Sam's Last Day in Provo

We've been busy really busy with Christmas stuff this last week so since Saturday was Sam's last full day in Provo we decided to PACK the day with activities. We were supposed to go skiing and snowboarding with Ose and Chris but after spending a day in Park City and freezing to death Sam decided that he didn't want to pay $100.00 to freeze and spend the day on his butt. Plus, Debbie wasn't going to be able to join us either so we did everything we could possibly imagine doing in Provo. Here's how the day went...

11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.-  Lunch at Debbie's (Christmas leftovers)

1:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. - Ice Skating at Seven Peaks 

3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. - Sledding at Rock Canyon

4:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. - BYU Creamery 

4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - Bowling at BYU

6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. - Chillin' at Debbie's

7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. - Dinner at Bombay House

9:00 p.m. to Midnight - Cranium Tournament 

I think we made up for the "boring days," don't you? :)

We had a blast ice skating... well, all of us except for Dani, she HATED it. She stayed on the ice for about 5 mins and 4 of those were spent with all of us standing around her trying to convince her that she wasn't going to die, that we would hold her hands and someone would hold her from behind but she wanted NOTHING to do with it. :(

I think Debbie and I were the only ones that had ever been sledding or "tobogganing" as Sam's Canadian girlfriend would say :).  Bruno and I were the first to go down. He really enjoyed it but after a few trips down the hill we ended up heading straight for a pole - not intentionally - which was padded but he didn't know, so he turned really sharp to keep me from hitting to pole straight on, got a ton of snow in his shoe, and hit his arm :(. Way to be a gentlemen and take a hit for me! 

Sam also ended up injured...

See the blood on his tongue? Here's what happened. After a few runs on the smaller hills Sam decided to go on the big hill. On the second run down the big hill he hit a bump as he reached the bottom that was sufficiently intense to make his cap fly off his head and he bit his tongue. So he concluded that when you go sledding you should scream with your mouth closed like this...

Instead of with your mouth open like this...

 Sam and Renan after "conquering" the hills. (If you look closely you can see Viv and Bruno in my car in the background warming up). 

So we stopped at the Creamery after sledding to warm up and discovered that the Creamery has this insanely good hot cocoa float type drink. You pick and ice cream flavor and then they top it off with hot cocoa... YUM!!!! See the satisfied look in Dani's face as she savors the "Chocolate Creme" as it is called. 

Sam managed to get 4 strikes in a row while bowling (we were hoping he would get 200+ points and win a t-shirt but that didn't happen). He came in first with 139 points, I came in second with 117, Moises third with 109.  

Viv left right as we were wrapping things up and we needed a group picture so we handed Dani the camera... :). We had the camera zoomed in for the first shot so we framed it as well as she could but couldn't get everyone in the shot but did a fine job with the second shot. Given the contrast between her ice skating skills and her photography skills, we decided that this 3 year old has a little more proclivity towards "the arts."

Our creative table ordered mostly Chicken Tikka Massala at the Bombay House. Bruno's was REALLY spicy and the poor boy suffered more than he is used to suffering at dinner time. The rest of us were quite pleased with our meals :). 

This is what happens when a Ute comes in contact with BYU apparel :). 

Park City Adventure

Today we spent the day in Park City and froze our butts off!!!

Dani's about as thrilled to be out in the cold weather as the woman in the brown jacket behind her :). 

As soon as we got indoors she was all smiles though :).

Viv's enjoying the shopping, Dani is enjoying being indoors... not so sure that Chris is enjoying either :). 

Cousinly love :).

No comment :)

Stopping for a warm drink.

Sam being a great uncle... she was having a blast :). 

Sam once again being a great uncle on the drive home and keeping her awake so that she wouldn't get a "nap" at 7:00 pm and be up until 12:00 am.  

Merry Christmas

Here are a few highlights of our Christmas festivities...

