Christmas Catch-Up: Pre-Christmas Shenanigans

We have been up in the air for the past year about whether or not to stay here in our new home for Christmas this year, or to make the trip home to Wyoming for one more year.  I thought it would be fun to be home, and to have Landon get to have at least one Christmas in Wyoming, so we got to make the trip.

Usually we fly, but with havng an extra kid this year, we decided to drive.  I am not normally a fan of long car trips (and the one to Wyoming is about 13-14 hours), but I was actually excited to be doing it this way this year, because it meant we could bring everything we needed, plus we could bring any presents we wanted to.  In the past I have had to plan my presents around what would fit in our suitcases, so I had a little fun this year buying some BIGGER things.  :)

Now, I was also a little apprehensive, because driving through Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming could very potentially be horrible this time of year.  We have been lucky though, and have had a freakishly warm and snow-free winter, so the whole drive home was perfect.  We left at midnight on Friday, the 16th, so as to let the kids sleep for part of the time, and got into Laramie at around 1:00 pm that day.  It was a great drive, so we were thrilled.

We didn't waste any time having fun while we were there (I feel bad, because a lot of these pictures don't have Landon in them...a lot of this stuff was done while he was napping, and we were trying to do stuff to keep the older kids entertained!).  We got to go to one University of Wyoming men's basketball game while we were there, and two women's games.  I stayed home from one of the women's games to let Landon get to bed at a normal time, but Cameron and my mom took Miley.  They had seats on the floor, and while they were there, Miley got to go out on the floor and do a cheer with the cheerleaders at one of the time-outs.  She was so excited, and is still talking about it. 

We also got to go over to campus to check out the new College of Business that was built literally RIGHT after Cameron and I graduated.  The building is soooo nice.  We are a little peeved that they didn't have it while we were there.  :)  It was fun getting to check that out, and running into some of our old professors.

Of course we kept ourselves busy with Christmas preparations.  We were able to do some decorating of the Christmas tree, bake Christmas cookies, and listen to lots of Christmas music.  And there may have been just a few shopping runs throughout the week. 

We *attempted* to do some sledding with the measley amount of snow that we recieved one day, but there was hardly enough to do more than a few snow angels and a little pulling by the dads on the street.  Oh well.  What can you do, right?

In between all of that, we got to just enjoy visiting and catching up with my mom and dad, and my sister, Gelsey, her husband, Kipp, and their boys, Bode and Cruze.  The cousins loved being together and realized they had much in common - Miley and Bode with their love of cell phones, and Landon and Cruze with their style and getting picked on by their older siblings!

We loved getting to be there for a full week before Christmas.  I love that time, and love that I was able to spend it with my family again!  Next up....Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!