The Family Life is the Good Life: Merry Christmas!

We had a nice Christmas. It's great to have a break from school and work and all. Cory was off most of the break. His parents were here for Christmas. Then most of his extended family came into town the next day and stayed at Jay's house. We drove down a few times to hang out with them. It was fun. The kids had a nice Christmas. We even had a white Christmas! We have had a decent bit of snow lately. It's nice. The Saturday before Christmas we drove up to Hardware ranch and went on a sleigh ride through the elk herd. It was fun and it's really pretty up there. On the way home Cory's parents treated us to lunch at Maddox. It's good eatin'. The kids were nicely surprised with what they got for Christmas. Aiden shed a few tears of joy over getting an iPhone. Lidia got the same thing and was happy too. Tristan and Avery were super excited to get a Nintendo 3DS and some games. I just had to set a passcode to keep them from playing all of the time. I had ordered two overboard scooters but after all the warnings and recalls decided to send them back. I did try it out first and I was fine on it until I tried to go over the bump from the hardwood onto the tile and it spun out and threw me off and I hurt my tail bone much like I did as a kid on roller skates. I'm too old for that. The kids didn't want to try it after seeing me bust it and Cory not able to get going on it. hee hee. Aiden did try it with me holding onto him. Needless to say it's not as cool as it looks. It was easier on the carpet, probably because it goes slower. Now I'm kinda fighting with the company over returning it and getting shipping costs back. Amazon says they guarantee I will get my money back. We shall see. Third parties on amazon can stink to deal with. Probably some Chinese guy running a business from his flat. Lidia and Aiden got clothes too, they are into that. Avery got legos and pokemon toys. Tristan got one or two lego sets and a new star wars bed set and he inherited cory's old iPhone since Cory got a new one. Max got a new toy, a bone, and a bed. He is doing well with his training. I like the puppy class. We decided not to get the new puppy after she developed cherry eye. We may get a second dog this summer. It's easier to train a puppy in the summer anyway. We all got star wars pjs and saw the new movie. It was good but just leaves you with lots of questions that the next movies will have to answer.
We had a favorite things party with Cory's family one night and another day Cory and Aiden went skiing with them and I took my other kids and Teresa to the aquarium and we hung out with Ben and his family waiting for the skiers to return. Aiden had a hard time trying snowboarding so he says he wants to stick with skiing. Good thing we only paid $39 for the board. He may want to try again later if we can get him lessons. Tristan says he wants to try. Cory got new second hand skis. He wanted the kind that turn up at both ends. Aiden can use Cory's old ones. Too bad skiing is so expensive or we would take them more often. Maybe Cory should get a part time job at Snowbasin so he can get free passes.
Micah and Lisa had their baby Sunday Dec. 27! Oliver is cute and strong. He weighed 8lbs 14oz. He is doing good and growing. Dad is flying out Jan 9 and staying two weeks. Us kids went together and got him a plane ticket for Christmas. Oliver Craig will carry on the Hornsby name. Lisa ended up having to have a c-section but seems to be recovering well. It's fun to have family nearby. We've never lived near family before.
We took the kids to temple square to see the lights and saw my friend's parents who are serving a mission at temple square. It was fun to talk to them. Then we went to a wedding reception for Olivia who was one of my laurels in MD ten years ago and saw a few other people from MD there. That was nice. Avery liked the hot chocolate station.