never to kiss him. Anyway, she won't feed him any, at least not until he's much older.

For now, she'll just let him play with the packages and smell it.