A Tale of Two Christmases

Christmas was fabulous.

As I mentioned before we traveled home on the worst day possible, last Friday, in the middle of a snow storm. We arrived in Seattle an hour later than planned, but managed to make all of our connections safely and by 2:00 am we made it to our final destination - my parents house in Silverdale. This trip I decided to keep things simple. I didn't make any plans or commitments ahead of time. It made for a very enjoyable trip. The first couple days we hung out at the house, visited with my family, and watched the snow pile up outside. We never actually played in the snow, but it made for a great photo op... (my Mom took this first one).




Here we are doing what we do best - hanging out. Not to be confused with the other "hanging out" associated with dating. Sorry Maren, I couldn't resist.


On our anniversary, we discussed going out to dinner, but with icy roads and threats of more snow to come we bagged that idea. Something about getting stranded in the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter just didn't sound like fun. Instead we bought a new game for our Wii - Cooking Mama - and spent the evening preparing various meals from around the world.

On Christmas Eve my Mom prepared a large meal - ham, scalloped potatoes, rolls, salad and olives and we ate together as a family. It was great to have the time together, much like old times when we all lived at home. In true Miller fashion we chatted about all of the essentials - what's new, what's annoying and who has the weirdest OCD tendencies. And of course, the poo discussions. We always have to go there. What can I say, at 29 I'm still fascinated by it.

Miller Family 2008 (well, sorta'.. we're missing half). Doesn't Amber look great?


Christmas Eve also happened to be the day Austin was able to call home. He's been serving a mission in Santiago, Chile. The last day I saw him was March 19th when he entered the MTC:


We were so excited to hear from him and even more excited to hear he is doing so well. We miss him dearly, but listening to the enthusiasm and devotion he has for missionary work made us feel great. Here we are hovering around my Mom's computer. Alex's family was on the other end (via Skype) talking with Austin on the cell phone. It worked pretty well.


Later that evening we packed our bags and caught the ferry over to Edmonds to meet up with Steve and Maren so we could spend the remainder of our trip in Bellingham.

Even though we got to bed way too late (1:30 am??) we were up bright and early a few hours later to open gifts. Santa spoiled us this year. Seriously. The crazy part is, I am really picky - really, really, really picky. Teri managed to find me the perfect gifts. She made me PJ pants and slippers, which I love. A few of the other gifts were: a really cute purse, polka-dot pitcher, cool ice-scraper with a glove cover, socks, and a stack of DVDs to add to our collection. I love them all.

After we destroyed the living room with wrapping paper and gift boxes, we hopped in the car and trekked down to Mukilteo to have dinner with the Hildebrand's - longtime friends of the Booth family. Dinner was delicious. After dinner, we played Puerto Rico (one of Alex's Christmas presents). This is our new favorite board game, even if it adds some extra tension to our marriage. We played once and then it was time to leave. The first game took us almost 3 hours.

The next day, the family went sledding while I stayed home to tend to my not-so happy stomach. One of those explosive situations not to be messed with. The family had fun and were lucky in that they didn't have to share the sledding hill with too many other people. Here are some pics from their adventure.





We did several other things while we were in Bellingham - church, dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, etc, but there's one thing that was especially cool. On Saturday, we went to the Seattle Temple to see Terry & Nicholle Jones get sealed to their children. It was a full circle moment to finally see them all together as a family. It was a wonderful experience and I'm thankful we were invited to attend. For the record, the kids are all adorable.

Monday morning reality set in and we slowly packed our bags. The time we had been dreading had finally come... and now, here we are back in Utah. Back to work.

Throughout the week the one thing I thought of continually was my gratitude for my two families. I am grateful for my (Miller) family. We have our quirks and sometimes I get annoyed, but I love my family. I am also grateful for my wonderful in-laws who took me in and made me part of their family, even before I was married to their son. Love you guys!