*The Rhoades*: Our Merry Christmas in UT

Beware, this is long!!!

Preston and I were able to head to Utah for about 9 days to spend Christmas with both families! We had a great time, we had snow and cold weather which was fun but I have to admit, as much as I love winter for Christmas, I was getting ready to come back to the warmth. I sure don't miss driving in the snow! We drove down on Wednesday before Christmas, the next day we just hung around SL and went to lunch with my parents at one of my most favorite resturants.. The Jasmine! Dang good sushi! We stopped by my old work Dental Select and said hi to some good friends and just hung around at my parents. Friday (Christmas Eve) we went to my grandma's out in Erda and had lunch with her and spent a couple of hours with her and had a great time seeing her and spending time with her and my family. She's such a sweet grandma. I miss her lots. After that, we went to Oma's and Opa's for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, singing, performing, FOOD, food and more food presents, the Christmas Story, and great time with all of my dad's brothers and families (except for Curtis and fam who live in N.J. and David and Carole who weren't there) Christmas isn't Christmas unless we're at Oma's and Opa's on Christmas Eve. The atmosphere is great. Lots of laughter (sometimes until you cry) the spirit is always strong that night as we sing Silent Night or Stile Nacht for our last carole we sing of the evening. Oma always has the most delicious food ready for us to eat and it's such a great time. That night, Preston and I drove up to spend the night at his parent's and Christmas morning we woke up with his sister Jessica and her husband Theron and Preston's grandma who also spent the night. It was so fun having Christmas morning with them. We got great gifts, a great breakfast and had so much fun. We spent part of the day up there then wen't back to my parent's for Christmas dinner.. My dad's Prime Rib!! YEAH! The Elder's were even able to join us. Sunday my nephew Stockton was blessed by his daddy Chase.. it was so great to be there for that. The rest of the time we were back and forth with both families, we got to hang out with our besties Shawn and Katie, Preston had a guys night with his buddies while I went to my sisters and played with the kiddo-s and watched a movie. We also got to go spend some extra time with Preston's grandma at her house! We got to go to breakfast Monday morning with Jess and Theron and Theron's parents and brother before Jess and Theron left back to Montana! We were supposed to leave Thursday but due to the storm coming in, we waited until Friday and it still took us longer than normal to get home due to icy, very icy roads, so icy that we had a detour in Fillmore because we thought something was wrong with our car because we could not stop swerving on I-15 and only being able to go 25 mph when the roads seemed okay. We ended up gettting 2 new tires and headed back on the road. Needless to say, we got home around 9 on New Year's eve. Ordered pizza, unpacked a little and went to bed at 11. Happy New Year for us haha. And, now... here are all the pictures!