This past Christmas and New Years was spent with my family in San Diego.
We were planning on leaving on Sunday, December 16th but there was a massive blizzard coming in so we packed like crazy and were able to leave on Saturday afternoon.
San Diego greeted us with beautiful 55 degree weather and we began our gloriously warm vacation.
One of my family's many Christmas traditions is to make gingerbread houses. Because the family has grown so much we did teams of gingerbread house builders.
Mom, Dad and Anne were a team.
Brooke, Ella, and Cam were a team.
My cousin Amber and her son, Alex, were a team.
And Stephen, Will and I were a team.
I love the look of concentration on both Stephen and Will's faces. Stephen is concentrating on the decorating, Will is concentrating on the candy.
I love my mommy and daddy!
My handsome Will.
Isn't Cam a hunk?
Will really loved eating the candy.
Look how cute we are.
On Christmas Eve we decided we didn't want to cook so we went out to dinner to Pat and Oscars. I like this new tradition, I think we'll do it again. then we headed off to the Francois' for dessert and white elephant fun.
Please, don't look too closely at Will's shirt. He had a LOT of fun at dinner...
Will really loves his Uncle Jordan.
When we got home, the kids went to bed and the adults set to work. Christmas really is so much more fun when you have kids. It was great to get things ready and "play Santa". We had another special delivery on Christmas Eve, one of my parents' dogs, Heidi, had three puppies, two boys and one girl.
Unfortunately the girl passed away the day after Christmas.
On Christmas morning there were lots and lots of presents to be had.
Will would go up to my dad and say, "share with Will, please Papa." I'm glad he understands the concept of sharing on some level.
Jordan and Bri with Bri's Christmas present, Kika the puppy. Kika is so cute! I want one!
This is my cousin, Mini, or Eliza, depending on who you ask. She spent Christmas with us.
My sister is so beautiful! This is her cute family, Brooke, her husband, Nick, and there 2 girls, Ella and Annalise.
Will got mostly Thomas the Tank Engine related stuff, some awesome Lego Duplos, and a Little People tractor.
Cam got some "man uggs" and he was SO excited. He plays water polo during the fall and rugby in the winter so his feet are cold a lot and he wanted his own boy uggs. My mom finally found some. I love my brother!
With my family we pick names for presents. This year my dad had Stephen's name. He got Stephen a monitor, Stephen was ecstatic.
Anne got all the seasons of Psych. She was overcome with joy.
Mini came up to BYU this semester. For Christmas, she got a lot of things to prepare her for the cold. She's from Hawaii...she needed a lot warm things. Even with all the warm things she got she said she's still cold.
This year Stephen and I got each other one gift each. He got me a cast iron pot. I've wanted one for years and now I finally have one. My life is almost complete.
I made Brooke that apron. I am quite impressed with myself. Brook wore it over her PJs for the entire day.
I got Stephen Lego Lord of the Rings for the Wii. We stayed up until 4 am last Friday playing it. It's pretty awesome.
Kika s SO cute!!
After about the third present, Will was pretty done. He had some new trains and some blocks and he was set.
For Christmas dinner we has steak, scalloped potatoes, and salad. It was super yummy but it took longer then we anticipated and what do the Hepworth clan do when Christmas dinner is late? We have a dance party, that's what.
Yes, I am aware we are weird. We are ok with it.
Will gets all his moves from me and I got all my moves from my mother.
Stephen and I even danced when while we were cooking.
The boys set a beautiful table and everyone got there own bottle of Martinelli's.
Will has discovered technology. He LOVES playing games on our tablet and on my dad's tablet. He had som much fun playing with Papa.
It was such a nice Christmas. Pretty low profile but that's my favorite kind.
For New Year's we began the night with a trip to my parents' jacuzzi.
Then Cam was off to a youth dance and we had a yummy spread of dips, cheese, cookies and chips.
We started off the night completely optimistic that we would all stay awake....
Then we put on the Avengers and we lost Nick, Brooke, Anne and my mom. Stephen, Dad and I made it through the whole movie and to midnight. Don't we look so excited for the New Year.
Our celebration. I love Brooke's crazy face then Anne's ridiculously serene face.
Doesn't she look so excited.
We rang in the New Year with Martinelli's of course. It was just what we needed. 10 minutes into the New Year everyone was a sleep. We are party animals. Don't you think?
Will really loves his cousin Cooper! They such a great time playing together!
We had such a fun time! Hopefully next time we will be able to stay longer.
