Pre-Christmas Utah Trip

The week before Christmas, Bria and I made a trip out to Utah to visit my family. I even convinced my oldest sister to drive out from CA at the same time, so almost my entire family was there. (We were only missing my brother, whose wife was 9 months pregnant. Baby Boy arrived two days ago!) We had eight days packed full of cousins, friends, snow, food, and pre-Christmas fun.
I think visiting before Christmas is the way to go. We got to do so many holiday things and open presents with my parents while still getting to have our own family Christmas at home. Seriously, three cheers for this plan.

 

Bria loved trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

 

I remembered my wedding dress was in the guest room closet, so I pulled it out for Bria to see, and she tried on my veil.

We ate out almost every day, hitting up all my fave SLC eateries. Blue Plate Diner for brunch was a necessity.

I channeled my inner crafty Mormon and spent most of my downtime on my mom's 39 year-old sewing machine. She bought it straight out of high school, and it's still going strong (on the original light bulb!).

My sisters and I spent many late nights laughing, including playing with the Christmas decor from our childhood.

When my mom realized all four of her daughters would be at church with her, she roped us into singing. Since my mom and brother-in-law were the only ones sitting in the pews with the 8 children while we sang, Bria and her same-aged cousin Abby got to come up to the stand and sit on my dad's lap while we sang (he's in the bishopric). I think it was the highlight of our trip for my dad.

We celebrated Christmas together, including my mom's traditional reading of The Polar Express.

We do an individual gift exchange among all the siblings and cousins, drawing one name. My sister Whitney gave to Bria and wisely chose princess headphones. This girl couldn't contain her joy.

There were a lot of moments like these between Bria and all of her cousins. She absolutely adores and idolizes her many, many cousins.

I met my niece Chloe! Having to wait 6 months to meet my niece is one of the worst things about living far away.

Our last night we went to see the lights at Temple Square. Bria was rather confused why we weren't going inside the temple.

She settled for some quality cousin bonding time in the stroller.

And, as always, Bria was a champ on the flights. I think I calculated that these were her 29th and 30th flights? That girl is a pro.