Christmas in Vegas - 2014

I love Christmas time!  I love Christmas time!  There, I've said it again. I think I've always loved Christmas time.  I remember getting things ready for our children when they were little and at home and I loved the excitment and the preparation. (Insert exception clause here.)  The only thing I really didn't like was bending over our bed for hours!, wrapping presents on Christmas Eve.  I used to wish I was smart enough to have the wrapping all done before then.  But, anyway, it's been especially fun since the grandchildren have started coming and I've found the fix for the late night bend over bed wrapping process.  Since I have to mail out almost all of the packages before Christmas Eve, they are usually wrapped and mailed a week of so before Christmas.  Now, I just throw off the covers and climb in.

I think it was somewhere in June or July when Dan said, "Let's go to Vegas for Christmas this year.  By then we knew that nobody was coming home for Christmas and we most certainly didn't want to stay around in the cold here so Alisha and I nodded our heads and the plan was set.

We shared our idea with Haini and Kristi and asked if they cared to join us.  We had a condo reserved and would leave the day after school was out and not return for a whole week.  They loved the idea and then I knew Christmas was going to be great.  Not only would we be somewhere warm~ we would be with kids and grandkids.  No even Santa could top that one.

We were able to reserve another condo for the 2 days before Christmas so we had lots of room to get things ready before Christmas morning.  Dan, Alisha, Gracie and I would stay in one condo and the Sugies stayed in the other one.  Then we would combine into one condo Christmas day.

We drove to Orem and stayed with Kristi on the 22nd and then on Monday morning we all headed to LV.  We caravaned together and I think Marley got to ride with us that day.  We stopped in St. George and got Dad a Costco hotdog.  The surprise was that it was Peter Lisonbee at the counter when we ordered.  He was picking up a few extra hours working in the cafe.  So fun!  We also got some hamburgers for everyone else a little further down the way. 

It was pretty late when we got into LV and it was very dark.  We got separated on the freeway and each of us had to find our own way to Wyndum - which we did eventually.  We got settled in our own condos and fell fast asleep.

The next day we played and made fudge for Haini for Christmas.  The kids pitched in and it was a royal fudge treat.

 

 

And we chopped apples to eat while the fudge cooked. 

 

 

With Gracie's help we finished up the fudge...

then we dipped strawberries.

 

Yum, yum!

 

However, I think "clean up" was the biggest hit!

 

We took our treats to Mom and Dad and then they let us open our Christmas Eve presents.  We got new pjs and Christmas story books.

 

My biggest treat was Christmas Eve when we got to keep the kids in our condo and we read Christmas stories till everyone was asleep. Ok, so everyone except Sitani and me.

It was so sweet and we all slept in the next morning ...

 

By the time we made it down to their condo, Santa had come. Oh
 my goodness!

 

 

After the presents were all opened, Kristi made us a very good Christmas breakfast.

 

Throughout the week we spent countless hours by the pools and hot tubs.  The kids swam like little fish hour after hour and 

I stitched on a new project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes Sitani and Alisha would play BB at the courts and of course everyone had to ride the rambling river a few times.  The weather was wonderful!  Not too hot, not too cold but just right and we loved it.

One night we took the shuttle to the strip and walked the sidewalks.  We had dinner at a yummy burger place (I can't remember the name but it was good.)

 

 

 

 

One night we stayed in and watched movies, played games and did puzzles together.

 

And one night we drove out to see the Hoover Dam.  It was dark when we got there but we had a fun drive.

 

Gracie and Haini had to get back to work by Saturday so they took our Camary and drove back early.  Dan had a flight out to Portland so I took him to the airport early Monday morning and the rest of us packed up and had a great ride home together.

I have to say I missed the other grandkids (and kids, of course) but we loved getting the pictures the parents sent. 

 

Maybe we can do it again another time because it was an awesome way to spend Christmas vacation.

 

When I got home I put the puzzle together that Elizabeth and James gave us. Love it!

Family ~ That's what it's all about!