Christmas vacation

I wrote before about the amount of wrangling it took to get the vacation time I wanted off work. After I wrote that, things got more complicated again. Work would not allow the pool nurse that I had gotten to cover one of the days to work for me, and I couldn't figure out any other switches. It was the day before I supposed to leave and things still hadn't worked out for that last day I needed covered. I thought I was going to have to call out. But at the last minute, someone agreed to work for me and it worked out that I could go the Utah without having to worry about work at all. 8 whole days work free with a travel day on each end.

We got delayed in Detroit on the way there but made it to Utah safely and mostly uneventfully.

We took hardly any pictures while we were there, but we really had a good time. We spent time with family, ate out, shopped, and relaxed.

Some highlights:

-Since little Marseille was such a gem and decided to make her debut the day after we arrived, I got to spend a nice little chunk of time holding her.

She loves her aunt

-We decided to go on our own little getaway one night. We stayed at the Hotel Monaco in downtown Salt Lake City (this is not a picture I took. Just found it online. That's basically what our room looked like though).

We had a whole evening planned, with a nice dinner at Market Street Grill and we were going to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. But we had spent the whole day out with Zack's siblings. We were shopping and walking around a whole lot and I was worn out. So we ended up skipping the lights, grabbing some fast food that we ate right in our room, and dozing off early while watching Home Alone. Much less fancy, but still perfect. Loved it. Thanks babe!

-Christmas was just perfect. We saw "We Bought a Zoo" with my family on Christmas Eve, then went over the my grandma's to open presents and see some extended family. We spent the evening with the Noyces having a nice dinner and just enjoying each other's company. On Christmas morning, we opened gifts at the Noyces and got to talk to Sam on his mission in France. After lunch, we headed over to my parents for another round of presents, and we got to talk to Matthew on his mission in California. Then we enjoyed Christmas dinner and the family played some games while I held the baby. Our families were so generous and we felt very blessed by their generosity and by getting to spend time with them on the holiday.

-We got together with some high school friends for breakfast one morning. That night, some of the gals from high school threw me my first baby shower. I didn't know I was having a girl yet at that point, but we still had a nice time catching up and eating delicious goodies.

The whole trip was just lovely. I enjoyed it so much. We hadn't been back for Christmas in a few years, and it really is nice to be with family at that time of year. We had to come back before New Year's because I had to work and we passed that unremarkably. I turned into bed around 9:30 and slept my way right into 2012. We have an exciting year coming up and are anxious to see what it brings to us.