winter wonderland

For Christmas my family decided to go to Panguitch because our new house doesn't quite fit the whole gang, and since Panguitch is the most magical place to spend Christmas it was a win win all around. Jordan, Lincoln, and I joined my parents and left on Saturday night. We patiently waited for Berk to arrive on Sunday, and T and B on Monday. It was exciting when someone new would show up because it just added to the fun, and the game playing possibilities :) 

We cut our Christmas tree down and spent a big chunk of Monday making all of our decorations. My mom is so creative and she made ideas that sounded so simple like paper snowflakes, and paper chains look so magical. She also whipped up the coolest nativity scene from scratch while my dad cut out wood so we could make ornaments. Quite surprisingly my brothers put a bigger effort into their ornaments then Brynne and me. We saw a crafting side of Tanner that I'm not sure anyone knew existed. He made a pretty cool snowman ornament and because he was so into it the brotherly competition came out and inspired the others to bring their "A" game. Jordan made an ornament that he called "shooting stars over snowflakes," and Linc made an Earth ornament. Berk probably put a good three hours into covering his little wooden Christmas tree with felt.

We decided to not do tons of gifts since the last few months have been a little wild. Somehow my mom managed to come up with a really great idea in the midst of it all. She had us all email her five really good things that happened this year and five hard things that happened. She surprised us with this little book together for all of us filled with everyone's responses and some pictures. She used an art journal so there are a bunch of blank pages where we can add pictures or write things down that happen that we want to remember. It's cool because it's one of those gifts we wont forget and will keep forever. I loved reading everyone's responses and hearing things we probably wouldn't have shared with each other otherwise. I told her that she started a new tradition that she probably wont be able to get out of. She also put together a fun video of 2012 for us to watch. And of course my dad made us a delicious french toast breakfast. They made it pretty great. 

Besides all of the Christmas festivities we spent a lot of time playing games. My dad taught me, Tanner, and Brynne how to play Rook. He is way good at that game and it was so funny. He would make funny comments like "okay, let's just have some fun" right before he was about to make a high bet. Or he would say things that went way over our heads because he was strategically playing on a whole different level. I could not stop laughing at this side of my dad that I hadn't seen before. We also watched loads of movies, played the guitar, had great conversations, took naps, built fires, baked cookies, read, and went cross country skiing. You know, usual cabin activities. 

When it was time to go home we knew we were going to have a sketchy drive because of the snow  but we didn't realize how crazy it would be. I chose to go with Berk because I assumed that he probably had the best car for snow (besides my dad's, but I avoid riding in the truck when I can). Me and Berk had the lead and we were barely making it all of the big hills. We got to the last big, long hill before Brian Head (the goal was to make it to Brian Head because we knew the snow plows were hitting those roads) and we couldn't make it. Since we had to stop everyone else lost there momentum and we were all stuck, besides my dad. First they pushed Tanner and Brynne and from then on they made it home just fine. While my dad was putting chains on my moms car me, Linc, and Jordan were pushing Berks car.. up a hill.. in a blizzard.. and I wasn't wearing a coat..or any warm clothes at all for that manner, while berk was driving. It was actually pretty fun and we made it pretty far but we knew we couldn't push it all the way up because it was so far so my dad towed us. Once we were to the top there was a crazy white out and we couldn't see a thing. We did do a 180 just before we hit Brian Head but Berk handled it well and I figured that would be the scariest part of the drive. We slid to the wrong side of the road one more time so Berk got out and tried to clear up the snow from under his car. He kept complaining about his power steering being really stiff and he thought that was the problem. After that his steering was better for a little bit but it didn't last. When we were going down the part of the mountain that winds back and forth Berks car kept turning off, but once again he handled it and we were totally fine. As soon as we were off the sketchiest part of the mountain Berk said I could turn some music on but I couldn't get his ipod chord to work. We figured it was broken but then a few minutes later all of his warning lights on his car turned on, and then a few minutes after that he told me he wasn't sure if his car was even on anymore because when he hit the gas nothing happened. His battery had died and we were going down a snow covered mountain, in a blizzard, in a turned off car! We were freaking out just a tad and as soon as there was a shoulder we slowly drifted off. My dad was behind us so he stopped and we told him what was up. He looked at it and said that he must have broken his alternator belt when he towed us. Since the alternator belt wasn't running his battery wasn't recharging so his battery died and shut the car off. My dad wanted to get us off the mountain so he decided to pull us down. It's pretty scary being towed in a dead car that doesn't have power breaks or steering. It felt like my dad was driving so fast and when he would have to slow down we thought we were going to hit the back of his truck. Whenever the rope would have slack we would get jerked around. We came unhooked and had no way to let my dad no because nobody had service so I opened my car door to try and get their attention. He hooked us back up again and we safely made it to the auto shop in Parowan. Tanner and Brynne were already in Cedar so they picked up the part they needed to fix it and drove it back up. Once Berk's car was fixed and he was on the freeway headed home his car started to shake uncontrollably so he pulled over to look at it. His dog Dallas, who is his best companion, rarely leaves his side, and who he included in his top five good things of the year, jumped out of the car (seriously he doesn't leave his side) and ran in front of a semi truck. Berk said he thought it was the end for Dallas but somehow the truck managed to swerve and Dallas didn't get hit! The fact that we all made it home without a scratch was pretty awesome.