Crazy Christmas Fun! (only a little late)

As I'm sure it was for everyone, our Christmas break was wonderful!! We really enjoyed the time off from school and work, and loved being with family! Curtis and I were able to spend time with both of our families on Christmas, which is such a blessing!We love the Christmas season and we are grateful for our Savior who gives us hope and joy. Here are our highlights from Christmas break: (Beware..it's kinda long!)

• Talking to Tyler on Christmas day. He is serving a mission in Guatemala. He is such a great example to us! He is so happy there serving the people and his positive attitude is contagious.
• Snow, snow and more snow! Because of the massive amount of snow, my family and Curtis spent hours and hours on the roof of Albertsons (my dad's store) shoveling snow during my dad's vacation off work (ha!). (I was only up there one day b/c I was sick, but man! It was hard work!) Although it was an unanticipated event, we will definitely enjoy the extra money!!
• Skiing at Schweitzer. Curtis and I drove up 6 kids to the ski resort (my brothers, his sister, my cousin and a couple of their friends). We had a great time (especially once we learned to follow the path..who woulda thought?!). Hopefully we can do some more skiing down here! (Thanks Barb and Ernie for the fun!!)
  
• Steak and Gooeys! My aunt and uncle took us to Wolf Lodge Inn. It's pretty famous up in Northern Idaho for it's fantastic steak! We filled our bellys with delicious food, and since we were already in Coeur d'Alene, I talked everyone into going to Gooeys...only the largest dish of ice cream you've ever seen! Even with a huge dinner, no one could resist ice cream. It was a great day of food and fun!!
• Lots of games! We love playing games, and spent hours playing cards (Pinochle to be specific..don't worry if you haven't heard of it...it's rarely played by those under age 60!). We also played a few games of Settles of Catan. Even though the first game ended in too much unhappiness, we matured and more fully enjoyed it after that (at least I did..maybe because I won :)
• Christmas Eve fun...I have to tell the joke I played on Curtis because oh it was just too good not to share! He had joked a while before Christmas about me getting santa-ish lingerie. So my dad and I had this brilliant idea. I bought a little nighty (as my mom calls them), and wrapped it up in paper that Curt had already wrapped a present for me, and had my little brother use the same gift tag Curt had used to write "To:Ashley, From: Curtis." The plan was to open a couple presents before we left to go the Barnes' house. Of course, I picked the present that I had wrapped. I had already told everyone my trick beforehand (which included family and my aunt, uncle and 2 cousins who were there)...it made it all the more funny! I opened the present and said, "Curtis...this is embarrassing." All he could say over and over was, "I didn't do it" as he face turned a nice shade of red. Let's just say, I got him good! (I wish we had recorded it because it was just too funny!)
• Woo hoo for the Wii!! We were so spoiled this year! We got a Wii from my family! Thank you mom and dad! We had been wanting to buy one, but of course it was a bit out of the budget so it was an awesome surprise! We also got Guitar Hero World Tour (the complete band) from Curt's parents as well as MarioKart and Mario Olympics..Curt is officially obsessed! If you are ever looking for some Wii fun, come on over!
• I turned 22...I spent the day shopping and napping, 2 things I love! The party with family was fun and we had yummy banana splits (forget the cake, ice cream all the way!) It was a fun birthday!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!