Kofford Christmas Classic

This year for Christmas we had the opportunity to drive down to Las Vegas with Elisa and Alex. Late Thursday afternoon, Alex and Elisa met me and we went and picked up Matthew from work. After Matthew finished vacuuming the car, we were off. It was a fun ride down; we talked and listened to the new CDs I had made from the music Matthew and I bought from the itunes gift card I got Matthew for Father's Day. When we arrived at my parents home we of course spent the next few hours talking with family and staying up way too late, but it is always one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Friday morning the whole fam, with the exception of Jordan, went to the mall to get a family picture taken. This is not a typical time of year for us to be taking family pictures, but one of the foreign exchange students staying with my parents is leaving at the beginning of the New Year and my mom always likes to give them a family picture before they leave. As per usual we needed to come up with a funny picture to take. In years past it has mostly included the latest family joke, like our awkward turtles, or shaping your fingers into the letter L on your forehead and in an awkward voice saying, "I Love You" while using this letter L to point at the person you are speaking to. We have also done things on the fly like pointing in different directions with a confused look on our faces, while Kaleb continues to look straight ahead and smile at the camera or utilize our best modeling skills by giving the camera our best tiger impressions. Needless to say, we are a little weird, but we sure do have fun! This year I came up with the idea that we use Isabella, the first grandchild, as a center theme of our funny picture. Gary could lift her up like the Baboon does in The Lion King while the rest of us bowed and revered her. There weren't any other grand ideas, so we went with it.

After taking the pictures we hung around the mall waiting for them to be printed and while we waited my brothers thought it would be fun to start a pretend football game in the middle of the mall. At first they just pretended to throw each other a ball and a few times some strangers would run in and pretend to intercept the ball. Eventually we all joined in and had two teams playing against each other. We thought it was pretty funny and so did some bystanders, but one of the guards disagreed and told us to knock it off.

After we all agreed upon which photos were best, the parental units headed home and Gary, Haley, Jonathan, Elisa, Alex, Matthew and I headed towards the food court for some grub. Matthew and I ended up just getting some soft pretzel sticks as a snack and then eating everyone else's leftovers which consisted of McDonalds, a Philly Cheesesteak baked potato and Panda Express.

That afternoon we all helped to prep Christmas dinner so our Christmas day wouldn't have to be spent cooking food, then we all helped wrap Santa's presents and played our traditional Christmas Tree I Spy. That night my dad and Matthew went to Midnight Mass with Lorenzo and Jana. I also wanted to go, but wasn't feeling very good. The next day they reported that the "Midnight Mass" actually started at eleven, so they attempted to find another location and when they finally did, they walked in and it was entirely in Spanish.

On Christmas Day we all slept in and took our time to go and open presents. Most of the morning was split between opening presents, eating and trying over and over and over again to call Jordan. We tried calling him, but the number didn't work and then he would call us to tell us to try something different, but it still didn't work. Eventually it ended up working and we had a good time talking to him about his experiences in Guatemala and what things we were up too.

After opening all the gifts and stockings and taking the traditional photo with all your gifts, we changed our clothes and settled into watching one of the new movies. We all decided upon Despicable Me...such a cute movie! After the movie we headed to Grandma Kofford's house for a visit with her and some of the "Kofford" aunts, uncles and cousins. It was fun to see everyone and catch up. Elisa and Alex officially announced to the whole family of expecting a new arrival in June/July. Upon returning home we sat down to our Christmas dinner and as usual it did not disappoint.

On Sunday we all went to Sacrament together. It was nice to see many of the people from my childhood, although many have moved or passed away. Danielle England, one of the girls my age growing up, and her husband were visiting with their new daughter and they blessed her. It was good to see them again, although I have to admit a little hard. I am very happy with my life, but sometimes it is hard to see others have or doing things that I would like to have or do. I know that I am doing what is best for me, but I sometimes still get impatient waiting for things I am excited to have and do.

After Sacrament meeting we all headed back home to change and hit the road. My parents had decided that they would just follow us back home and make a short visit to the snow with us! Unfortunately there wasn't much snow in the neighborhood, but we entertained ourselves anyway. When we arrived that night Elisa and Alex continued towards their home, while the rest of us herded into our little apartment, but what our apartment lacks in size is made up for with all the blankets we own!

Monday we made breakfast burritos for breakfast and hung around the house all morning. Elisa and Alex arrived with their friend just as we were leaving to go eat lunch at Chuck O Rama. They had just eaten lunch, so they declined coming and hung around our place until we returned. In the early evening, before it got dark, we headed towards Temple Square. My
mom wanted to show Lorenzo and Jana, the foreign exchange students, around and inside each of the buildings before it got too dark and crowded. It was actually a really good experience because I saw parts of Temple Square that I had never seen before and Lorenzo had a lot of questions. It was fun to see his curiosity. After walking to and through a majority of the buildings we walked by some of our traditional spots and took pictures. On our way back to the car we noticed that the Conference Center was open and walked inside for a minute. My parents had never been inside. We took a quick look around and asked when tours were given and how long they were. The Missionary stated that the tours run all day until 9:00pm and could be as long or as short as you wanted them to be. It was getting late, so we decided that it would be a fun thing to do when they came up for my graduation in May.

When we got back home Alex, Elisa and their friend couldn't stay because they had plans with some other friends, but Matthew and I decided to make the rest of the family our famous bacon cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries and we watched Inception.

Tuesday morning my parents woke up early and headed towards Matthew's parent's home for breakfast, just the four of them. The rest of us just slept or lazily lounged about for the entire morning. When my parents returned my mom wanted a nap, so the boys went outside to toss around a frisbee. When the boys returned we headed up to Ogden to show my parents Alex and Elisa's apartment and to celebrate Elisa's birthday. Elisa thought we were just coming up to see the apartment and then my parents were going to head out, but after we left their apartment the first time, Alex lured Elisa out of the house and we returned to throw her a surprise party. My parents even told my sister that they had forgotten her presents at my house and she would have to get them later. Elisa admitted later that she had no idea about the party until as she was walking into the apartment she saw my parent's car. After opening presents and eating cake and ice cream my parents headed back home to Vegas.