I didn’t mind going to Yuma and being away from my family for Christmas, but I just wanted to do all my family things before I left. SO the morning of our trip, with the car packed and ready to go, Mirah left to school, Lucas went to a friend’s, and Mom, Krysta, Karl and I went to go see the new Star Wars!

We had a great time, we loved it. The movie was timed perfectly. We met Mirah at the house when she got off the bus, we scooped Lucas up from his friends, said farewell to mom and Krysta, and we were off!

The trip was relatively uneventful. After dinner we hit some bad traffic for an hour neat Moapa due to a truck turning over.

We arrived around midnight and went straight to bed.

In the morning after breakfast, we were going to head out to see Tia, when we realized we got a flat. BLESSEDLY, it was after we arrived, and the place we had purchased the tires from had a store in town, so we got the flat fixed for free!! Plus Jim had this radical pump, so we were able to get to the place with no problem.

While that was getting settled, Lucas found a trumpet with a bow on it. Everything had a bow.

Quickly, we were at Tia’s, the tire fixed, and celebrating Christmas with them!

We had brought the kids sleds, to go down the sand dunes on. They had given us a chess game, on teaching kids how to play chess!

The had made waffles for breakfast. Kevin was going to have to work on Christmas Day, so they were spending that Saturday as their Christmas day. Tegan was being just the cutest thing.

The kids played outside, they played on the trampoline, they did legos, they played PJ masks and just had a fun and silly time.

OH how I wish we could have been together more!

BUT, back at the house, there were COUSINS waiting for us! That’s right, the Mississippi Hite’s had arrived and they kids were thrilled. Karl was thrilled. I know he seems not thrilled, but I know he was!

Soon Grandma and Grandpa Barney arrived, chauffeured by Malia. She had been a saint and offered to drive them here. She had gone up to Logan the night before, then driven from there, leaving at 6 AM all on her own. They are both 93 so the slept the whole way. BUT they had just gotten home from Hawaii, and were both sick and miserable the whole time.

We had a Tamale dinner provided by grandpa. Beans and rice made by Malia, and dishes done by me. 🙂

After dinner we sat around the candle powered nativity fan, and did science experiments.

We all got checked into our Air BnB and turned in for the night late. I was so tired, I fell asleep early. But Malia, Zach, and Karl stayed up talking and playing games.