Christmas in California

We had a great time spending Christmas with Darren's family this year. Of course, I missed my family like crazy, but the Capells made it great.

We were busy just about every day, and that helped a ton! Saturday the 18th, after celebrating our anniversary, we headed out to Turlock for a wedding reception and then back to Riverbank to Jeff & Sheila's (Darren's brother) to watch BYU tear UTEP apart in their bowl game. It was so fun to see them again, and to meet our new niece Hailey, who was born right after Thanksgiving. She is such a cutie!!

Us with Hailey Belle. Guess she wasn't too happy!

On Monday, Darren and I headed over to the Oakland temple with Jeff, Sheila and their kids to look at the lights. It was so fun. I've missed being around the Jeff Capell boys and it was so fun to be on the temple grounds a year after we were married there. It really put me into the Christmas spirit and reminded me more about the important part of Christmas.

In the Visitor's Center

In front of the temple

Tuesday we were going to head up to Sacramento and see Darren's brother Eric and his wife Jenny (who was due with a baby boy on Dec. 14th, but he was still cookin' when we got in). We got all ready do head up and then Eric called and said they were going to come down to Salida for a few days. We were excited! We hung out, played games and talked late into Tuesday and Wednesday until they headed back up for a doctor's appointment Thursday morning. We were thrilled to find out that her doctor had decided to start inducing her that afternoon. It took just about 24 hours, but Walker decided to make his appearance on Christmas Eve evening! We got ready quick and headed up to Sacramento with Darren's parents to see them all in the hospital. He is adorable and we were so excited we got to be there! Darren figured out he's been able to see each of his brothers' first baby in the hospital. Quite the record.

Us with Walker McKay

We got home pretty late that night and probably barely made it to bed before Santa came knocking. We got up before the sun rose in California to talk to my family on Skype as they opened their gifts from us. It was so fun to "see" my family on Christmas and made the day so much easier. We opened some of the gifts they gave us and loved being able to talk to them early Christmas morning. We were going to go back to bed, but we still had a little cooking to do so we showered and got to work.

All the Capells got together at Jeff & Sheila's at 9 on Christmas morning for breakfast and it was SO fun. We had quite the feast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns and cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls were quite the adventure by the way. The dough was not wanting to rise, so we stayed at home as long as we could and then had the heater on full blast on the way over so they would maybe rise a little more. It actually worked! Haha.

After breakfast the boys were eager to play with Uncle Darren and he became the victim of a dog pile many times over.

Darren with Justin & Jordan (loving that Jordy is wearing an oven mitt on his foot!)

After playing around for a while we opened presents as a family. We received so many wonderful gifts, and we are grateful for those who gave them to us.

Darren opening Beauty and the Best (one of our GREAT gifts from Jeff & Sheila)

Darren's gift to me, Elf!

Some of the Capell boys - Darren, Jordan, Jeff, Justin & Josh

After gifts we hung out and played games. I took a much needed nap and talked to my dad again. We had Christmas dinner about 5ish and it was great: turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing, green bean casserole, and so much more. Dessert was great also - chocolate silk, lemon meringue and apple pies. We were stuffed by the time we left, but we had a great day. Thanks for hosting us Jeff & Sheila!

Tuesday, Sherry scheduled a family picture at JC Penny. Turns out it's a challenge to find a place that will seat 20 people! It was the first Capell family photo in a long time, and Sherry had been itching to get one done for a long time. It was a fun time, and bravo to Jenny for coming down and bringing her 5 day old baby! She was such a trooper. Goodness knows I wouldn't have been able to do that :)

  

Before heading off to pictures

After we got home we had lunch and hung out and watched a movie. It was a great way to end the Christmas weekend.

Darren's dad, Jordan & Darren chilling on the living room floor watching Despicable Me

The rest of that week was pretty relaxing. We played games and watched a few movies with Darren's parents, went through some of Darren's boxes at their house and did a few car repairs. It was a great trip and it was great to spend time with Darren's family.

We headed back to Idaho on Friday morning, the 31st, but not before one more big twist. Let's just say I'm glad it happened at the end, or I may have been a mess the whole time. I'll write more about that in the next post...