Christmas Day

As I have grown to appreciate with each passing year, my family had our normal, traditional Christmas Day. I know that traditions often evolve over the years for many families as the seasons of life change, but I am blessed to still enjoy the same Christmas I had growing up (at my parents' with my whole family). 

Hayley and Jerry (+Brody) came over first thing on Christmas morning to have breakfast and open presents. Ted joined us as well this year for the morning festivities before spending the day with his family.

A little buried.

 Then the 5 of us headed to Petersburg to spend the rest of the day with Dad's side of the family. With our 2 cousins living in Illinois and Texas, it's been more rare for all of us to see each other over the holidays. They both decided to come home at the very last minute, though, so it was nice to all be together.

A new outdoor rocking chair. Too cold to enjoy outside so it might as well come in the house.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

As soon as I finally sat down to catch up on my blog in January while things were naturally a little slower, blogger messed up and I could not upload photos. Grrrr. I finally figured out that the problem was actually the browser, but here another month has passed by. I really do not want to always have outdated posts, but that's just the name of the game right now.

Here's a post of highlights from my favorite Christmas-y things and some pre-Christmas events from December...

 Unpacking my ornaments really is one of the highlights of the Christmas season for me. They each tell a story, remind me of someone that I love, or bring back wonderful memories from my travels. Here are a few of my favorite new ones from 2013 (and my new(er) flash makes them look even better):

 

 

  

This is my tree which is absolutely, positively, and completely full of ornaments. With the other new ones I received this year, I will need to either buy a new fake tree next year, venture out and try to get a bigger real one, have a second tree, or use my ornaments as part of another decoration. 

Christmas tulips

Celebrating Christmas a few days early with the boys before they headed out of town.

 This next series of pictures cracks me up because the boys did exactly the same things at the same time (when trying on their new pjs)...completely unscripted. The rest of us were laughing so hard that it hurt...

Shoes...the favored gifts (who knew?!)

A few pictures from our Kenya Christmas dinner the following evening...

Trying to tap into the creative side of my brain which doesn't get used much these days. I had fun preparing for this dinner with our Kenya team + a few additional friends.

We typically have Christmas with Mom's family on Christmas Eve but we changed it up this year and had it on the Sunday before (a few days early). Hard to believe it was 80 degrees the second day of winter and everyone showed up (besides Mom, Hayley, and Grandma, of course) in shorts! 

Arizona {Day 3} - Grand Canyon

Wow...it's been awhile since I have posted anything. I almost feel as if I have a mental block against it for some reason. I had high hopes of catching up on lots of posts over the Christmas break but that week came and went without touching it. Rest and down time were a higher priority. And, as always, the time at home for the holidays flew so fast!

So...while it's a balmy 31 degrees outside, I thought I would pick up where I left off on our fun adventure in sunny, warm & dry Arizona. Actually, this particular morning when we awoke in Williams, the temperature was around freezing and the rental car was covered in frost. Going from 100 degrees to 32 in less than 48 hours may have been the most extreme difference in temperatures that I have experienced. Knowing that it would warm up quickly that day made the cold seem not too bad, although I was already missing the Scottsdale heat. 

Our first stop that morning...a diner for breakfast on Route 66.

 

Another sight on Route 66...nice license plate!

There was a short Cowboy "shoot 'em up" Show before our train departed at 9:30 AM for the Grand Canyon. It was all a part of the tour...

All Aboard

There were six different classes of service on the train. With little knowledge of what this train tour would be like, we wrestled over which class to ride in. We did not want to upgrade if it wasn't worth it, but we also didn't want to be uncomfortable. The Pullman Class, which is an original 1923 Harriman style coach car with windows that open, sounded the most interesting but was the cheapest. I spoke with a nice representative from the Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel and she assured me that the Pullman would be a good ride and not a downgrade from the others. So...we booked it.  And we were so glad that we did.

Entertainment during our 2 hour+ ride...

We arrived at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park just shy of Noon and were on our own to explore for about 3.5 hours. 

I had seen the Grand Canyon before on one of my Las Vegas babysitting trips back in high school, but the view was from a small (less than 10 passenger) tour plane and the experience was so horrible that I barely remember seeing the Canyon. When we walked up to the edge of the rim, it felt like I was seeing it for the first time. God's handiwork was amazing, breathtaking, and silencing as we took it all in.

We walked a short ways down the trail that leads to the Colorado River. We saw hikers and mule-riders on this trail. The narrow width of the trail would keep me from ever riding a mule!

After a stop for lunch (and my Dad bumping into some old co-workers from his Philip Morris days), we walked along the Rim Trail just taking in the beautiful scenery until we had to head back towards the train.

You can see the bottom portion of the Bright Angel Trail we started to walk down in the picture below (the line in the green flat part)...

Mom & Dad talking to our Passenger Service Attendant (Kathy with a "K", as she referred to herself) who gave us lots of fun facts on our rides to/from the Grand Canyon.

We saw wild fires on our way back to Williams that concerned me. No one else was because they are supposedly controlled.  Interesting to me in such a dry climate...

More of our entertainment...

And the bad guys...

Our train was "held up" on the way home. Too bad we couldn't stop laughing long enough to be scared...

For the time that we had on this trip, we were glad to have taken the train to the Grand Canyon. It was nice to not have to navigate and figure out our plan for the day. Of course, 3.5 hours at the GC was not nearly long enough to see everything or even what we wanted to, so I'll just have to go back!

After our train arrived in Williams around 5:30 PM, we immediately hit the road back south for Scottsdale, which was a 185 mile drive. It was yet another full day of travel and seeing the sights.