There's no place like home for the holidays...

Yep, it's cold in Colorado
(Our front yard Snowman)

Well, I made it through the holidays--yippee!  As soon as I regrouped from being away from home for 3+ weeks and Thanksgiving was now only calories in my past, I focused on getting ready for Christmas.  I felt amazing, so being out shopping and walking the mall was not a problem at all.  I wanted to make sure I got things ready early since my body had been so undependable lately.  It turned out to be a good thing because that amazing feeling only lasted about two weeks and then I was seriously concerned that Santa might have to find a hospital chimney to deliver my presents.

We had already planned a family snowboarding trip to Breckenridge the week before Christmas courtesy of Grand Lodge.  All we had to do was listen to their time-share spiel and our 3 days lodging at 9,603 feet above sea level was free.  I figured I could hang out at the motel or check out the shops while my family strapped fiberglass boards to their feet and hurled themselves down the mountain.  Well, breathing at that altitude was harder (which I thought it would be) and even upping the O2 still didn't completely help.  It was three days of being slightly freaked out and hoping nothing would go wrong.  Just before heading home on Saturday, I gathered up my courage and took a gondola ride up the mountain side with Rheid and Christina.  It was a beautiful view.  Christina and I decided we should put "Ride a gondola up a mountain" on our bucket list just so we could check it off--since we were both so brave!  The boys stayed for the afternoon to watch Shawn White rip the half-pipe on the Dew Tour; they had a great time.  That night, back at home, I woke up at 1:30 in the morning coughing up blood.  What a tender mercy it was that the hemoptysis held off until I was home and breathing easier than I had been at night while in Breckenridge.

Two days before Christmas we got a perfect snowstorm--about 5 inches of fluffy snow to make our Christmas a white one.  We ate a yummy Christmas Eve dinner with the Larsen family then reenacted the nativity with puppets for the kids.  Christmas morning found us sleeping in until 7:00 a.m.  It was surprising to find out you can unwrap presents without it being dark outside.  Who knew??!!  We then went to church and remembered our Savior's birth with beautiful music and scriptures.  I love it when Christmas falls on Sunday.  The rest of the day we relaxed, ate leftovers, and played games.  It was a wonderful Christmas.