It’s the Holiday Season

After spending a month in Utah, I flew back to Portland for just a few days, then headed home to AZ for a week.  I wasn’t planning on coming back to AZ for Christmas since I had just spent 3 months there and my mom was working that whole week I was home, but I’m sure glad I did!  I love coming home.  I met up with my friend Sariah at In N Out on the way back to Thatcher and then my mom and I stopped to look at the temple lights.  While home, I had a whole list of things to get done, but instead I watched a Christmas movie every day and made several batches of toffee and cookies to take to the neighbors.  I went running in the desert almost every day and met up with a few different friends to eat some delicious Mexican food :)

The Friday before Christmas, my mom and I flew out to Denver to meet my dad and spend Christmas at my brother’s house.  I’d never been to Denver and hadn’t seen my brother and his family for almost 9 months (way too long).  Super glad I went!  It was so great to see them again, catch up and play with my niece, who is absolutely adorable.  My favorite quote from her: “It’s Kristina time!”  Not to mention she even preferred to hold my hand over her daddy’s hand in the store one day (oh yeah!).  We had a great time together and I’ll have to go back soon to visit!  We even went to a hockey game (seems to be a favorite winter activity of my brother and dad) and took a driving tour of the city.  And…..I got to experience my first white Christmas ever!  It snowed all night just before Christmas, perfect timing!  It was super fun to have Christmas with a 2 year old around and share in her delight over the new toys Santa had brought her and have a helper in opening all of my gifts :) Thanks Ryan and Maranda for letting us come visit!  I loved it!