Christmas in Boise

When I went off to college as a young 18 year old I thought to myself, how fun would it be to find the love of my life here, someone who grew up in a completely different town then me and bring him home for the holidays. While that dream came true, that young girl was slightly naive because having family in different towns makes celebrating Christmas with everyone a little more challenging. I'm thankful for two families who are understanding that we need to trade off years for holidays and celebrate on days that may not be the true date the holiday lands on. This was the year that we were supposed to celebrate with Nic's family in Pocatello so we got to celebrate Christmas early last weekend in Boise with  my side. While we missed seeing my dad and Edie, we got a chance to celebrate with everyone else and had the best time!

We were lucky to have such safe roads to travel on this time of year. We made it to Boise on Saturday and spent the next four days filling our tummies with amazing food (probably one too many bowls of salted caramel ice cream ... thankyouverymuch for introducing us to that one Brendan), playing lots of rounds of rummikub, and finding endless hours of entertainment watching Liam steal people's cell phones and jabber away. We all looked at each other like, "What did we ever do and talk about before he was born?" haha 

Saturday afternoon Liam got to play with his cousins Abby, Ava, and Maddox. They did a Christmas gift exchange together and Liam got his very own elf on the shelf and a new train set. So much fun! Our nieces loved their jolly rancher nail polish, chap sticks, and purses and Maddox couldn't wait to open up his bath crayons and lego car! 

Saturday evening was like our Christmas Eve ... we had a traditional smoked turkey and ham with mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and rolls like my mom always made growing up. Then began the first night of staying up way past our bedtime, laughing and talking about life.

Liam tried his first orange! ^ I'll let you guess whether or not he like it. haha Begging with his hand on her knee and all ...

 Sunday morning was like our Christmas morning ... we had traditional eggs Benedict and opened presents around the Christmas tree. Brendan, my brother, played Santa and passed out all of the gifts. We were all spoiled and had a blast watching Liam open his presents. His favorite was a football, baseball, basketball, and soccer ball from his Uncle Brendan to which he proceeded to try and pick up all four balls at once and carry them around. Such a little character!

^ New snow suit from Sita! ^

While we were there, Liam learned how to cheese for the camera but instead of saying "cheese", he says "HIEEEE!" In this high pitched drawn out voice. haha It's the best!!

Later in the afternoon we met up with Liam's other cousin Olivia and did another Christmas gift exchange but waited to open those until later. She is five months now and I can't believe how big she has gotten since I'd seen her last.

Monday we braved the crowds at the mall to get my darn iphone repaired at the apple store (the screen shattered after being dropped from way to high) and had lunch at Old Chicago. Tuesday we slowly made the drive home. Liam did much better in the car on the way back because he was so exhausted from little sleep the night before. We made a pit stop in Twin Falls to see one of my good friends who just moved there. 

Christmas in Boise is always a good time and this year was no different! I love this time of year because it brings everyone together to spend time with family. I sure got lucky with mine!