Christmas Break

With the new shorter semesters at BYU-I, we now have a very long Christmas break- 3 1/2 weeks! We've loved every minute and Mackenzie and I were sad to have Keith go back to school today. It's a really weird feeling to know that I'm done and won't have to deal with the stress of homework and studying anymore. Our break started off with an incredibly lazy week; one in which Keith and I said we would get a lot done but didn't. We had planned on staying in Idaho until New Years but a little twist in our plans occured when Keith's Uncle Dave passed away. We went to Utah the Sunday before Christmas and came back on Tuesday so it was a quick trip but worth the drive. Uncle Dave was battling cancer and was in a lot of pain. We were sad but so grateful that he could finally find peace. The funeral service was really beautiful. His daughters gave amazing talks reflecting upon Dave's life and I was grateful again that I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Uncle Dave a few times before his death. He was a wonderful man that will be sorely missed but I have no doubt in my mind that he is in a better place. With his death being so close to Christmas, it also provided the opportunity to reflect on Christ's atonement and the opportunity we all will have to live again and to have our families forever.

We were so lucky to have clear roads for our trip. Once we got back to Idaho, the snow started and didn't stop. Rachel and I had a fun adventure on the Friday after Christmas when we went shopping. I was pulling into my parents neighborhood and got stuck. The snow was so deep and the roads so icy it was really embarassing. We were finally rescued by an old man who pushed us back out of the neighborhood so we could come in a different entrance. A couple days later the Beckers got stuck a few times going home (only 5 minutes down the road) and Keith and I got stuck a couple times on the way to church (a mile down the road). Needless to say, we spent most of the break indoors. Christmas was a blast with Rachel and Heath's kids there and my parents got Guitar Hero World Tour so we had a lot of fun playing that. Mom made her yummy cinnamon rolls and we drank Stephen's hot chocolate which is my favorite. We spent the rest of the week at my parents and went home Monday only to pack up and go to Utah the next day. We spent New Years Eve at Keith's brother Kirk's house and stayed up late playing Rock Band. For New Years, we went to Dallas and Julie's house and partied with the Shaws. It was a great group of people and I loved getting to know Keith's extended family better. We stayed the night at Kirk's again and Mackenzie surprised us by sleeping for 8 hours!!! What an awesome night. She did it again the next night and I'm hoping that now that we're home, she'll get into a good schedule and keep up the long nights. To summarize the rest of the trip, I went to the dark side and dyed my hair brown. My roots got exceptionally dark when I was pregnant and I knew there was no way I could keep up blonde at this time in my life. Keith was scared to death to have me do it but he's pretty happy with it and so am I. We had the chance to see Katie, Jon, and their cute little girl Halle who is two days older than Mackenzie. I was also able to go see my Grandma Anderson (thanks for the yummy food!) and my closest cousin Michelle who was in town from Florida. Her two children are darling and it was a lot of fun to be able to catch up. On the 3rd, Mackenzie turned 2 months and Keith's mom threw me a baby shower with all of the cousins and aunts. Two of my good friends Amber and Holly were able to come and it was really fun to see them. Mackenzie ended up with bags and bags of cute clothes and headbands, all I want to do every day is dress her up! After that we had cake for Grandma Lovell's 90th birthday. It was a really fun day, thanks so much Joan for putting it all together!