Today, Gary and I are trying to enjoy one our last few days of Winter Break. We are slowly but surely unpacking the car and getting the house back in order. This has become quite a long process for us as we are both still in vacation mode.
As of now I am sure most of you heard about our lovely 8.5 hour drive to the valley on 12/22! It was quite the adventure and we were very blessed that Annika was the best she had ever been on the drive. I don’t think I have ever been so excited to see Gaston! We spent Christmas Eve with both our parents. Gary and I cooked a prime rib dinner at my parents and my brother and Gary’s parents joined us. We then awoke the next day to presents from Santa! Of course, he was very good to all of us. Due to the insanity of the weather the Elverud Christmas was postponed to Sunday, but there was a few of us that braved the weather and made it up to my Grandma Molly’s house and had dinner (followed by a little wii). The next day Gary and I spend the afternoon with his niece Danyelle, who was visiting on her break from college in Michigan, and then spent that evening with the Hedin clan. Saturday, it was Christmas with the Hedin’s at Grandma and Grandpa Hedin’s house with all of Gary’s brothers and sisters and their kids. Annika was in seventh heaven as the world seemed to revolve around her. She got some cute clothes from G’ma and G’pa and a cute outfit from her cousins Sarah and Kimberly. That evening it was off to The Ace Tavern, for the annual Hedin Christmas get together. WARNING! THERE ARE NOT WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE EVENING. Actually, it was a combo of mine and Gary’s family. I guess that is what you get when you combine two the towns big families! Sunday morning we headed back up to G’ma Molly’s house to have dinner with the Elverud’s and that evening we opened gifts with my mom’s immediate family. THEN…Christmas was officially over…PHEW!
Monday, Gary and I left for a few days of peace and quite and rest and relaxation and headed down to one of our favorite B & B’s in Lincoln Beach/Depoe Bay. It was so nice…neither one of us wanted to leave. We came home New Year’s Eve, went to a movie with my parents had dinner with them and then late that night decided to head over to my aunt and uncle’s where a few people had gotten together to ring in the New Year. New Year’s Day, we finally were packing and made the trip home.
It was weird to pull in the driveway and see no snow. When we pulled out of the driveway to go to Gaston it was snowing and there was a little under a foot on the ground. When we pulled in the driveway the ground was DRY and the sun was SHINING! Gotta love Central Oregon!
