Christmas 2011

Jared and I just got back a couple hours ago from Utah. We were very blessed to be able to spend 10 days in Utah celebrating Christmas with our families. It's never nearly enough time to split between family and friends, but I'm just grateful we even had the time off and the money to be able to come out and visit. I had my camera in my purse the entire time and only took like 5 pictures. So I stole a lot of them from my mom's blog.

My mom, sisters and I did our annual "baking day". The beginning of the "Christmas crap" eating.

We did our annual Christmas Eve Eve party, complete with the nativity with my cute nieces and nephews. Man I wish I could play with them more often than twice a year!

How can you not love this face?!

My cute Grand-parents.

The only "Christmas" picture Jared and I have together this year.

We took Jared's sister Kendra's kids ice skating one day.

Jared was teaching Isaac how to skate. It was really cute. Jared is a great teacher and is very patient.

The last day we were in Utah I went shopping with my sisters and mom in the morning, then we went to Salt Lake and ate lunch at Caputo's with my dad and all of Jared's family.

Then we went to temple square where Jared's grandparents serve a part-time mission. His grandma gave us a tour of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. We got a really cool "ancestor" picture taken there.

Then we looked at the lights for a few minutes before we had to make the train back home. Temple square truly is beautiful, especially at Christmas.

This morning our plane was on the runway right as the sun was rising over the mountains. The colors were so beautiful and I started getting a little teary-eyed as I realized it would be at least another 6 months until we're back in Utah.

As we were driving on the bus back home to East Lansing, this was our view:

Welcome back to gray cloudy Michigan. It's nice to be home again....