Oh Boy! Do we love Christmas! And what better then a white Christmas in....Arizona!?!?!? haha This was a special Christmas for Ryan and I. Not only was it our first Christmas together but we both got to celebrate the festivity in warm Arizona. It was a beautiful 75 degree weather all through December. We started off our Christmas celebrating by riding our BIKES (in December) to go and look at Lights in our neighborhood. People really get into the holiday spirit down here. Unfortunately i forgot to take a few pictures of this.
One of our big traditions in my family is making Christmas candy so since I have been helping Ryan become more domesticated i decided to teach him how to make all of the candy We started off with Ryan's favorite, peanut brittle and then peanut clusters. After that was gone in the next few days we made my favorite, caramels and cinnamon caramels. We also make licorice caramels and english toffe, but since we had gained 10 pounds by now we didn't make them. But the grand finale of them all was.....Chocolate, Caramel, Toffee covered apples. We gave those out as our gifts to people. Ryan told me he would eat apples any time if they were that good haha
To finish off the Arizona fun we went to to the Mesa Temple to walk around and see the Christmas lights. It is like a mini Temple square.
Next was the best part of the holiday season, it was IDAHO time! Ryan had a really crazy week before we left. Three tests in a week and all A's makes one proud wife! So we caught an early flight at 6 am on Wednesday before Christmas to fly into cold, snowy weather in SLC, Utah. There my sister Jami and Harper Jo picked us up. We ate at IHOP and then Ryan and I headed on our way to Idaho. We got to see family and friends right away and watched Ryan's little brother Jordan play basketball in Minico. He is a stud, a great baller, and the funniest kid I know.
Ryan and I are both snow bunnies and miss the snow everyday so of course we had to hit the slopes of good ole Pebble Creek in Inkom. Idaho. Ryan's sister Tiffany came with us and it was a lot of fun!
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| Ryan |
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| Me, the Ski Patrol |
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| Tiffy |
It was an awesome way to spend the afternoon of Christmas Eve. There was so much snow and the view was amazing as always. This is my favorite picture of Ryan.
After a great afternoon of snowboarding, we went to American Falls to celebrate Christmas eve with my parents. Ryan thought that the first Santa Claus movie made was the one with Tim Allen in it. Little did he know I proved him wrong and we watched the "Original" The Santa Claus movie. It was been a tradition to watch that movie and A White Christmas on Christmas Eve. It was a fun night and Santa was coming so we went to bed around midnight or so. Christmas morning came very early for my husband but not as early as usual in the Hess home. We have always woke up around 5:30 or so to celebrate Christmas, but I let everyone sleep in a little and we woke up at 6:20 to celebrate Christmas. Then we had the Hess Honies Abbleskivers and bacon for breakfast. Then we were off to the Finn's to celebrate Christmas. Right when we got there Ryan left my side and then came up the stairs looking like this............
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| Merry Christmas!! |
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| Abercrombie & Fitch Models |
All of the Finn's were so excited to talk to Morgan on Christmas Day. He is serving a mission in the Dominican Republic. We got to talk to him for 3 hours. It was the probably one of the best Christmas's that I have ever had. We got spoiled way to much by both families.
Next, we headed up to my family's cabin in Island Park. It was a true Winter Wonderland up there. All of my family were able to come up all 17 of us. While we were up there we were able to go sledding, snowmobiling, and play tons of card games.
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| Getting ready to go snowmobiling |
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| Uncle Blake and Ryan defogging our goggles |
Pretty much we were riding in 3 to 4 or so feet of powder and having a blast. Needless to say I have never been so sore in my life after playing hard and digging the boys out.
Ryan surprised my family with his awesome Red One Piece pajamas up at the cabin. Everyone got a pretty good laugh!
Next it was some time for family pictures since my family has grown exponentially in the last year. Since we all love Island park and the Cabin we took them there.
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| Hess Honey's |
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| Kodi's Family |
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| Kindi's Family |
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| Jami's Family |
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| US |
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| Grandparents with the grand kids |
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| The Sister Picture |
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| Us with Harper Jo and Gunner |
Pretty much it was the best Christmas that Ryan and I could ask for. We are so blessed to have the wonderful families that we have and the good times of laughter. We could never count the blessings that we have cause there are way to many too count. We hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas as much as we did!
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