Christmas in Utah 2012

Our 2012 holiday trip to Utah has come and gone. Although we were there for ten days, it went by way too fast. Now we are home and back in the daily rhythm of school, work, play, and homestead. It feels great to look at these pictures and remember some highlights ::

Highs

• flying into SLC in the daytime so we could see all the snow-covered mountain tops peaking through a sea of clouds
• taking full advantage of our proximity to movie theaters to see some really fun movies
• eating out at our favorite places for burgers, doughnuts, mexican food, pizza, spaghetti, etc
• celebrating my birthday with a big does of family and a side of the best birthday cake ever
• snowboarding x2 (for the boys)
• sleepovers 
• visiting old friends
• adventuring around the city via bus, light rail, and walking
• a morning for David and I without kids that we spent walking a few miles to eat at a breakfast diner then walking back home (sure can't do that where we live!)
• many hours spent at the library
• visiting the new natural history museum
• doing anything at all with our Utah family who we don't see often enough ~

Lows (just a few)

• no snow in the valley for the entire 10 days, even though we lugged all our snow stuff across the country. how rude.
• getting sick (tummy sick, yuck) on Christmas Eve 
• loosing a wallet full of Christmas money in a bouncy house at a fun center, and never finding it (Noah)
• loosing an ipod (Noah)

but then...

• because there was no snow, we were able to enjoy some warm and sunny days, visits to the park, and many many walks throughout the neighborhood
• feeling much better on Christmas, phew!
• Noah's cousin Austin mailing Noah $5 to help ease the blow of loosing his wallet. So sweet!
• then Austin finding the missing ipod and mailing back to NC. Yay!

Carmona's 4th Annual Christmas Party

Christmas girls snuggled up to watch the movie Elf

Last Saturday we hosted the 4th Annual Carmona Christmas Sweater Party. There was not a terrible blizzard like last year, thank heavens, and we had a great turn-out. Everyone that walked in the door was greeted with cheers and a shout of Merry Christmas. The drinks were a-flowing, the food was delicious, the dancing was lively, and the children were joyous. The best part for me was looking around the house and feeling so much love for all of these friends, neighbors, and family.

Now we are packing our bags to head out to Utah tomorrow morning. We are so excited to see our family there!

mingling guests under the party lights

Nimmy with one of our adorable little neighbors

family photo

girls and yes, that is a little dog wearing a christmas sweater. 

some of the ladies gathering for a female-only photo

paddles and pedals on Kiawah

Thanksgiving.

We are home, safe and sound, from our wonderful Thanksgiving vacation to Kiawah Island, SC. This was the first time I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner away from home. When I was searching for houses online I was especially concerned about the kitchens. If we were going to pull off a feast, we needed a real kitchen with a full size oven and all the cooking basics. After renting what we hoped to be the perfect house, I gathered all my recipes, a bunch of ingredients, my potato masher, and hoped for the best. It was a good thing  I brought the potato masher. My pie plates would have been nice but the cake pans at the house ended up working out just fine. Minor kitchen equipment blips aside, the whole day was totally perfect. The kids popped in and out of the kitchen, lending a hand  or just grabbing a snack, while I bustled away cooking up a storm. We enjoyed some bike riding and beach walking during the not-so-busy moments. And in the end, we enjoyed a fantastic feast ~ served on the same china that my dad has (strangely enough). I missed being with more family, but I also relished the simplicity of it just being the five carmonas. Some gratitude highlights from the kids:
Gita: Being a Carmona
Nimuae: awesome family
Noah: good grades

I really cannot believe it is almost the end of November already. It seriously feels like someone flipped on the fast forward button. We are getting ready to take a little Thanksgiving vacation on Tuesday. We rented a little house on Kiawah Island, SC, for 5 days. It will not be much warmer there, certainly not warm enough to do much ocean swimming, but we are really looking forward to hanging out on the beach, biking all over the island, and paying a visit to Charleston. This will be the first trip this year that my work computer will not be invited along ~ no email, no work, hooray! 

here's what has been going on around here.....

Noah's Grandma and Grandpa Urbanik drove their RV down from Connecticut for a quick visit. It was wonderful to catch up with them at the campground and over dinner, and also to show them around our homestead. This picture is fantastic because Noah is smiling (it is very very difficult to get him to smile for photos these days. teenagers.)

I got to get away for a slumber party with girlfriends to celebrate some of our fall/winter birthdays. My camera did not make it out of it's bag for our trip to Hot Springs (complete with a quick drive through a Civil War re-enactment ~ ) or our dinner at a fun new restaurant, or even our impromptu costume dance party. I did manage to pull off one quick self-timer shot as we were packing up to leave. I sure love these ladies!

David and I soaked up as much autumn awesomeness as possible over the last few weeks. We love our daily evening walk with the dog which serves the dual purpose of exercise, for us and Atticus, and a little kid-free connection time for us. I brought the camera along the other day to capture some of the beautiful fall colors. But our walk was cut short when Atty hurt his paw, poor guy. David was able to carry him home ~ a somewhat funny and very touching sight.

The girls are making lots of friends at school. Katie is a friend of Nimuae's who happens to live right down the road from us. This is a huge deal for Nim because she has never had many girl friends who live up on the mountain. We are so grateful for wonderful friends !

Nimuae recently discovered his great-grandfathers wood working tools that were passed down to us a few years back. She got to work right away ~

Gita of the leaves

Gita called me outside the other day to see "something really cool..."

"watch this!"

she was right, it was really cool.

Halloween (a little late)

our Nene came to visit from Arizona for Halloween again. It is wonderful to have her here and even more wonderful to share such a fun holiday together. Nim and Gita, after much deliberating,  decided to be Pajama Girls, and I was in full support (gotta love easy, practical, and warm!). Nene was happy to take on the important job of putting their hair up in curlers. When we were all dressed and ready, we headed down to town for some fun trick-or-treating in Black Mountain. We met up with friends, some expected, others as a welcome surprise, and had a blast.

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Cowgirl Carmona + super spooky ghost of a cowboy + two pajama girls = fun

the lovely Loomers, including a leaping lemur Lilikoi and a little elmo Seo

Pajama Girl Gita and Lemur Lilikoi walking with their Rastafarian Nene

meeting friends along the way