Christmas in St. George

This year, Troy surprised everyone when he said we would be spending Christmas with my family in Utah. I was so excited and although up until the day before we left finances were not on our side, Troy sold his "horse bed" and we were able to go.

On our way there was a lot of snow. This picture is in the middle of the Reservation.

I have never seen snow there and so we knew Jacob's Lake would also be a "little" icy.

When we finally got to my mom's house, my sister Jill had us all sit on the couch/floor and say "Merry Christmas" and sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to Chey on a video so that when she came home in January, we would all be there.

Well when we got to the 2nd wish you a merry Christmas I saw the door open and after a double-take saw that it was my Chey. Being that the others couldn't see her for the HUGE tree my mom had, they were confused when I "screamed" and said a few choice words and started running. (honestly they thought Troy had done something to me, surprised?)

This is Chey about 3 minutes after walking in. She is so skinny and TAN.

For all of you who know my family, you can imagine the water works that followed. My mom told Jill that she hated her (lovingly). It turned out that in November she decided that she wanted to be home for Christmas and Jill and Willie helped arrange it. They kept it a secret from EVERYBODY and hid her for a few days and even put her in their trailer a few blocks away so nobody would see her :). This was the best part of Christmas by far.

This is all of our family, minus Tracy and crew. This will be the closest we will get to a full family picture for at least 2 years.

Chey brought gifts home for everyone. Breckyn got a cute little treasure box with a hand made bracelet inside and Keegan got a sling shot.

Morgan also got a little treasure box with a larger bracelet and Troy got a machete. We were all amazed that she got it through customs. It took forever to open it, she wrapped it really good.

This is a game that Chey played with the kids in The Hogar (orphanage). It is really cute so I made them do it a few times......Chey always beat Maggie hehe

This is 2 days later. Chey and Maggie were going in to surprise the "boys" at work and invited Morgan to go. They are wearing the shell necklaces that she brought all of us big girls back (Morgan is wearing mine so she could look like them).

So as you can guess, we had a great start to our Christmas in St. George.