Christmas Vacation Events! And post 200!!!

Hey, look at that! I made it to 200 posts. Woot.

On to the post.

This Christmas vacation was a busy one, especially the first week. We arrived on Friday the 16th and started right away the next morning by driving out to the LA Temple for my brother-in-law's fiance's (Kailee) endowment session.

It was really exciting to see her go and receive her endowment and I had a neat experience getting to be her escort. That probably won't happen again for another 20 plus years so I was honored to get to help her with her first experience going through the temple. She was so calm and wanted to understand without being overly nervous, it was really a sweet day. I am so happy for her!

Everyone who came for the session Kailee went to, sans my brother, Jacob, who was good enough to take the pic.

Then the following Tuesday Henry was struck with the plague and spent 7 hours throwing up. Then he spent the rest of the day sleeping. Henry had never gotten that sick before, he was pretty confused and sad but thankfully it only lasted that day.

Fast forward to Thursday when we were suppose to head to Riverside to help with wedding prep-Johann with a nasty case of the flu that lasted all day and a bit into Friday morning.

Luckily he felt well enough that we were able to make the trek to San Diego to be there for Kaleb and Kailee's sealing. Fun fact, they ended up in the same room and with the same sealer as Johann's sister Natalie.

The sealing was sweet and they both were very happy!

Coming out for the first time as husband and wife. Kailee was definitely the picture perfect bride, looking so radiant and happy. I loved her bird cage veil too.

My sisterS!

At the reception right before the ring ceremony, Henry was finally able to meet his cousin, Max! He was so excited to try and entertain him and play with him throughout. It was pretty cute.

Me and Mr. Max. He finally decided I didn't bug him at this point-woohoo!

And my favorite part of their reception-watching Henry and this little boy, Franklin, tear it up on the dance floor for a good 90 mins straight. They were hilarious.

Congrats to Kaleb and Kailee-we are so very excited for Kailee to be in the family for their decision to be married in the temple!


The next morning everyone was exhausted after the long day and clean up so we had extended PJ hours and turns out Nat and I have the same taste in Christmas pjs for the boys.

Being Christmas eve, we spent that afternoon/evening opening gifts and then having dinner together. It was a nice and quiet day.

The following morning, Christmas morning, we headed over to the other side of Riverside where Natalie and Bryan were blessing their baby Max in Bryan's parent's ward.

The proud parents with their baby.

The whole gang

Our two little fams.

Max's blessing was very sweet. One of the parts I really liked was he was blessed that he would love and accept those who would be otherwise unaccepted. Looking forward to getting to know this sweet little guy more!

After Max's blessing we headed back to AV to spend the rest of the day with the Goodwin side.

I wonder if we'll ever have such a busy Christmas weekend again, and if I could survive it again esp considering the sickness that was going around. That said, it sure did make it easier to think about the Saviour this Christmas while our family was able to witness the blessings that flow from his birth, atonement and resurrection in the temple and through families.

I am thankful for this Christmas and the time we got to spend with family seeing them do the things Heavenly Father wants them to do! A Merry Christmas, indeed!