2012 Christmas Trip to the US

When we arrived home from skiing, we told our kids we had an early Christmas present for them, and handed them an envelope.

The series of photos below shows the stages of them figuring out what their present was -- a trip to the US for Christmas.

One long plane ride later (including two transfers), and we were in the US.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Heidi and I did some last minute shopping, but high on the priority list was taking Heidi to an eye doctor to check her eyes.  She came home with a new pair of glasses, seen in the photo below.

We had dinner that night, including the traditional almond pudding game.

Grant was the winner and fooled nearly all of us.

Mallory set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

And the kids set out stockings for Santa, with Nash trying his stocking on to see if it would really work as a sock.

It wouldn't be Christmas morning if we didn't make the kids wait a while....

The kids, all around, were happy with the gifts from Santa.

And Grant and Mallory were the winners of the "find the pickle on the Christmas tree" game.  The prize -- a bag of Doritos, which are scarce in Hungary.

The rest of the day and week, actually was spent trying out the new presents (including Mallory's crystal growing kit) and spending time with friends and family.

The kids spent every minute possible together with their cousins.

A few days after Christmas, Heidi recruited all her nieces and nephews to help take down the Christmas decorations at her parents' house.  The incentive for completing the job:

Ice Cream.

We took a quick trip to Idaho for the Thomas Family Christmas dinner / party.

The highlight of the day was the Greedy Game, of course.

We made sure to spend as much time as possible at the local favorite restaurants, including pizza from The Pie.

Our New Year's Eve was somewhat low key -- some people chose to wear their New Year's Eve paraphernalia appropriately.

And others...did not.

I know, I know....by taking this photo we are only encouraging him.  Maybe it will embarrass him some day.

 We spent a few chilly hours seeing the lights at Temple Square.

It snowed a couple of days while we were there.  We tried to get the kids to shovel the snow whenever possible.  I guess we should have specified to put on clothes before going outside to shovel the drive way.

On our way home we had a layover in Seattle, so Heather and her family came to see us for a few hours.

2012 December Skiing in Austria

As soon as school ended for Christmas break, we went to Going, Austria for a week of skiing.  We ended up finding 3 other families to go with us this year.  This was our 3rd year in a row skiing during the week before Christmas at this resort, and it did not disappoint.  It is one of our favorite family vacations.

Monday morning at the ski shop, getting fitted for ski rentals.

Ninja Ski -- as we were waiting, we realized a group of us were all dressed in all black.

The first few days were quite cloudy / foggy...

But then things began to clear up.

Nash and Grant in the restaurant at the top of one of the mountains, for lunch, eating their favorite German / Austrian meal -- Schweinebraten (roast pork), Knoedel (a type of dumpling), and sauerkraut.

The ski resort also has a couple of sledding tracks.  On one of the days Heidi decided to take the sled down, and then several others of us tried it.

Nash and Grant, hauling the sleds back from the bottom of the sled track.

Mallory on the lifts with her instructor, going up to the top of the Astberg hill -- a big accomplishment for her.

And just like every year, the last day was a ski race for all of the kids in the ski school that week.

We loved the house we stayed in, which we shared with one of the families that came with us.  Several of the boys stayed up in the top floor with little bunk rooms for each of them.

One night we had a white elephant gift exchange.

Luke was ecstatic about his gift -- finger socks, or whatever you call them.

Grant was a bit disturbed by some of the decor in the chalet -- wild boar skins on a couple of the walls.

And a photo of the whole family at the bottom of the lift -- the house we stayed in is just to the right in this photograph.

Mallory and the others receiving their medals (and chocolate) for participation in the ski school and the race.