Christmas in California

After we got back from Mexico, we had a couple of days to get ready for my parents and sister to come and spend the holidays here. Unfortunately, most of us took turns being sick (with Alex specializing in vomiting at the dinner/breakfast table)...luckily my parents took over and made it a wonderful time to remember! Traditional dinner, nativity, delivering goody plates, a little caroling, and opening presents. One of my favorite memories was going to see "Wicked" my my mom and sister...it was obnoxiously funny and heartwarming! Zach's favorite toy was a pop gun from Michael's (which he shot everyone with several times until it broke)! Camilla's new goal for the year is to practice her ballet video from Christmas every morning so she can teach her friends, and Alex loves playing with anyone and everyone's toys! It was great to be able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with both our families...the kids are now missing all their grandmas and grandpas and cousins and keep asking when we're going on another trip! :)

Christmas in Cancun

We lost our battery charger at the most inconvenient time of the year...right before the holidays! So, I've been waiting to post anything until we begged a few pictures from family (that's my excuse)!
Anyways, we met Noall's family in Cancun to spend some time together before Christmas. As we packed the day before, we encountered a little problem...Zach locked our bedroom door, left the room and shut the door. The key wouldn't work, we couldn't pick it, we tried the "credit card slide" and the "key jiggle (recommended by the engineers at Noall's work). About 10 PM, Noall resorted to using his power drill to drill a hole in the door so I could put my hand in and unlock it. Luckily, we were able to gain access to our bedroom, finish packing, and get a couple of hours of sleep before leaving at 3:30 AM for LA. It was quite the adventure!
Cancun was as fun as you would imagine it would be...beautiful beaches, great hotel, interesting ruins, iguanas everywhere, snorkeling with fish, swimming with dolphins, etc. Some of my favorite memories were having the kids stay at church to go to Primary in Spanish and watching them interact with the kids there...going to a small ruin in the middle of the jungle where we climbed to the top and could see nothing but jungle on all sides...riding bikes with Noall to a "cenote" (huge fresh water pool we had to hike down some cliffs to get to) and swimming with tons of catfish there...being stopped by the Mexican police dressed in camo with automatic weapons to search our car after dark (luckily we speak Spanish). The last day we spent at the beach and pool...it was a perfect way to end our time together!