A Billingsley Christmas 2007

After picking up Whitney from her half day at school, we headed to St. George on Thursday, Dec 20 to spend some Christmas time with Grandma Charlene, and Brian's sisters' families, who drove in from San Francisco. We were there with David and Julie, Ken and Nichole, and their four kiddos: Jensen, Zad, Sage, and Baby Declan.

Almost every time we are in St. George at Mom's, we also schedule time with Grandpa Taylor and Faye. It's great to be able to visit with them, and I enjoy having them see their great-grandkids as often as we're able. We spent Friday evening with them, going to dinner at Cracker Barrel, and then playing Sequence, in my family a.k.a. "Kibosh", where I believe the girls beat the boys (Faye and I were quite the team!). And we called it a night when the kids showed signs of "need to go to bed or else things will be destroyed" tiredness.

We were at Mom's for a couple days before everyone else arrived, and we were so excited when the Katschke's got there, especially so the kids could play with their cousins. But Sage was less than excited, and it was hilarious to watch her bully Tay (who is about five months older than she!). Tay was so sweet and tried to give her hugs, and Sage just gave him the "straight arm" and told him where he could take that hug! Nichole said Sage had spent the last few months learning to brave her older siblings, esp Zaddock... older brothers - that explains it!

Whitney and Jensen had fun playing together, though. It's fun to see them catch up wherever they left off (since they don't see one another often).

When the Krauss' arrived, we spent lots of hours talking and catching up. Over the weekend we ate lots of yumminess (of course, what else would you expect?) and talking, talking, talking, since we knew we wouldn't see everyone for a while once we left. Mom did talk Brian into two things, both involved singing in church on Sunday: he sang with the ward choir in their Christmas program, and he sang a beautiful solo, Michael McLean's I Was Not His Father, He Was Mine in Relief Society for the Christmas lesson. So that he wouldn't be the only man in Relief Society, Ken and David came to listen and support. Brian did a wonderful job.

We spent Sunday evening, after a wonderful Christmas meal, opening presents and letting the kids play with their new treasures. We weren't planning on leaving as late as we did, but justified it with the good time we were having.

We didn't leave until almost 10 p.m. but Brian and I were well-prepared with another great book on CD. (BTW, did you know that you can rent these from one Cracker Barrel, and return to another for $3.49 per week? Very cool.) On the way down it was the new (2006 version), still traditional Forgotten Carols. For the drive home, we chose Mitch Albom's For One More Day. Side note: We'd heard Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie on a drive last summer - this guy can really tell a story. The bright sides of leaving as late as we did were that the kids traveled so well (slept the whole drive), and the road seemed to be all ours. We arrived home safely after 1 a.m., thanks to 'tender mercies' 1) good weather, and 2) awake and alert Brian.