The jones holidays

This year we took some time off to spend with our boys... Finally, the last two years we didn't even decorate inside our house because we were so busy with work. This year we had to put everything on hold and spend the time with our boys that they need and deserve!
For thanks giving we went down to visit family in El Paso. This was the first time since Desiree and I were married that we had a big holiday dinner with all of her dad's family. We had a great time, it was a little less formal than what we are used to but it was pretty nice all the same.



Ammon took a picture of me with the obligatory green bean Casserole.



Ryan, my brother in law and Gregg, my father in law drove out to Phoenix the day after thanksgiving to pickup the boat that Ryan bought for himself. We ate at RA a pretty descent sushi place on Mill street in Mesa, If you happen by there get the Tootsie Roll it's on my top 5 specialty rolls. The Rainbow roll at Hiro Sushi in flagstaff is in my top 5 also (i'll have to do a sushi blog). For a pretty dry state they sure can roll the sushi!


After we got back in town we took a Friday off to go get our Christmas tree. We have made it a family tradition with our kids to go up into the Jemez mountains and cut a tree. This time we thought we would save some time and go to a little closer than we normally do. We found nothing...


The sun looks misleading... it was way cold!


Kelsyn fell on some ice and almost busted his tooth out and it was a pretty unhappy time.

The kids started their winter break in the middle of the month so the fist day of vacation we went to the dentist to have Ammon's two front teeth pulled (they were way overdue to fall out) and go get our tree. We really didn't have any other time to do it and that day was a huge snow storm.



We went all the way up into the Jemez where we traditionally go and took some sleds and the dog, and had a crazy fun time in 18 inches of fresh snow.



Everybody had a blast, Desiree and I about had a heart attack when Kimball went Evel Knievel on us and flew down a way too steep hill into a pile of boulders, fortunately the almost 2' of snow softened the stop.


The brown fur ball behind the tree is Rocket the wonder puppy, he has been in the family since 2001 when we adopted him from the shelter. He loved the snow!


We drove home on completely snow packed roads. Half way down the mountain we finally saw the snow plows parked in front of a cafe. The chocolate was probably pretty hot... can ya blame 'em. we made it home just fine in 4wd once we got into ABQ cars were all over the road.


Christmas Eve came and Desiree's sister and Brother in law came into town. We went up to Santa Fe to the national cemetery to leave a poinsettia for Grandma and Grandpa Speers.



The area where they were was covered in a few inches of snow. I forgot to take my GPS so we didn't have an exact location with us. We went to the general area and started kicking the snow off the headstones. Desiree's mom was worried that it would probably take a while to find the plot and we had to get back to get dinner on. She shuffled her feet and noticed that she had walked out and stood right on top of the grave marker. We left the flowers Kimball made them a little snow man and we same a Christmas song and got a burrito at Bumble Bee before we headed home.



Christmas Eve we traditionally open a present, PJs. The kids were really excited to open a present and pretty disappointed when they saw it was just PJs.





One of these years they will catch on. After we all got in our jammies, Desiree read the Cajun night before Christmas and Breanne read the Polar express to the boys.


Even Scruffy got in on some unwrapping action!


We had a great Christmas, we all got what we wanted and the kids got more than they should have. We are now back at work and preparing for our bridal shows, it was nice to have a few days just to enjoy life and our family.
Next year we'll probably just get a cabin again and hope to get snowed in!