Christmas/New Year

For Christmas this year we went to go visit my parents in Colorado Springs. Again we had a hard time getting there (flight from Denver to the Springs was delayed then cancelled) so we ended up spending another night in Denver. This time we were in a different hotel (The Timbers) and it was a lot nicer! Our room had a King sized bed, and a suite with a decent size kitchen as well.

My parents moved 2 weeks ago from a different house on the Air Force base to their current home, so part of the time we were there we were helping  unpack boxes specifically in the garage. We got all of the garage done and set up so my parents could park a car in the garage.

We had a lot of fun watching Hallmark Christmas movies, we took plates of goodies to my parents' neighbors and home teaching/visiting teaching families. On Christmas Eve we went to the Ward Christmas sing along. The idea behind it was that those soldiers or others who didn't have family in the area could come and sing Christmas hymns and enjoy some goodies.

After the singing we went to NORAD Tracks Santa. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is a bi-national(Canada and US) agency responsible for warning and controlling air space between the 2 countries. It includes detection,validation and warning against attacks via missiles,space vehicles, aircraft or mutual support from other commands. Their headquarters is at Peterson Air Force Base. NORAD has been tracking Santa for 60 years. It started when Macy's ran an ad that kids could call Santa. The  phone number they printed was wrong and so kids ended up calling the guard on duty that night. Since then NORAD has tracked Santa every year. Each year they reach out to the senior staff to help volunteer to answer phone calls and emails from kids. When I was a kid we always watched NORAD's website and watched to see where Santa was so it was fun for me to be back and be a part of helping with making memories for others. My dad signed all of us up to help for one of the shifts. It was AMAZING!! We had some interesting questions too. My favorite was "How old is Rudolph?" Guy's favorite was "Are you an elf?"

Karl, Guy, Allison, Katie, Rachel and Ruby

On Christmas, Rachel and my mom made several different breakfast casseroles. After breakfast we lined up for the annual Christmas photo (Karl stayed Christmas Eve and Christmas and then needed to be back for work). We did our stockings and Christmas gifts. The big gift this year was that my family all has fitbit activity trackers. We're all competitive so we've spent ever since competing to see who can get the most steps in a day.  I also ran 7 miles with my father later that day. We spent most of the day lounging and relaxing.

Guy and I were suppose to leave on the 30th. Our plane leaving Colorado Springs was cancelled so we re-booked for the next morning. Then the flight from Denver to Des Moines was cancelled so we called the airline and we were on the last (and only) flight leaving from Denver to Des Moines. We didn't get back to Des Moines until about 9:30 New Year's Eve. We went straight from the airport to Chillicothe, IA to spend some time with Guy's family before we both needed to be back at work on the 2nd.

We celebrated by drinking sparkling cider and laughing with Jim, Shari, Morgan, Melissa, Ginny, and Dan. 

Later that day Pete and Emily and family came up and the nieces and nephews played downstairs, while the women played games. The men burned the leaf/branch/yard waste pile for Shari and then they took the back off of the Toyota truck.  They also took the kids to the park while Melissa, Emily and I lounged and chatted. We also did a white elephant gift exchange. It was fun seeing what all people came up with for gifts. There wasn't much exchanging this time around but Guy came back with a calendar of angels and I came back with some curtains! (That we left at Oma & Opa Lasley's house)

It was great to be able to spend time with family this holiday season but it was nice to be back and sleep in our bed.