Christmas Visitors

Sure hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and have felt the love of the Savior in your lives.

We had a great time and are excited as our little family grows that we are beginning our own traditions together. I worked incredibly hard to prepare our gourmet Christmas Eve dinner of....wait for it.........Papa John's Pizza. Yes, I know you're all jealous. We had a fun and relaxing night getting things ready and watching the replay of the First Presidency Christmas Broadcast.

Ashlyn woke up just before 8:00 on Christmas morning and was excited to find the kitchen play set Santa left by the tree. That kept her entertained for nearly 15 minutes. Then it was back to the good ol' toys. It was a bit of a let down 'cause Santa's elves were awful tired after working nearly 3 hours to assemble it. She could have cared less about opening other gifts. I think she was afraid of getting in trouble when we tried to get her to tear the paper. In fact, we'd try giving her a new present to open and she (being good & cleaning up like she's been taught), would go & put them back under the tree.

Derek's parents flew in that afternoon and it was so great to have them here for nearly five days. We had a second round of opening presents, went to Tombstone (which, by the way, was so not worth the special trip but fun to say we've been there), watched some movies, found a better "Ghost town" called Goldfield that was fun to visit and take the slowest train ride in the world around (topping out at 10 mph), ate a lot, and had a good time visiting.

So happy Ashlyn is finally feeling better after a terrible cold & ear infection. Just very sorry that she got Grandma Pulsipher sick!!! Man, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to hang around us.

When we got back home after dropping them off at the airport on Wednesday afternoon, the first thing Ashlyn said was "Ga-pa? Ga-ma?". We were sad to see them go, but we didn't have much time to mourn.

My Dad and Virginia got here Wednesday night after coming from visiting Jessie & her family in Las Vegas. Then we got to have a third round of presents - so spoiled! On Thursday we took them to see Goldfield. There was even more going on that day because it was New Year's Eve. We saw a gunfight in the streets, toured the little museum, saw a re-enacted tent city, and toured the gold mine (or replica of it anyway). Then we went to Olive Garden for an early dinner and came home to relax & get off the streets before things got too crazy. Poor Ashlyn was exhausted and slept in my arms all during dinner, which is so unlike her to do.

We had such a great week and are so glad everyone came to visit. I'm also pretty proud and impressed that my Dad drove all the way home in one day. Think that's a first for them!

Wishing you all a Fantastic New Year!