The Penultimate Christmas/New Years Wrap up!

Man, Christmas vacations are never long enough. I can't believe I'm sitting down to write the recap on the Saturday night before I go back to work on Monday. Sigh. '

Well, in any case, we had a great time, saw lots of friends and family and even got outside in the snow to do a little tubing. So, without further ado -- here's another monster recap complete with photos and video!

Our original Christmas plan was to enjoy a nice Christmas Eve at our house, wake up on Christmas morning, unwrap some presents and then head down to Mom and Dad's house around noon on Christmas Day for more fun and festivities in Payson.

In theory, it was a beautiful plan -- until we found out a pretty significant Christmas-day storm was headed straight for us. That's when we decided to alter our plans to another beautiful plan -- Spending Christmas Eve and Morning with Mom and Dad Craner. So, we had Dustin write a note asking Santa to deliver our presents to Grandma and Grandpa's house instead of ours, then we packed up the kids and presents and headed down to Payson a day early.

We're so glad we did this. First off, it was nice to not have to worry about dodging a storm all day on Christmas, but more importantly, we were able to share Christmas with Mom and Dad AND Jill and Mike and their 5 awesome kids - including 2-day old Caleb Darrington.

Caleb is the bald one.... Oh wait... He's the sleeping one... uh... he's the one that was snoring... oh well, you can figure it out.

Here's Karli and Ann Marie Darrington singing some Christmas Carols.

We got there in time to unwrap our ceremonial Christmas Eve gift - Pajamas and slippers. This year we decided to combine this tradition with another -- a family gift exchange. What a better way to kill two birds with one stone?

Getting ready to unwrap the presents.

After the unwrapping was done, everyone tried em on!

Dustin got Wii pajamas from me. Krissy got Monkey pajamas from Katelyn. Katelyn got Aeropostale hoodie pajamas from Dallin . Dallin got National Lampoon Christmas Vacation pajamas from Dustin. Karli got $4 pajamas from Krissy. I got a Ryan Shupe and the Rubber band t-shirt and Bulldog pajama bottoms from Karli.

We then had Dad read from the scriptures, sang a few Christmas songs and put the little munchkins to bed.

It's only been the past two years or so that I've been able to sleep on Christmas Eve night -- I guess I'm getting old or something. So after staying up until about 1 a.m. in talking and wrapping and the such -- I blissfully went to sleep in hopes of waking up at 7 a.m. At 5 p.m. I woke up to the sound of little children chattering and giggling. Expecting it to be Jill and Mike's kids, I stormed out of my bed and walked over to where they were all supposed to be sleeping, reading to give them a stern Uncle Pat talking to.

Except Jill's kids were sleeping like angels. Huh - I thought - It surely couldn't be my kids up so early. So I walked over to where the Poyfairs were sleeping and sure enough -- all of them were awake, even Dallin and Katelyn. So, after giving them a few stern words, I went back to bed. Apparently, my kids never went back to sleep.

This is the yearly picture I love to take depicting the agony of my kids, and Jill's this time, in waiting to see the Christmas tree. Katelyn's holding Parker. Krissy and Ann Marie are dancing. Dustin is hiding behind Ann Marie and Dallin and Jacob are excited as well.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun -- especially sharing it with Jill and Mike's kids - you sometimes miss that sheer excitement and amazement of watching the real little ones get a first look at the tree. Here's a video of about the first three minutes of the kids opening their stockings. Notice my grouchy Christmas demeanor...





After the stockings came the big presents from Santa.

Dustin got a bike, a cool Pokeman and an Indiana Jones hat and whip.


This is Mr. Impatient Dustin, waiting for everyone to be done going through their stockings so he can get to the main event.

He was doing much better after learning the bike was his.

The hat and whip only helped matters along. Dustin can always use another good hat.


Kristen got an Ipod Nano.



Katelyn got an Ipod stereo player and assorted makeup.




Dallin got Guitar Hero World Tour.



