Christmas, New Years, Sierra Vista

So I keep taking the camera with me whenever I go somewhere, but it just doesn't work that well when you leave it in the car. So still no pictures to post. It'll happen someday.

We had a wonderful Christmas in Pima. All of my cousins, aunts, uncles - everyone on my mom's side was able to come. So we had almost 80 people there for Christmas dinner at my sisters house. It was so much fun to be able to see everyone. With Chris working in Sierra Vista and all my cousins coming in from all over the country, we decided to meet at my mom's house in Pima instead of Chris driving here first. It really saved a lot of driving time for him. Christmas morning at my mom's house was a lot of fun. It was just my parents and my little family. Calvin got to help out with the santa stuff this year. Chris and I decided that it was time we told him the truth about Santa so that he wouldn't get teased about it. He was a die hard believer before the conversation. Chris talked to Calvin and at first Calvin was shocked and then sad. He was surprised to find out that the truth included the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy as well. He wasn't sad for very long though. He realized that he got to help do the stockings and he thought that was pretty cool. He was making up stories about Santa and telling Dana and Bradley all about it like he really believed. It was so cute! I think he decided it was more fun to make up stories about Santa than it was to believe in Santa.

Chris got to come home New Years Eve and had the rest of the week at home. No one else on his team at work was working Friday so there wasn't anyway for him to work Friday either. So he got it cleared with his company to do some work from home for Friday. So he worked three days the week of Christmas and then three days the week after as well. This will be his first full week away from us. I hope we can move down there soon.

Friday the 2nd we celebrated the New Year with Chris' family. They have an anual monopoly game that's been going on for something like 50 years. Complete with a little trophy that the winner keeps for the year. The trophy has a rolled up paper in it that has the list of everyone who's won the trophy every year. Some years are more competetive than other years. This year was lots of fun. There's always a food fest with the game and the children get to play their own games, movies, video games, etc. (You have to be at least 16 to play THE monopoly game) The little ones go to sleep and the game continues on...and on... and on... I think this year we ended up going home somewhere around 1:00AM. It's all a little hazy now. Chris talked me into making cinnamon rolls this year. Which was a great idea - they turned out really good. Too bad my rolling pin and all of my pans were packed away. Of course I had already made the dough before I realized that. So I borrowed a rolling pin from my friend around the corner. Unfortunately she's not much a baker herself and had no pans to loan me. I search all my cupboards and discovered some round cake pans that I had forgotten that I had and some muffin tins. It was quite a mix-match batch of cinnamon rolls. But who really cares when it has cream cheese frosting - YUM!!

I'm sure all my friends in San Tan Park ward think we've already moved. Not the case. I was home with sick kids last week and this week we decided to all drive down to Sierra Vista with Chris for the day. We visited a ward there and they were so nice. When the bishop realized we were visiting and hadn't moved yet he ushered us into the clerks office to show us the ward boundaries so we would be able to move into that ward. Everyone was really nice and made us feel very welcomed. We won't be moving until Chris' security clearance is all settled. So I think the kids and I will be here for at least two more weeks. After we get the clearance settled we still have to find a suitable house/neighborhood. There are a lot of really nice areas down there. What we're looking for mostly is kids in the neighborhood so there will be friends for our kids.