So Kyle and I decided like 2 weeks before (around Thanksgiving) that we should go to Utah for Christmas. He had classes until the 16th so we took off on the 17th. So much for a thesis month right? So we first went to the Gubler's house. With 8 siblings and 10 nieces and nephews, it was a full house! But we loved every minute of it. We ate, hung out with family, ate, went to see his sister's new house, and did I mention ate? His parents have an island in their kitchen that is about 15 ft long and full of food 24/7! We stayed at their house until Christmas morning. We went skeet shooting and Kyle shot most of the clay pigeons, so he let me do it, and I'll just say I'm better at shooting with a scope and rifle. We had a party when all of the siblings could be there the Saturday before Christmas. Then on Christmas eve, we did the traditional nativity scene. Bailey was the angel, I was the shepard, and Kyle was the inn keeper. We had Abby as Mary, Daxton as Joseph and a wise man, Caleb and Richard as a wise man, and needless to say it was a blast! Seeing all the little kids trying to act out the parts was fun. Christmas morning was nice, we slept in for a bit, ate yet again, and opened presents.
Christmas afternoon we were on our way up to the Pippin family's house (my mom). We went there just for that night until my dad got back from Boise. We got there, opened presents, and had a wonderful dinner. In the morning Taylor, Brook, Kyle, Bailey and I took off to Preston Id to see my dad. I have to admit this was the best house to be at. There was nowhere we needed to be, and nothing we needed to do. They had a hot tub, so after Bailey would go to sleep, we would relax and if she woke up my dad and Cindy would take care of her. We played games a lot there, and ate a lot as well. What is it with family and eating? Kyle went to the gym with my dad a couple times, and definitely worked off what he ate that morning, if you know what I mean.. There were a couple days we went down to Utah and stayed at my step-sister's house so my dad could go to his dr's appointment in SLC. We of course ended up at Cabela's. We also had dinner with Kyle's good friends Tyler, Janna, Lily, Jordan, and Jamie. It was nice to get together with them, they just moved to the mainland from Hawaii.
On the 2nd there was the Gubler extended family Christmas Party. This was my present to Kyle, a plane ticket for him to come home on the 3rd so he could go to that. That of course was a lot of eating. And just a little background information. Kyle's dad's family has 12 kids plus their kids and grandkids, so there was a ton of people there! Kyle was excited to show off Bailey and the food was delicious. Kyle flew out the next day so he could come home for his Internal Med 2 rotation. I stayed and extra week and headed out to my mom's house.
My little brother got his mission call a while back to the Houston Texas East mission. He was supposed to leave on the 13th, so we decided to stay at his house last to spend that time with him. On Monday while he was at the dr's, I headed down to the mall and got Bailey's ears pierced. Kyle had a hard time with letting me do this, but I explained that this way they won't get infected as easily because she can't grab ahold of them yet. And if she grows up and decides that she doesn't want earrings, she can take them out. But what little girl doesn't want earrings? So on Tuesday we were joined by my sister from Boise and her two adorable kids. Her husband couldn't come til Saturday because he owns the Great Harvest up there and had to run that. Then on Friday my sister from Lander, WY came down. It was fun to have everybody together, but we also realized that we all had differences and we needed to not get into fights. :) So Sunday was my little brother's farewell and Bailey cried through the whole thing. You see, I had ice cream on Saturday night and when I have dairy, it gives Bailey really painful gas so we don't have such a great time. But we got to listen from the hallway and it was a great talk. They gave him all of the meeting, so we got out 10 minutes early. Then we all left on Monday. I flew out and had two layovers and three flights. It actually went better than I thought. At first it was hard because Bailey is used to not being held when she is sleeping but when she realized that she can sleep with me holding her, it was ok. The last flight was the best because I got a whole row to myself. The flight attendents are also really nice when you are travaling alone with a baby.
We are so glad that we made it home for Christmas, and hopefully we'll be able to see our family before next Christmas.
