Zach and the ER visit

Zach woke up complaining about his leg hurting. He was limping. Papa and dad thought he was faking to get out of a family hike. So we drove an hour, stopped for lunch and realized it was his hip hurting and he wasn't faking. Fortunately there was an ER next to the Pizza Hut. After contacting the Dr, they told us to take him to the ER. So here we sit with the family waiting outside in the van. We may not make the hike after all.

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Mount Lemmon

We have been in Tucson for 18 months and I have never been up Mt. Lemmon. So after taking his dad back to the airport, Mario took my parents and the family up to Mt. Lemmon. The kids (and grandparents) had fun climbing the rocks.

We weren't prepared (or dressed) for what we found at the end of the road (27 miles up the mountain.) Fortunately, Grandma braved the cold to get pictures and play with the kids.

We stopped at the small General Store on the way out. They told us that there are 38 people living on the mountain and it is 40 miles to a grocery store. I couldn't imagine driving into town each day to take Eric to seminary next year. So I guess we won't be moving up there anytime soon. We did enjoy some yummy fudge that we bought at the small store. It was a beautiful drive and was pleasant enjoy Arizona scenery without cacti.

Christmas Afternoon at Purple Heart Park and Fire Pit

The family spent the afternoon playing football at the park and then ended the day with roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

Playing with New Gifts

Christmas

This was a wonderful Christmas because we had 3 grandparents to celebrate with us. This is the first time we celebrated Christmas with Michael. I was disappointed when I found out that two of my children had discovered their "big" Christmas gift. We usually limit our Christmas budget to $125 for each child because I feel that is a sufficient amount to give nice gifts but not enough to spoil or try to keep up with the other families. This year I went over that amount to buy the big kids new Kindles. I justified it with the fact that they recently dropped in price and were much more affordable than past years. Plus, my kids love to read and I am tired of Erin carrying huge novels in her backpack to school. Her teachers allow the kids to bring in Kindles for reading. Unfortunately when Erin was looking them up on Amazon.com, it told her that I had recently purchased 2 of those items. Eric let it slip on Christmas Eve. Nathan asked for one gift and that was a Lego Agents helicopter that goes with his big Agents truck from last Christmas. He spotted the box under the tree that he knew was his helicopter. So 3 of my kids knew their gifts. What a disappointment! I will have to be much more sneaky next year.

Eric and Erin LOVE their kindles. Unfortunately I didn't realize that they have lots of games of them too, so they use them for gaming as much as reading. At least most of the free games are word games...slightly educational. Nathan loved his new helicopter and Zach liked his new Lego Police Station. It even had little toilets in the jail cells. How cute is that!

This year I assigned the kids a sibling to buy for and gave them each $50. Erin bought Nathan a Lego Robot to go with his Agent set.

Eric bought Zachary a new Arizona Cardinals comforter and sheet set.

Nathan bought Erin a stuffed animal horse, a puzzle, and the Lego game Creationary.

Zach bought Eric the new Wii Donkey Kong Country game with the guide and t-shirt.

They each bought their other siblings small presents with their own money. I gave Mario a copy of my blog that I had printed into a book, a book filled with pictures from all our vacations since we were married, and the Axis and Allies game.

Mario gave me a Pedicure gift certificate, some small bowls, a medium Pampered chef bar pan, and the Pampered Chef covered baker. The consultant (Zach is good friends with her son) was very generous and gave him everything 50% off. I guess she let him use some extra host points that she had that were going to expire.

Christmas Eve

Mario started a tradition of making a big breakfast for Christmas Eve dinner. Mario doesn't come from a family with many traditions, so I was happy that he started a tradition for our family. He tried to get out of it this year since his dad was flying in at 5 pm. He thought I should make the dinner and he would go pick up his dad from the airport. I convinced him that his dad would be fine if my dad and I went to get him. So Mario made us a big dinner of pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Erin made chocolate pancakes for dessert.

We kept up our family tradition of our annual Nativity Puppet Show. Eric narrated and Erin played some hymns. The boys held the puppets. It was a tradition started when I was young. My parents always had the four kids act out the nativity until we were too old. Then we always read the story from the Bible on Christmas Eve. I was glad to continue the tradition with puppets that I had made in Cocoa Beach at least 10 years ago.

Mesa Temple at Christmas

I had heard that they decorate the Mesa Temple grounds with hundreds of thousands of lights at Christmas. So on Wednesday, we took the kids up to the Temple to enjoy those. Eric and Mario did baptisms first and then Mario took the kids to see the new Narnia movie while I went through a session. We ate dinner and went back to see the beautiful lights. The kids wanted to stay for the outside musical that started at 7 pm but it started to rain so we decided to head home. Maybe next year.

While we were at dinner, Mario's dad called and asked when he could come visit. We have been trying to get him to visit all year. So we convinced him to come for Christmas. We spent the day Thursday preparing for Grandma, Papa, and Grandpa Perez to come.