That afternoon, the rest of the Craner family arrived (Except for Scott, Mark and Matt) at Mom and Dad's house and spent a fun evening in competing in the Craner family Olympics -- a three event series of challenges that included making a Candy train, an obstacle course just for the Dads, and another game of constructing an edifice based on a bag of items given to each family.

After this, we settled the kids down for the Nativity. Dustin got to be Joseph. Katelyn was the Donkey, Dallin was the grouchy inn keeper and Kristen was an angel.

Here's Dustin playing the role of Joseph -- notice the new gap in his teeth.
Remind you of anyone?

Here's Dustin again.. and Katelyn playing the role of the Donkey.

Sadly, I have no pictures of Colby... Just Darrin and Clarissa.

After this, Katelyn, Madison and Savannah sang a song they created for Grandma while they had a blast with her at Disneyland. They made up new words to 'Here comes Santa Claus' and the last phrase of the song went something like 'get in bed and cover up your head cause Grandma's gonna lose it tonight.'


We then put the kids to bed again and set up for another Christmas morning, this one courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. It was truly a wonderful time and we all enjoyed each other's fun company.

Soldier Hollow Tubing: A few days later our family got together with Darrin and Clarissa, Mom and Dad, Gretchen Hubner and Madison Halcrow for an evening of tubing at Solider Hollow. The weather was chilly, but not too bad. The sky was clear and beautiful. And we had a blast zipping down the slopes, as evidenced by this clip...


That high-pitched screaming is Dustin - I'm not sure anyone enjoyed that night more than him. Towards the end of the run, I catch a glimpse of Karli and Krissy tubing parallell to us.

New Years Eve -- We again headed down to Payson to hang out with the family and this time brought our new Wii Fit to demonstrate for others before the big countdown. We also played Speed Scrabble, Rummicube and Catch Phrase. We watched the ball drop, I kissed the wife and we had the kids in the van and heading home at 12:15 a.m.

This is not a pose you see every day.

We also enjoyed a 5-day visit from Gretchen Hubner. Natasha Hubner had to work for three of those days, but we still enjoyed her company for a couple nights as well. Here are some pictures of them helping Dallin and I rock out to Guitar Hero.

Here's Gretchen rocking out on the 'easy' setting for Guitar Hero World Tour.

Yes, that's me sitting next to Natasha, rocking out.

Some cool acquisitions that I thought I'd share with those of you who are still reading....

Wii Fit: This was a lot more fun that I thought it would be. I've done it a few times now and I'm excited to keep going -- the exercises are different enough to make the workout interesting and fun. I also like being able to do aerobics for 5 minutes, balance games for 2 minutes, yoga for 5 minutes, more balance games for 2 minutes, then strength exercises for five minutes.

And the fact that the game changed my Mii from a skinny guy to a pudgy guy based on my weight and height just motivates me to get it smaller. I mean, I know I'm pudgy in real life, but when you make my virtual likeness pudgy -- then I choose to do something about it.

Shaun White Snowboarding: I got this game for one reason -- it uses the balance board that comes with the Wii Fit. It's also a ton of fun and even Dustin is starting to get the hang of it. I'm excited to shred some more slopes.... I hope...

FlipVideo: The perfect camcorder. It's small, fits in a pocket and takes pretty decent video -- all of the video on this post was taken with it. It has a 60-minute hard drive, records in HD and has no needed tapes or wires to mess with - you just plug it right in with its flip up USB drive.
Pat's top ten resolutions for 2009: They say it's easier to achieve your goals when you share them with those you love... well, here goes...

1. Shorter Blog Posts.
2. More consistency in my Scoutmaster duties.
3. Start a money-making blog.
   
4. Move to a bigger house.
   
5. Read the Doctrine and Covenants.
   
6. Go hiking on Saturdays.
   
7. Save Money.
   
8. Be nicer to my deacons.
   
9. Enjoy my job more.
   
10. Run a Marathon -- Lose 20-25 pounds

There you go.. starting next week, my blog posts will be shorter! Your input is needed and welcome.

Here's wishing you an amazing 2009.

Pat