Ho, Ho, Home

Here it comes, the Christmas blog post. There are still plenty of games to be played, mountains to be snowshoed (if we could get some snow), and more family on the way, but here's the first week of Christmasness.

We went hiking with Michael's parents and the pups. It felt amazing to get out of the inversion for a little while. Personally, I think the inversion (or what the weather men euphemistically call "Haze")is the worst part about Utah. I was embarrassed when I flew in from New York, because I was sitting next to a guy from the South who'd never been to Salt Lake before. I was feeling sort of ambassadorial and telling him about the lights downtown and Park City's Main Street, the snow (I even mentioned the Winter Olympics which means the department of tourism should probably hire me)...and then we flew into a giant bog. I think I need to hire Yoda to Jedi the city out of the scummy swamp that is the inversion. See:

At least it's gone now. Get away, scum.

Moose looks fine, but Michael really flopped on this one. 

If you look closely you can see a Moose Dog wobbling around.

We fetched the tree, and decorated it. 

This tree selection might be a bit staged, since we all know Laura didn't really help carry the tree. Neither did I, but...

 We also decorated the dogs.

I took Michael out for his birthday. Those poor people with December birthdays have to share the spotlight with Christmas trees and such (and poor people who date people who were born in December and therefore have to come up with two presents in two weeks).

We went on another hike with my Dad and Michael's mom on Christmas Eve. Moose...struggled. He got lost a bit on the trail, which caused Michael to have a mild panic attack and start running up a mountain. He also totally embarrassed himself in front of Rusty and the Charlie, a dog we're babysitting, by facing the wrong way in the car. Hey, Moose, over here!

Don't Charlie and Rusty look disgusted?

I love winter hiking, with our trusty Rusty scouting out the way. In this picture Rusty is thinking, "Well, Moose is lost again. Can we please keep going up the trail." I'm realizing how much of my blog is now devoted to dogs and doggly activities. Hmmm, maybe I should just start Rusty his own blog. "Today I taught Moose how to check for ticks and stole a Cheeto from under the couch. xoxo -Rusty"

Christmas was great we opened presents, and visited all our families. We even got to Skype with Michael's little brother who's in England on an LDS mission. He's been gone for about five months, but he has an accent now. We spent the first few minutes of the phone call giggling at his "posh" new way of speaking. The people he was with kept laughing whenever he said "pants" instead of "trousers" since pants means underwear. Can't wait till he gets home, so we can make him say things like "Happy Christmas, Harry" and "I say, governor! Bang up job, that."

My parents got watches and then turned into fabulous watch models.  

 

 Moose got a studly new backpack. He ran right over to show Dad and Grandma Becky.

I got Michael a tennis racket, and he turned into a creative way to block other people out of pictures. Apparently Becky got replaced by Wilson. He got me a GPS, which is really a "let's not fight when we're lost in the car" present.

Laura got scarfed.

Tonight we went down to see the lights at Temple Square. My Aunt Barb and Uncle Dean hadn't been in a long time and Michael's family came too.

 I would like to point out what an extreme accomplishment it is to have a picture with no people in it. You'd need an solid offensive line blocking for you to accomplish that in a more popular spot.

Don't worry, he didn't propose, although bachelors were dropping like flies all around us.

Well, hope all your holidays are going well. I'm just happy that my break isn't over yet--I'm off to obliterate Michael even with his new tennis racket.