Christmas in Utah

I'll mostly let the pictures tell the story of our Christmas in South Jordan, Utah with my in-laws. But to be honest, each great memory was very much punctuated by how much I missed my family in San Jose, California.

Sidenote: My own Filipino family is a mix of denominations, so Christmas is somewhat downgraded to Holidays. But, my mom knows our weakness, seafood and her ribeye, so each December, she tries to get everyone between after Christmas and New Year to have a Holiday Seafood Feast. We enjoy shrimp, oysters, crab, lobster, fish and of course my mom's famous mouth-watering ribeye steaks that melt in your mouth, plus noodles and rice, to keep you enjoying more seafood! Now that's what I call partying!

In Utah, we loved that we didn't get trapped in any of the heavy snowfall; we managed to get groceries and last minute things. But the best part of it, I didn't slip on anything once! If you know me, that is truly a miracle; I'm not the classic "klutz", but I do find myself "instantaneously looking up at the ceiling or the sky", more often than I want to admit.

Here are the pictures to tell you how much me and my family (especially the kids) enjoyed this year's "White Christmas":

Christmas Eve
Grandma & Grandpa surprised all of us with new PJ's!
Christmas Day
Ian with his "loot"Jasmine's "haul".Lisa with her "goodies"; she later discovered she got 1000 minutes of texting when Charlie called her phone that mysteriously appeared next to her. :D

The next day, we had to deal with the snow, so...
Jasmine worked hard to help Grandpa clear the driveway while Ian... ate snow!
Of course, he didn't just eat snow, he also...
Played in it! Where was Lisa and I? We were warm and toasty inside the house, in our pajamas! Charlie had a great time taking pictures of the two little ones!

After dinner, we can't ignore that we are a reading family, so...
Taryn and Jasmine enjoying, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".

Lisa hiding from a camera; with a book, of course!



Todd Guyaux & Sarah Kindred's wedding; Dec. 27th:
Dave Guyaux, Todd's Dad, married them in the Brogdon home, the "grands".

(She's a little cutie like me; actually she is gorgeous! Her and Todd knew each other 7 weeks, from meeting to wedding date!)


Todd is Dave and Debbie Guyaux's son, Debbie is Charlie and Kate's cousin. Todd's grandpa Norm Brogdon and Frances Mathews (Charlie and Kate's mom) are siblings.

Here's Grandma & Grandpa Mathews and Lisa, Charlie and Ian after the ceremony


Here are some of our goodbye shots; December 28th:

Carter testing out his "bye-bye" kisses on his mom, Kate.
Carter and Ian trying to figure out when they will "see" each other again.

Our kids playing "Uno" with Grandma and cousin Taryn, at 9PM as if we're not going anywhere at 4:30AM the next day...


"Ah(all), done... No."
Our "beautiful" future.
I think they're trying to make a pyramid.
Most of the men in the family; Uncle Gary's on diaper duty; the culprit, Carter, the then stinky cutie!

We had a great time and lots of wonderful memories to greet the New Year with.
A big, big thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Mathews, Aunt Kate, Uncle Gary, Taryn and Carter.

Hope to see you all again soon!

Next December stop; San Jose, California and seafood!!!