I’m dreaming of a Great White North Christmas

So, I'm feeling a little guilty about not posting about Christmas or anything yet... especially since I blog-stalk people and get upset when they have nothing new. I love being hypocritcal.

I’ve officially had my first Christmas ever not in Oregon. We spent two weeks in Raymond, hanging out with friends and family and not going to school or work. Very nice. A few amusing anecdotes from our trip:

Kyler’s niece, Abby, got a flat iron straightener for Christmas. She has previously told Kyler he should straighten his hair, because she doesn’t like the curls. Because he’s a nice uncle, Kyler allowed Abby to straighten his hair, and because I’m a nice aunt, I got pictures.

Isn’t Kyler’s reaction to himself awesome?

Abby the also did my nails and made over Jarett. Fun times.

Kyler won Littlest Pet Shop, the board game. Brooklyn may have been a tad disappointed, but she survived. Plus, Kyler and I had let her and Paiger pretend we were jungle gyms all afternoon, so life can’t be too bad.

The Cougars won, and it broke my heart. We went to Sugar Bowl, the high school basketball tournament that takes place in Raymond every year. Over the course of two days, we watched at least part of every game that took place in the high school gym, ate popcorn and tacos in a bag, and hoped to win the raffle that included Olympic gear as its prize. Alas, we did not win. Raymond made it to the final game, and while they were playing Cardston, I realized that it was basically BYU vs Utah… but not quite. Raymond Comets play in red and white, Cardston Cougars in blue. And, for the first time ever, I watched the Cougars win and it broke my heart. However, there’s still this to look back on for the town:

Five teams won provincials in 2009, including basketball. Not too shabby.

Raymond was covered in snow. Some people thought we were crazy for actually walking sometimes, but we enjoyed it. Plus, it meant we got to take cool pictures of snow mounds, trees, and each other. See?

We also watched movies (Avatar and Sherlock Holmes in the theater), played on the computer, made and ate tasty food, and started Warcraft characters for nearly everyone. It started out with just showing Kyler’s mom, and quickly evolved to Brooklyn begging us to bring the laptop with us so she could play (or watch us play the character she designed, rather).

Aren’t the adorable? Characters were made for Maria, Kari, Jarett (x2), Abby (x2), Brooklyn, Paige, Katelyn, Kristina, and Russell (the last three were Brooklyn’s creations). The highest level achieved by any of the characters: level 4 by Jarett.

All in all, it was a good vacation.

Next time, on Kyler and Jeanette’s blog—“Forts and Grad School: Childhood and Adulthood Come to Blows.” Or something.