Michael and Jana: Holiday season 2014

This year the holidays were a little different for us since we are now so far away from family. For Thanksgiving we celebrated with friends here and enjoyed a nice big dinner and visiting while our kids played. It was a lot of fun but it was still hard to be away from family. I did enjoy having a house this year that I could decorate for Christmas. This was our first year with a Christmas tree and we lucked out that John never touched it! He liked looking at it but he never tired pulling off ornaments or anything! (I am sure that will change in the future) This year my Mom also made us matching stockings for Christmas so that was fun to have family Christmas stockings! Our holiday season was very busy making chocolates and crocheting snowflakes for family and friends. We were lucky enough to be able to fly to Utah this year to have Christmas with Mike's family. His sister Emily had a baby girl on the 19th of December so we were able to be there to meet her and see everyone. We enjoyed being in Utah for a week and going between Bountiful, Provo, and Logan to see everyone and celebrate the holidays. We were able to attend the Albretsen Christmas party as well as having Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Checketts house. John was able to experience some snow as well which he enjoyed. Unfortunately Michael and John were both sick during most of the trip which made things a little less enjoyable but we were still grateful to be with family. We sadly had to fly home on Christmas day which made it not even seem like Christmas (our dinner was granola bars and gardettos from a stand at the airport) but it was cheaper and Mike had to be to work the nest day so you do what you have to. It was nice to get home and get John back on his routine. We were so glad we got to at least be with family for Christmas as it is so hard to be far away from everyone most of the time. That is the hardest thing for me living here in Louisiana. We enjoy it here but miss seeing family.