Christmas Eve was spent at the Costa's house (Debbie's in-laws). Ose flew into SLC on Tuesday night, he'd been out of town for business. Viv (my mom's sister), Chris (my aunt's husband), Bruno (my cousin), and Renan (Bruno's best friend since he was 3 yrs old) came in on Christmas Eve. They flew in from Chicago and given all the flights that were cancelled and delayed because of the weather, it was surprising that their flight was only delayed an hour. Of course, that meant they didn't come in until close to midnight which meant we were all up until really late but that's traditional for a Brazilian Christmas anyway.  

Christmas "morning," Ose made breakfast for everyone. Here are a few pictures of the boys making and eating breakfast and... being boys... 

A good portion of the rest of the day was spent in the kitchen making dinner. Debs and I got a little carried away when we planned our menu which meant a lot of hours in the kitchen. I'm a true believer in dining out and probably spent more time in the kitchen yesterday than I have all year. Thank goodness for good company in the kitchen... Debs and I do have a fun time cooking :). And if I might say so myself, we did a fabulous job.

Debs also planned and coordinated a really cool Secret Santa. She found a website where everyone who is going to participate in the Secret Santa registers and then randomly gets assigned a name and then sent an e-mail with who their Secret Santa is... 

So here's how our Secret Santa exchange went. We decided that I would start:

Quel: (Looks straight at Dani) A minha amiga secreta é muito linda... (My secret santa is very pretty). A minha amiga secreta é bem pequeninha... (My secret santa is very little). A minha amiga secreta é uma princesa... (My secret santa is a princess).

 

Dani: (Points to self) Mim? (Grammatically incorrect version of "me")

 

And, as the best aunt ever... I got her the Cinderella Laptop she had been eyeing (even after the tragic laptop incident from a few weeks ago...).

Then it was Dani's turn to give her secret santa the gift she'd bought.  Dani comes and sits next to me by the Christmas tree...

Debbie: Dani quem é a tua amiga secreta? (Dani, who is your Secret Santa)

Dani smiles and points...

Quel: EU?!?!? (Grammatically correct version of "me")

Dani wanted to buy me a hat but Debbie and Dani didn't find one they really liked... so I got a Banana Republic gift card (my favorite store) instead and a BEAUTIFUL drawing from Dani. :)

Here are some other fun secret santa moments...

Chris got Viv and managed to keep it a surprise. Another one of those ME?!?!?! moments!

Bruno got Sam and gave him a gift that reinforced Sam's belief that he IS  "The Man."

Viv got Dan, I found out and convinced Viv to play a joke on Dan. Here's the story... Dan majored in History, his emphasis and passion is the Civil War. Those who know Dan know this about him (even those who don't know him very well). When people have to get Dan a gift they go to a bookstore and look for Civil War books. They pass by the bargain book section and find a book called "Strange and Fascinating Facts of the Civil War." Dan's gotten this book as a gift a good 4 or 5 times. People are always really excited to give it to him... Dan's always pretends to be really excited to receive it. Last Christmas I took the book off the bookshelf and wrapped it for Dan and stuck it under the Christmas tree (no worries, I put a gift card in it too). This Christmas, I took the book off the bookshelf and stuck it in a gift bag and had Viv give it to Dan: One Civil War book from the bookshelf $0; one gift back I found in the hall closet $0; Dan's expression as he opens the gift and thinks he's gotten the same gift for the 6th time... PRICELESS :)

  

Yeah, I was pretty proud of myself ... :)

So here's the summary:

I got Dani, Dani got me, Debbie got Bruno, Bruno got Sam, Sam got Moises, Moises got Ose, Ose got Debbie (there are no good pictures but Ose gave Debs a "big brother little sister date" and is taking Debs out to dinner and then to Body Worlds - she's been dying to go and was REALLY excited about her gift), Dan got Renan, Renan got Chris (and forgot Chris's gift in Chicago), Chris got Viv, and Viv got Dan.

And, of course, what's Christmas without a little Rock Band? :) 

Happy Holidays to Everyone!!!!