December Hodgepodge

As I'm sure most of you, we had a fun and busy December.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights

and drank some hot chocolate to keep ourselves warm.

We also went to the zoo with our buddies the Harmons, which was actually one of the best zoo visits we've ever had. We thought it would be too cold and none of the animals would be out, but it was the opposite. The weather was just fine and we loved that there were not a lot of people there. Maybe that's why we saw the animals doing a ton of stuff. I got a lot of close-ups as you can see: For those of you who have seen "Madagascar", here is a fossa (foo-suh). This gorilla was so cute. Just wook at dat wittle belly!

And the giraffes totally got close and personal. I zoomed in here, but still - it was so close! I even missed a shot of it licking our friend's hand!

Then we headed to Colorado for Christmas at Craig's parents house. Three out of the five kids were there, but there was still plenty of cousin time for Max, which he couldn't get enough of!

Max was so cute each time he opened a present. He would always act so surprised and loved everything he got. He's easy to please. He even said later when it was time to go to my parents to open presents that we wanted me to open them since he was tired of opening presents! Silly kid!

Craig and I also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! I slept in until 9-ish or so, and was woken up by Craig singing his own arrangement of "Feliz Anniversary" to me with a sombraro and a guitar. It was awesome.

Then he found a real jewel in a closet - his middle school football jacket! It was even more fun to watch him try and take it off! We went out for dinner later that night and enjoyed being out on a much-needed date. It was such a great anniversary!

We also had a lot of time to just sit and chat, which I really enjoyed.

Craig's parents cuddled up together and I had to take a picture they looked so cute! There was a lot of wrestling and horsing around with all our nieces and nephews.

They sure wore him out!

I don't have pictures for all the other stuff we did like sledding, play Christmas Family Feud, see "Avatar" in 3D, eat, and eat some more, go on a scavenger hunt, and have the best dance-off EVER. Everyone participated and it was so hilarious. (I know I am biased, but I think Max won. I'll try to get the video posted later.)

It was seriously such a great vacation! It's amazing what a little time off from daily stresses and responsibilities can do for a person!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday.

I am really looking forward to the new year!