Beddy Blog: Red River Christmas

This year we spent Christmas in Red River, NM with my family. We got there a few days before Christmas and stayed close to a full week in a nice 3 bedroom house right around the corner from the ski area. We originally planned to ski half a day on Christmas Eve, but Scott was recovering from being sick and I was adjusting to my altitude medication, so we ended up doing a little shopping in the morning and then relaxing around the house most of the the day. My Dad and brother-in-law went and got us a Christmas tree and we hung up the ornaments we had all picked out at a shop in town that morning. The one thing we did do was take the kids tubing at the ski area at 5:00 that evening. It was getting dark and was pretty chilly, but it was a lot of fun and everyone really enjoyed it. It started snowing later that night, which made sprinkling food for Santa's reindeer on the lawn even more exciting (but quick) for the kids. After reading the story of Jesus' birth, the kids snuggled down for a good nights' sleep. Christmas morning the kids were up bright and early- especially with being on mountain time- and they opened their gifts and stockings from Santa and their presents from Scott and I. After breakfast they opened up the rest of their presents from Mimi and Poppi and Aunt Amy and Uncle Chris, and then the adults opened our presents from each other as well. After a delicious Christmas lunch/dinner and naps, we took the kids sledding. Wednesday and Thursday the girls spent the day in ski school, my parents watched Judson, and Scott and I enjoyed skiing together. In the evenings, we took turns cooking dinner, sat by the fire, and played some games like Apples to Apples and Bingo with gift cards for prizes. It snowed again on Wednesday night and also Thursday, so that made the skiing pretty good for December. On Wednesday it seemed like we had the mountain almost to ourselves, and there were hardly any kids in ski school. Avery only had one other boy in her group and Kendall was the only one with her instructor. They really benefited from the one-on-one instruction and moved up several levels by Thursday afternoon. Avery spent all day Thursday going up the lift with her class and practicing making wide turns all the way down. Kendall did great as well and her instructors said she was about ready to go up the lift too by Thursday afternoon. Thursday night we went to a steakhouse just across the street called "Timbers" and enjoyed a break from cooking. All too soon, Friday morning rolled around and we had to pack up and leave. It was such a fun, relaxing trip and we had a great time hanging out with family and enjoying God's beautiful creation.

Enjoying some hot chocolate with pajama pants on their heads (don't even know how that got started!)

Kendall working hard in ski school.

Kendall was a cute little skier.

Avery and Kendall had fun one day drawing on Scott's face while he snoozed. What a nice Daddy!

These blocks were in a basket at the house where we stayed and Judson had so much fun with them.

Avery showing off her plow and turns.

Avery in complete concentration at ski school.

We all had fun picking out ornaments at a store in town and hanging them on our Christmas tree.

Avery also got this little fox as a souvenir. She had it all bundled up in a blanket and was rocking it. She is such a nurturer.

Kendall picked out a unicorn in a purse for her souvenir and named it "Dreams".

Scott pushing Judson down the hill when we went sledding. We were calling him "runaway Juddy" because we had a hard time catching him to stop his sled!