Another month has come and gone...

...or more like disappeared! Seriously, how are we already half way through December? I feel like Thanksgiving was yesterday! We spent Thanksgiving up in Boise with my parents and my brother Paul and despite the horrendous weather we had driving both there and back we had a great time.

It was definitely different being in a mission home for Thanksgiving--I don't think I've ever had a Thanksgiving dinner with just 9 people around the table (we hosted the 3 APs)--but at the same time the simplicity was refreshing and wonderful. It was great to see my parents and Johnny loved the constant attention.

We also hit up the Boise Festival of Trees while we were there...not quite the same caliber as the SLC version but it was still fun.

We were planning on staying until the Sunday after Thanksgiving to celebrate John Hyrum's 2nd b-day with the fam, but after enduring a miserable 8 hr drive through the snow on the way up we decided to head back early Saturday before round 2 of the snow hit. It was a good thing we did because I-84 was closed by Sat night and most people traveling didn't make it across the Idaho border to Utah until Monday morning.

So poor Johnny had to suffer celebrating his birthday twice. You may think I'm being facetious here but really, this kid does NOT like birthdays. I think by the end of this one he was catching on to the yummy cake and presents thing, but there's something about candles and fire that freaks him out. Last year he would cry every time we sang Happy Birthday to him and this year the second he saw the candles (even before they were lit) he would freak out.

This is not unique to b-day candles...he was scared of jack-o-lanterns, he freaks out if there's a lit candle on the table at restaurants, he is even super cautious of the lights on our Christmas tree. It's funny though because he loves loves LOVES the Christmas lights on houses (we spend lots of time driving around neighborhoods looking at lights).

Case in point:

Thankfully he got some cool new cars slippers that quickly turned those tears into smiles (I'm not sure what we were thinking when we bought those because now getting him to wear regular shoes is a real challenge!)

We had a quiet celebration a few days later on his real b-day and this time we caught the whole birthday candle traumatization on video camera (if I was more tech savvy and was good at using youtube I'd upload it, but for now you'll just get the post-cake smiles).

I love that you can buy a toddler a couple gifts for $10-15 each and they are in heaven! Seeing how much he's loved a simple GloDoodle and new set of duplos has motivated me to keep things simple for Christmas so we can set the bar low while he's young :)

Here's to hoping I can get a Christmas post up before it's Easter!