CHRISTMAS 2012

For Christmas this year we pretty much stepped right out of the crazy hoopla that you can easily get wrapped up in. The kids each got one gift. Yes, you read correctly! Only one gift and it was AWESOME!

We picked out each gift very carefully. We figured it needed to be something they could really use for our Christmas travel. Each of the boys got a traveling bag. Genius! Well, Mr. B.T.C and I thought so anyway.

We figured the girls could use a traveling companion for the long drive ahead so they each got a "new" American girl doll. When your daughters current American girl is sitting in a DOLL WHEELCHAIR, wearing a HOSPITAL GOWN with an EYELID that WON'T OPEN, a MISSING ARM and the dolls NAME has been replaced with SOUL SURFER you know it's time for a replacement.

Mr. B.T.C put a little spending money in each of their stockings.

They were thrilled that Grandma and Papa also left a card for each of them.

Great Grandma Gertie made a quilt for each of the girls.

We loaded up the car or should I say loaded down the car and set out for a wintery wonderland in Midway, Utah. Our Christmas seemed complete this year. Sure, we did the "one" Christmas gift before we left town but when we woke up on Christmas day nestled in the Utah mountains we experienced a special kind of gift. It's wrapped differently than most. It's the gift of photographed memories, wrapped in the spirit of joy and topped with the most exquisite bow of serenity and gratitude that seemed to well up within each of our hearts.

We were just happy being together! Our togetherness included...

a little family skiing at the Canyons.

Brandon taught Nathan how to snowboard this year. It came very easy for Nathan. You would have thought this kid was born doing this kind of stuff.

Dawson skied this year. He thinks he will try snowboarding next year.

Mr. B.T.C is a natural!

Taking a little rest before another run,

Bree found a ski pole and she was thrilled.

If you look closely, you'll see Brit. She's the last one coming down the hill in the little blue coat.

Riding the gondola after a long and busy ski day.

The snow was generous this year which was awesome but it did require a little effort on our part.

The kids are about to try out their snow jump they made while sledding.

They kids enjoyed this little pond they found in the neighborhood.

Bree and Brit took their American girl dolls to church with them.

Everyone took advantage of sledding down the snow covered hills except this one...

She thought it was too cold and she didn't want to mess her hair up. Oh boy, I have NO idea where she gets that from?!

While on the ski lift we had some pretty impressive snowflakes that had fallen right into our hands. They were so big that you could see the six sided hexagonal shape and even see the arms that formed into what looked like a perfect star. We enjoyed this process of watching our perfect snowflake melt away just as several new ones would land in our gloves. It's the little things that I'm in awe of.

Bree stayed out in the snow long enough to try to find snowflakes similar to our " ski lift flakes" but was unsuccessful. These flakes were so small that they would melt before really getting to see what they looked like.