Christmas Vacation

We traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico this Christmas vacation to visit the Sadowski side of the family. One of the exciting things that I got to experience was seeing my brother Paul sing at mass. He was fantastic! My kids eyes lighted up watching him. 

On Monday we tried to go skiing in Santa Fe, but the roads there were too bad and we ended up skiing the mountain Sandia right beside Albuquerque. The kids loved it! They did pretty well, as did I. (We put Victoria, Bella, and me in ski classes.) Victoria even asked if she could go again the next day. However, trying to leave Sandia mountain was almost impossible. The 6 mile road up the mountain was shut down for hours due to snow, ice, and accidents. But we said our prayers, ventured down after a long wait, and made it back to my parents house alive.

 Jer took both girls individually up the bunny slope with him. Victoria and Jer came down after 20 minutes. I kept waiting for Bella and Jer to come down- finally, after some time, I see Jer skiing with Bella on his hip.

We celebrated the Sadowski family Christmas on Tuesday. Paul played photographer and did an amazing job.

Paul and Lauren made out like bandits- 3 gift cards to eat out- mainly Chipolte- Lauren's favorite restaurant :)

just enjoying life

We traveled from Albuquerque to Monument, Colorado on Wednesday to see Jer's side of the family. We made it just in the nick of time, a big snow storm began blowing as we were a half an hour away. They received about a foot of snow. The next day, the Lunn's celebrated Christmas together. Santa brought the kids a toy that they had asked for- Bella wanted a baby Bella doll, Victoria wanted a doll horse, Caleb, Chloe, and Keira each received a pillow pet.

Josh and Caleb read the true Christmas story to the kids before they opened their presents. each kid got to help push a button to create a certain sound to enhance the story- Joseph knocking, a creaky stable door...  (Victoria snuggled up to her cousin Keira.)

During one of our breaks to open presents, the kids were playing with their presents in Renae's kitchen.

goofing off

One of the toys that Victoria really wanted was a Monster High doll that sleeps in her own water chamber.

Bella got her wheelchair (dolly wheelchair) that she asked Santa for :)

Jeremy got a Marsh mellow Shooter from Bella and Victoria. Carol trusted him to shoot one in her mouth. If you look close, it hit her square in the eyes.

After presents we went sledding with all that snow. We had fun, but Victoria was the first to say that she had had enough with the cold and wanted to go home.

Chloe on a snowboard.

A couple of days later we went ice skating. Keira wanted nothing to do with it, but decided to cuddle with Grandma instead.

Both girls did very well.

At the ice skating place they had buckets for beginner ice skaters that you would turn up side down and push for balance. Bella got super fast on her bucket.

a near miss... (no one got hurt)

Lunn family Christmas photo

Caleb and Chloe read at Christmas mass the story of Jesus birth. Bella was allowed to go up and sing "Away in a Manger" with the other children. Victoria wanted to stay with the adults.

After mass, we went to a Mexican food restaurant and celebrated.

We took off the next morning for our trip back to Dallas. I drove, and it was decent weather until we came 30 minutes from Amarillo. Another blizzard decided it wanted to play chicken with me-it won. So I let Jer drive for an hour until we passed the front. All in all, it was a wonderful vacation! But I am happy to be home and have some sleep-in-and-wear-PJ-days ahead of me.