What a Weekend

Family Christmas Party Slideshow

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I am a crazy person.

But sometimes it's fun to be a little nuts.

On Wednesday night, my mom & Mark arrived (with Abby, Marshall, my nephew Cody, and thier dog, Sydnie) from Vancouver and surprised the livin' daylights outta me (I expected them Thursday night). It was so fun to see them! I couldn't wait to give mom her special gift, so I gave it to her that night--a hard-bound photo book called "The Cancer Chronicles" with all her blogs and some photos from the past 7 months. It made her cry like a little baby (I am so glad she loved it) and Mark immediately ordered a few more copies. After they got settled, we watched An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck (so good). I got my kiddos to sleep and hung out with Mom, Mark, and Cody for a while, then finally hit the hay, exhausted (but I'd get more and more exhausted and less and less sleep as the weekend went on).

Thursday we cooked and cleaned and got ready for the Friday Family Fiesta. That night we had our Melin Agency Office Party, so Mom & Mark babysat for us from 5-7pm. We got home and got the kids to bed and hung out some more.

Friday was more of the same--party prep, hanging out, watching Christmas movies, singing and dancing to Christmas songs, etc. Just when we were throwing the prep into high gear, Laura called and said her car had broken down on the way to pick up the boys and come to Livingston. Matt saved the day with his extra truck, and they were all able to come over from Helena together, even though they were 3-1/2 hours later than they expected. We all went downstairs and watched a show while we waited for them to arrive...they got here at 7:30 and the ham was a little dry, but surprising them with MOM was totally worth it. We were all so tired, but so happy to be together! We ate dinner, then we made candy trains and houses til almost 11pm (yeah, the kids were pretty nuts by then--have a mountain of sugar and stay up 3 hours past your bedtime THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW! They were pretty charming at church today!).

Overnight a huge storm blew in from the north, so Saturday morning we had breakfast and opened White Elephant gifts as a blizzard dumped snow over Montana. Addie dressed as St. Lucy and served tangerines, muffins, and gingerbread to her grandparents. It was so fun to watch the snow fall, but it made our travelling guests a little nervous, so Postums and Lehmans headed back to Helena after lunch. The rest of us took a rest and got ready to have a few of our ward friends over to celebrate Sankta Lucia Day (the kick-off of Swedish Christmas festivities) after a delicious dinner of Cody's homemade chili and cornbread. As we were eating dinner, our power went out and was out for three hours, which put a bit of a damper on our party. But the Larsons and the Holms still came and we celebrated by candlelight. It was even more symbolic when our St. Lucy/ Addie ("bringer of light") came down the stairs with her crown of candles to serve our guests. Our friends went home and we set up airbeds so we could all sleep together downstairs together and snuggle for warmth. Just as we were snuggling down, the power came back on. So we watched a Christmas show and hit the hay.

Sunday we all went to our sacrament meeting together. I was half hoping they would cancel the rest of church (as they are wont to do when a big storm comes and keeps members in the outter reaches of the ward from coming in to church) because I felt under-prepared for Sharing Time. But I did it, and with Debbie's help we had a fun Primary day today, even though there only about 15 kids there! After church, we came home and Mom and Mark had packed their car and cleaned up our house and put lunch on the table (a smorgasbord of yummy party leftovers). After lunch, we made them open the gifts we brought them from Europe, and then we said good bye. They left to visit Matt & Laura in Helena, we left to take a long winter's nap. It was a GREAT weekend, topped off with a much-needed rest and quiet evening.

I love my family so much! We are nutty as fruitcakes, but we have a blast. And I love my Melin family, too---it's so nice to have such a huge group of awesome people to call my own. Merry Christmas and Safe Travels to all of you!