California Christmas

Okay, my apologies...but this is a longer post. Mainly because there are a lot of pictures!

After a nice long drive to Sacramento (though a very clear drive despite the first hour out of Utah), we finally arrived at my parents house. Brian, Em and their fam drove the same day as us and beat us by about an hour.

First things first, Ellie and I did some Christmas Tree decorating (of the edible kind).

We also had plenty of play time with the niece and nephews. I love these kids. I just wish Hyrum was closer to us so we could see him more often!

And they loved Uncle Rand!


Ellie loves to 'fight' Rand. She's in this phase lately where he walks in the door and she is attacking him. She's one sassy little girl, that's for sure.


The little cousins having fun together in the back yard
(we all just watched from inside, we didn't want to get cold or dirty.)

One night when Bri, Em and their family were gone the rest of us were just hanging out. We realized that it had gotten pretty quiet and we couldn't hear Hyrum. After a quick search Rand found him here:

This kid knows how to be sneaky. He had the lights off and was being pretty quiet. He was using the plunger and the toilet brush to 'clean' the bath tub. Unfortunately, we had to clean it again after he was done.


One day we took a family trip down to Oakland and San Francisco (minus the kids). We first did a session at the Oakland temple. While there we took a tour of an art display that was temporarily there. It was amazing! An artist by the name of Angela Johnson decided one day, after years of opera singing, that she wanted to take up clay sculpting. She created many statues depicting the life of the Savior. Originally they were in their original form of clay, but were then covered in bronze to protect them. If you want to see these statues, you can click here

For those wondering, no Kevin is not married. This was a girl he was dating at the time who is now serving her mission at Temple Square. She was brave to come with us!


For some reason my sister-in-law loves this picture (something about not knowing I could be goofy.) They had me strike a pose because Rand thinks my bangs make me look more 'model-ish'. I think the combination of my bangs and braces makes me look more...junior high-ish!

After our day at the temple we headed to lunch and then to catch a play, A Christmas Carol, in San Francisco. It was a fun time, though I will always prefer my dad's direction of Scrooge far more than any other version (call me biased I guess).

We also took a walk down to Union Square while waiting for the show to start.
I really liked the Macy's building with all the wreaths in the windows.

Christmas Eve is always crazy. We get together with my Dad's side of the family and try to cram as many people as possible into one house. We even were missing about half the fam this year.

We had the traditional re-enactment of the nativity story by the younger cousins. Ellie was the angel and Hyrum was a sheep. (Trevor wasn't up for playing a part.)

We were passing kids all over the place because there just wasn't room for everyone during gift exchanges and the nativity.

We had our traditional white elephant exchange game. My cousin Chad got a little something that may come in handy for his return to BYU (he recently returned from his mission).
Seriously...those Axe commercials are out of control!

Kevin just had too much excitement for one night!

Here's a pic of most of the older boy cousins who were in attendance
(Kevin, Alex, Chad, David and Logan)

and of course a girl picture to match

(Sharsten, Whitney, Carlie, Lauren, me, Ashley and Courtney)

Sharsten and her 'mini-me', Eden.

I wish I could have seen everyone, but the fam is getting too big to pull that off at Christmas anymore. We'll have to wait for the next big family reunion.

And then it was Christmas day!

We woke up early to Ellie and Trevor excited over what Santa brought them. They were really good at being patient and waiting for the Grandparents to wake up (my mom needs more rest these days. I'll save that story for another post.) I didn't mind, it meant I got more sleep too.

Once everyone was up and Shaun, Lacey and Hyrum came over, the craziness began.

Here is Hyrum playing with his basketball hoop he got from Great Grandma Triano (and wearing his sweet new adidas sneakers from uncle Kevin.)

Uncle Shaun made Ellie the sweetest gift (he's handy like that!) He made her an art easle from the random wood he had at his house (cut, constructed, painted...the whole thing).

She LOVED it and spent some good time everyday after like this:

Here is Trevor with his gift from Santa. He loved watching all the marbles go through this contraption (as did his dad!)

For a few years now we have been aware of this picture that my dad just loved. After a long time searching (buying it already matted and framed is pretty steep), I was able to find the print on-line. All the kids pitched in and we got it put all together for him. For those wondering, it is a picture of Peter and John running to the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection.
The artist is Eugene Burnand.

We think he liked it...he immediately removed a picture on the wall and hung it up.

For my mom we did a picture calendar. It took some time to make (in fact, it didn't get sent to her until recently because it didn't make the December 25th cut-off.) But it's taylored just for her with all the family birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Following all the gift opening, the boys decided to cook some breakfast. The missionaries came over to join us, and it was pretty entertaining! In the end, we had a pretty good breakfast and only one casualty (my dad burned two of his fingers pretty good!)

The next morning they tried again and it all went much better!

Christmas evening we spend with my mom's side of the family. Unforntunately most the pictures were taken on my mom's camera, so I don't have them. I did catch this little gem!

My cousin Nicole's oldest boy, Anthony, was playing hungry hungry hippo with my dad. It was hilarious! Every time he would push the lever down he would stick his tongue out. So his hands were moving like crazy and so was his tongue. As you can see he was in major concentration mode here while my dad was cracking up as his tongue!

I love going home and seeing my mom's side of the family. It is always nice and chill, not to mention entertaining. It usually consists of us all laughing at my uncles for one reason or another. It was also Rand's first real experience on that side of the family. He's lucky...my uncles and FAR more tame than they used to be (they made heckling boyfriends of any of the nieces a favorite pasttime of theirs.)


Before heading back to Utah we made a trip out to my cousin Erins. She married one of my best friends growing up and I love spending time with them. They didn't make it to the family get-together so we got together on our own.

Erin and I had to get a picture together with our matching brace-faces!

Here is their youngest, Eli. He is too cute and such a little flirt.
He looks just like his mom (and nothing like his dad!)

Then there was Noah who refused to have his picture taken!
This kid looks just like his dad (and nothing like his mom!)

I suggested that on their third child they try going 50/50!

We had a GREAT time in California! We don't get out there nearly enough (usually just once a year). We hope to make at least two trips this year!

The drive back wasn't too bad. Luckily, again, the weather was really good. We hit the perfect days for travelling that stretch. After getting back last and having to work the next three days, I was beat. So much so that I was sick and in bed before midnight on New Year's Eve (no fun for Rand!) He did wake me up at midnight and give me a kiss...but I was only half coherent. :o)

It was a great 2008!

(this was a long post. So long I didn't go back and check for grammatical errors! Sorry!)