the four of us

We were able to go home to California for Christmas this year. It's so nice to be able to travel to one place and get to see both sides of our family in one trip. The tricky part is learning how to split the time while we are there. Although we weren't able to go to everything our families had planned, we were still able to do a lot of fun things and spend some quality time with our family.

Among the many fun things we did, Jack and I were invited to a cookie party by one of my closest friends. It was so fun to spend time with old friends and their families, some of which I had not seen in years. It seemed like old times, only now we have kids running around. Jack had a great time meeting and playing with new friends. We had a great time! Thanks again Allison!
(I would post pictures, but I didn't take any. Sad day!)

We were also able to attend our nephew Scott's baptism. We were so excited that we were able to be there for his special day. After the baptism we went to Grandma Nan and Papa Frank's where we had dinner and the kids acted out the Nativity. Jack was baby Jesus. I was a little worried with how he would do as Papa Frank read the story, and was pleasantly surprised that he sat perfectly the whole time.

Grandma Nan and Papa Frank at Scott's baptism

Cousin Nick and Jack

uncle Bill and Jack

The whole Nativity group

Meg and Jack
(Mary and baby Jesus)

We spent Christmas Eve with the Trythall side this year. Bill and Kelly put on a good party, as always, and we had a great time visiting with family and friends. As you can imagine, with the time change, Jack's sleep schedule was a little off the whole trip. He would take early naps in the day, which would make it difficult to stay awake until his ideal bedtime. Christmas Eve was no different, he was so tired and couldn't stay awake. He finally fell asleep on our way to the Festivities. Poor little guy was so worn out from all the running around.

Mariah and Meg were so sweet and a huge help with Jack that night.

He loved playing with them

Mariah never left his side.

We spent Christmas Eve night at my sister Jennifer's house. It was fun experiencing the excitement of Christmas morning with some of our nieces and nephews. Here are the kids anxiously waiting on the stairs while uncle Finn checks to see if Santa came. Luckily he found us.

One of Jack's favorite toys was his little popper. It was actually a favorite of Molly's too. Every toy Jack opened, Molly was right there wanting to play with it too. It was pretty funny to watch. The following sequence is classic!

Jack so excited about his toy

Molly going in for the steal

Success for Molly!

Kate checking out all the loot from her stocking

Later that day we acted out the nativity with the Smith side. Unlike before, Jack was not in the mood to play baby Jesus that night.

Here's the group, along with Emily and Nana.

My niece Abby's birthday is the beginning of January. We were leaving the before her actually birthday so we had a little surprise party for her while we were home.

Kate and Abby playing bingo at her birthday bash

Sweet Molly

My younger brother Clark works at Happy Sumo in Provo. So of course we took the opportunity to have him make us some sushi while he was home. He made some of the most popular rolls from the restaurant and they were pretty tasty!

Clark teaching Sam how to roll sushi

Jack and uncle Clark

As I posted in our Thanksgiving post, Steve had back surgery about 3 weeks before we went home, so he was still recovering. The doctor said he would be just fine to fly, just make sure he had an aisle seat and got up and walked around often. He felt great the first couple weeks, but unfortunately, he had a set back and spent the last week we were there in bed. After a long trip back to South Carolina, we went in for his follow-up, which was still scheduled from his original surgery, and found out that he had re-ruptured his disk and will need surgery again to repair it. The soonest they could get him in was February 2nd. We're trying to be patient as we wait for surgery day and luckily we only have a few more days to wait. We're hoping this surgery will do the trick and he won't need anymore in the recent future. We're anxious to get him healed and back in the classroom so he can finish his last semester of grad school without anymore delays.

We really do appreciate all the extra help we received from our family while we were home. There's no way we could have done it by ourselves!

I love holidays surrounded by friends and family! I can't imagine it any other way. Although we were home for 3 weeks, it's unbelievable how fast it flies by, and there are still more people we wish we could have seen.

Our Thanksgiving was a little different this year.

We had discussed a few different ideas of what to do for Thanksgiving day, all of which included some sort of traveling. But the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Steve ended up having to go in for emergency back surgery for a ruptured disk. We were fortunate to have been recommended to one of the best surgeons in the area who was actually on call that weekend, so she was able to squeeze him into her schedule. The surgery went well and after a night in the hospital, we were all home and recovering.

Steve's initial recovery wasn't too bad, however, there was no way he was going to be able to travel, even a short distance, for Thanksgiving. So we opted for a quiet day at home with just the three of us. I still made all the fixin's for dinner because I didn't want to miss out on anything and I wanted to be able to have the leftovers. Let me say, we had a ton of food, but it was pretty yummy. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures to document our dinner, because I was trying to get everything on the table.

By later that evening, Steve was feeling up for a little trip out of the house so we went over to Brian and Alisha's house for dessert, followed by some sparklers. It was a nice little outing and just what we needed to end a nice relaxing day!