A Carbiener Christmas

So, yes, I brought Jonmark home for the holidays. Really?! Was I supposed to leave him here alone?! Was I supposed to be alone? No, of course not. Christmas is meant to be spent together, and that we did. I had 9 days off from work, and therefore, he did, too. (Except that we spent many long nights putting together his work presentation. Actually, he did. I usually fell asleep. But I was there for moral support.) Anyways, so Christmas vacation was awesome. And sometimes kinda boring. But rarely.

You see, it could also be known as our family's Gimp Little Christmas. You know there's Jonmark' s wheelchair, and then, our friend Kevin thought he broke his ankle, my dad was recovering from knee surgery, and my mom stepped off a ladder and fell on her back on their stairs (inside). She laid on her back on the couch most of the time. I fetched a lot of things for people :-) But I was really grateful for my legs! Jonmark and I made a super-quick run to Boise to meet and eat with Jessica & Nate. We ate at a new fancy restaurant called "Fork"  and basically just caught up on each other's lives. It was so good to see them again. We also went to the Boise co-op where we bought my favorite cookies. And Jonmark fell in love with Cloverleaf Creamery's Chocolate Milk.

This is the Milk

It is pretty much insane. It was so fun to show Jonmark basically the whole state of Idaho, which he had never seen. And it always feels good to be back in Boise. And home. Of course :-)
My birthday was the most low-key of my life, I think. Jonmark gave me a digital frame with all the awesome pics of us over the last year. My parents got me two little leather tape measures I had asked for for measuring mommy tummies, and, um, that was that. I couldn't really decide on a cake that sounded good, so we didn't do one. Next year- I'm making some decisions early. :-) A birthday doesn't happen without a cake. Let's be real.

The rest of the day was crazy. We all pitched in to make the dinner, which we never really had done before. Now, all my mother's children are actually very good cooks, but unless we are asked to help out at home, we're usually not too good at it. Unless my mom sits on the couch. Then Candice gets the ball rolling, and we all get assignments and start going to it. Dad fried a delicious turkey, Candice made stuffing and mashed potatoes, I made sweet potato casserole, and Brad made Sis. Matheson's caramel chocolate cheesecake. mmm...mmm... (And someone made some corn and some canned green beans somewhere along the way....). Oh, and Candice made awesome rolls. (And the next day I did, too. Yup. Me. I finally learned. :-) )

The Rolls that Christin made. 

That night, we did the nativity scene at my parent's house, instead of my Nana's. My mom had made most of the costumes, but Brad & Brea had done the last of the sewing after mom's fall. It took a lot of trust for her to let them do it, but it shouldn't have. They did awesome (p.s. parents, I need a picture of that. I was busy being an angel.)

Afterwards, we gathered everyone together and read "The Polar Express," which almost made me cry just like it always does.  And then all the adult-kids went downstairs to wrap presents and watch elf. Now, the problem with having 3 adult children and 3 adult significant others and 1 adult Christmas guest and 3 small children is that we buy stuff. Sometimes too much. Wrapping took forever. We wrapped while people were told to turn around and look the other way. We ended up with this living room:

I wouldn't say that this much unwrapping made for a better Christmas, but it did make for a lot of chaos and some very excited children and quite a few smiles and surprises. It was crazy, but it was so fun. Merry Christmas, everyone!