I'll be home for Christmas...

After 37 years in the same house in St. Louis (Kirkwood), my parents moved to Colorado. They've only been there for 2 months. Boxes are still unpacked, crowding hallways and rooms while waiting for shelving units and storage spaces to be installed. My parents graciously invited Brandon and me to spend Christmas with them. I was so excited to go home for Christmas, but it was strange going to a new home. A place that doesn't have memories yet. No familiar smells or sounds. No nooks, crannies, and details that brought back childhood memories. No neighbors that come in the back door without knocking to bring us a giant jug of homemade eggnog. No evidence that I roamed those halls and touched those walls as a kid. A place that was more like a vacation rental with my parents things in it than what my mind cherished as "home".

Turns out my parents felt the same way. It was a teary Christmas morning. My sister sent us a DVD of pictures she took while saying goodbye to our old house. She did an amazing job picking out all the funny little memory things as well as recording all the big spaces and putting it to music. There were a lot of St. Louis related gifts given too. Brandon gave me a framed picture of my house. We were a MESS. It was awesome! I'm so thankful for loving, thoughtful parents who gave us a childhood we treasure and love to remember.

My parents spent many hours serving in the St. Louis temple

My house

BUT...new memories are already being made in the new home. And to be honest, just my parents' presence made that house a home. After a few days there with them I can already call it home. It was a one of the most memorable Christmases so far. Skype made it possible to spend time with Brandon's family and all my siblings that morning. So mom, I know you are crying reading this (that's why I purposefully left out a picture of Judy and Phil), but just look at the below pictures and remember that as much as we all cherish the past, we are so excited for the future and the memory making that has already started...

Prepping Christmas Eve dinner in the new kitchen

View of the back of the house from our walk. Beautiful country

Reading AND a foot rub (he was watching ESPN). I'm so spoiled

Mom cooks it up right

I hate these kinds of scrappy purse dogs...but it was so cute

My mom wants one

Skype = "All the joy of family without the chaos" (Dad)

Brandon's family

I love this picture

Casey's fam. (I didn't get a picture of Adam and his fam)

April's fam + Baylee

I love, love long socks. One of the bonuses of winter.

Salt water taffy. Dad's favorite. We found it in bulk so only got the flavors he likes. He'll still have some left this time next year. Notice the shades. They don't have curtains in their living room yet. It was SO bright in there.

My parents saw a marshmallow shooter in the store and thought of Brandon...wonder why?

B opening the 'real' gift from my parents. He was so surprised he closed it back up after he saw it. My dad picked this out for him.

Mellow Johnny's kit. Brandon never thought he'd ever want spandex for Christmas and my dad never thought he'd buy spandex for Christmas

Cinnamon french toast with a brown sugar/pecan topping

Skate skiing

My cats love to sit in inconvenient places

He jumped up there then made himself compfy when I bent down to coax him off

Snowmass

Maroon Bells in the background

well, they're not bike helmets but they're just as sexy

I guess Elk heard sightings are common in my parent's new hometown.

Historical Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs. They deck it out so we had to go see it.

My fun mom. She's up for trying anything.

What's this battery for?

"Sum, what's this battery for?" was the sound and moment that brought my childlike Christmas excitement crashing to the ground!!

Let me give you some background. I LOVE surprises. I love surprising Brandon. Since there were only a few things he knew I knew he wanted for Christmas there wasn't much room for surprising him. So I got creative and covered my tracks. While Brandon was showering, I stole his friend Dave's phone number off Brandon's phone to call him later for some gift detail advice. I then gave Dave the name Brody Duggen in my phone in case he called me back when Brandon was around. Once I picked up the gift, according to Dave's specifications, I broke it down into several different boxes so not to be so obvious. I called Brandon while he was out and told him to call me before he came in the house so I could make sure I was finished wrapping, etc. Before he got home I had looked all over and made sure no evidence was anywhere to be found. I was proud of myself and SO excited. I had those little kid butterflies with Christmas just a few days away.

Brandon came home just as I was putting his gifts under the tree. He went in the kitchen and started cleaning up the plastic grocery store bags I'd left on the counter. I'd gone in there to get some to help with stuffing boxes. Then, he said it. I heard the word "battery" and I froze. I remember putting one of the cordless drill batteries in a bag to pack in with the drill, but I left it on the counter when I wrapped the drill itself in plastic bags. I never picked it back up to wrap. It was done, it was over. It had "Bosch" written on the side. He KNEW my surprise. After all that meticulous, strategic planning and I left the battery on the counter.

I was so upset. That was the only gift I had for him and now he knew what it was. There would be nothing to open Christmas morning. I was so sad.

But being Brandon (and being a guy), he didn't care. Whether it was that day or two days later on Christmas it was all the same to him. But it wasn't for me. It was ruined (I'm so optimistic and flexible sometimes). Then Brandon had a great idea. It took a small bit of convincing for me, but it turned out pretty sweet. We had our own little Christmas in our own little house that night. He turned on some music, sat by the tree, gave me my present, and opened the rest of his. Surprise! Early Christmas!

Blendtec!...have you seen these things?! Makes an awesome Tortilla soup..and smoothies...etc

Andrus Family pre-Christmas

Since we are spending Christmas with my family this year, we went to a cabin in East Zion (thanks Mike!) with as many of the Andrus family member that could make it. Unfortunately that wasn't everyone, but it was still a party...a rainy party. There was a lot of snow when we first got there, but 36 hours of rain washed it all away. We've never been rained in before. It seriously only let up 3 times. We'd run outside to get on the Rhino, but by the time we were out of the driveway it would start pouring again. It was kind of nice to be forced to sit inside and hang all weekend. It was very relaxing. We cooked, ate, slept, played games, read, and watched TV. We also hot tubbed in the rain/snow, a very refreshing way to do it. If Brandon could start everyday with a rain/snow hot tub ritual he'd be living a dream. I can't say I share the same dream.

Christmas doesn't get much cuter

Jaime is now a professional cookie artists - or should be

While the snow lasted

She always wants in on the action

Teaching Lakie how to use the apple peeler for the pies

Lakie's favorite seat in the house

Sometimes Lakie lets me join, but right after this picture was taken he said, "Hey Summer, I see an empty chair over there. You can have it."

Happy Birthday Mike. Lakie helping with the candles

All weekend long

Jaime chopped her hair - donated to Locks of Love. It's so cute this length

Guess who's tired of the pictures

Grandpa's girl. She loves to look at him, smile real big and say, "Hi!"

throwing down

It's pouring really cold rain and he couldn't be happier.

Mike always makes us blueberry pancakes

This was our one chance but it started raining hard right after this picture. Not sure we even made it 5 minutes