December

December....I was still sick, Topher was still taking care of EVERYTHING, and Grace was still being a pretty good girl for her sick-o mom.

My sisters and Mom and I did a Nikolaus swap (german tradition) and my sister Emily sent us this cute little "Elf on the Shelf" thing for Grace. I had never heard of this little "elf on the shelf" tradition that so many people do, but after reading the little book that came with the elf, getting a couple pointers from my sister and then doing extensive research online, Topher and I concluded that it was a tradition we could totally have a LOT of fun with and that Grace would really enjoy. Grace named her elf Oscar and he was a very fun Elf. He became her buddy from the beginning of December through Christmas Day. Some of his more memorable adventures were when he discovered Grace's barbies, took one unlucky barbie for a ride in her convertible, crashed it on Grace's little people car course and left barbie being doctored by Rex. He wrote Grace a mini note, assuring her that Barbie would be fine, and that sorry he had wrecked her Barbie car. He made her Elf pancakes one morning that were itty bitty. He tried to fly Topher's kites and got himself stuck up on the ceiling with all his Barbie fans watching. He hung her underwear up all over the Christmas Tree and hid all the stockings. He made Elf donuts for him and her Barbies to eat. He also hid away in her suitcase when we went out of town and helped with the Christmas eve festivities at her Grandparent's house. He was a fun little elf to have around and we're excited to see him again next December.

Even with fun Nikolaus stuff and Elf magic, Topher and I both got really homesick this month. We calculated several options to get us home for Christmas, but we just couldn't it afford it no matter what option we looked at.

Then one night we were talking on Skype with his family and his Dad asked us if we were coming home for the holidays, we told him no, we weren't, we were just going to spend the holidays at home and try to enjoy our first Christmas in our pretty new house. Well, his Dad saw right through us and asked if we wanted to come home for Christmas. Well, of course we do we said, we just couldn't afford it, maybe next year. Well, being his assertive, and overly generous self, he straight up said "No. You're coming home for Christmas. Alysia, find some flights, book it all, and here is my credit card info." My and Topher's jaws both dropped and then we laughed thinking he must be teasing. "No", he said, "we want you for Christmas. Get those flights, I don't care how much they are, come home and see us for Christmas."

Have I said lately how generous Topher's parents are? It's really ridiculous how kind they are to us. I'm so grateful for them.

So. We booked our flights and were set to be in Utah over Christmas and New Years. It was very exciting!! But the funnest part was that I decided to keep it a secret from my family. With the exception of my Mom and Emily because I needed some people on the inside keeping me updated on plans and where people would be and what not.

Topher's work had "Christmas stand down" for two weeks and so we were gone perfectly over those two weeks so he didn't miss teaching any classes or any other duties, so that was a huge blessing. And I was feeling a little bit better thanks to some heavy nausea medication my OBGYN prescribed for me. They didn't like that I was losing so much weight and couldn't keep anything down, so I got drugs! They helped a lot with the throwing up, but not with the just crummy feeling and exhaustion. But hey, I was thrilled to be a bit more functional.

We forgot our camera when we went to Utah, which is TOTALLY pathetic, I know, but we did. So the few pictures I have are when we remembered to use the camera Dacia lent us for the trip.

We got home to Utah on the 21st with 7 suitcases and arrived at Curtis and Venice's where we had been shipping all of our Christmas gifts for Grace and family, and found that we'd filled almost their whole bedroom with packages from Amazon. Ha!! Good times.

Some of the fun things we did while we were there were meet Topher's little brother's fiancee, go to the Zoo with Topher's family, have a Christmas potluck with my siblings, a bridal shower for our soon to be Sister-in-law, a big Christmas party with Topher's extended family, an awesome Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Topher's family, New Year's Eve at my sister's with Ovaltine Shakes, and lots and lots of family time!

It was so fun to be with Topher's family and see everyone. My favorite part of the whole 2 weeks though was surprising my family. I think I actually brought everyone, including myself to tears!! I felt so loved and like people actually missed me and wanted me there, and I of course had missed everyone so much I cried about it all the time. So seeing everyone in my family that first time and them being so excited to see us was just really really special to me.

We were all over with different family festivities the whole two weeks and just drove back and forth nearly every couple days between the Provo area and Kaysville, but it was so so wonderful to be with our families for Christmas and we will be forever grateful to Topher's family for making that possible. Thank you, thank you again!