It's tradition to open presents at my parents' house on Christmas Eve. Brady loves the interactive Elmo he got from Grandma.
Connor is the only other grandchild on my side of the family. He and Brady are still very close, despite the distance between their respective houses. They spent many Christmas break afternoons playing side by side. I miss this kid so much! He still calls me Kajsee.
Books, books and more books from Mom & Dad. All books had wheels attached to them, of course. We open the big presents at home because 7 suitcases full of stuff do not go well at the airport. Also, Brady hates gifts, the unwrapping of gifts, and most things Christmas.
The immediate reading of aforementioned books.
We crashed Darin & Janet's Christmas morning extravaganza. Since Brady hates unwrapping gifts and doesn't yet get the whole Christmas thing, each year we have picked a place to show up early on Christmas morning and watch the fun. 
We spent the rest of Christmas day at Crystal's house with Troy's family. Brady loved watching the neighbors plow snow through the front window. It snowed so much that day we all stayed overnight rather than braving the roads.
Mom & Brady sacked out during our impromptu sleepover. 
A newly discovered love of Ms. Pacman.
*I have to make note of the fact that I did not take ONE group family picture and very few of family members. What the? I downloaded these and realized I have a habit of only snapping away at Brady. Jeez. I will do better next trip.
Later, we had a fun visit with the Culleys, during which not a single photo was taken. Just imagine Brady raiding Luke's pile of new Christmas toys and Luke graciously sharing, as always. We love catching up with this family! The Twilight fan extraordinaire gave me a copy of the first book. Ahhhh.. I LOVE having a good book to read while on vacation when there's no guilt about skipping out on responsibilities around the house. I had been feeling out of the loop with all things Twilight and now I am hooked. It was very suspenseful and left me really wanting to see the movie. Thanks, Jenn!
Below you will see me experiencing my dream afternoon. Reading a good book while snuggling Brady through an entire nap. I would do this every day if possible.
We also had a great night out with the Rhodes. Jane, please forgive me for blatantly stealing this photo from your blog. My photos didn't work!
We had a tastey barbecue dinner followed by a trip to the greatest place on earth... a shop FULL OF RICE PUDDING! All (okay, most) of my dreams have officially come true. Then we went to the movies and saw 7 Pounds. Troy and I usually make it to 2 0r 3 movies per year and this one did not dissapoint. We love visiting the Rhodes and it's nice to see blogging friends in person once in awhile. Speaking of which, we all stopped by the Staker's house. I think our wedding was the last time we saw them in person? I hope I'm wrong - that means it's been at least 5 years. I finally met their four beautiful boys, including baby Bronson. It was wonderful to to see them all. Thanks for letting us stop by! Our Utah trips are always too short. I wish I took more pictures and I wish we had more time to visit with everybody. As always, thanks to Mindy & Scott Taylor for letting us show up unannounced. Every time I see Mindy I kick myself for not showing up at her house more often! I love that we can pick right up where we left off... even if it has been a year. She has finally given in to Facebook... it's only a matter of time until I can see her on blogger!
Okay, I will end this enormous post with my favorite picture of the trip. This is Brady getting bundled up for the first time, slightly baffled by the concept of wearing a hat. He is trying to sign "Brady wants" as in "Brady wants this hat off." Instead, he ended up signing "whaaaaaaat?"
