As soon as November arrived I looked at my calendar and decided that we were heading up to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving. I could afford 1 more point from work without getting into too much trouble :) Although I planned on calling off I also backed up my plan by requesting the days off... just in case by some miracle I could get the week off approved. Soon after the decision was made I arrived to work to find a lovely little note in my box. A quick glance around and I noticed everyone else had it in their box too. Our management decided to switch up the attendance policy due to the upcoming holidays. For every day you called off you would recieve 1 point per day (instead of 1 point for 4 days) and a 1 day suspension on top of that. I was planning on calling off 4 days and with the new policy in effect I would get 4 points AND a 4 day suspension. Something I definitely could NOT afford. How cruel! I was so upset!!!... borderline depressed. I didn't even have the heart to tell my mom we weren't coming out anymore and everytime I would talk to her she would bring up Thanksgiving and how they were excited to see us. The day the schedule was posted I walked over and was astonished to see that all my day off requests were approved! I couldn't believe my eyes! I was jumping up and down in my high heels. My coworkers asked why I was so excited and I exclaimed, "I'm going home for Thanksgiving!" Their eyes widened in curiosity and asked, "Oooh, where are you going?" When I replied Utah they laughed in dissappointment. One of my friends said "Utah? I thought you were going somewhere exotic." Yeah yeah Utah may not seem exciting to others, but it is home sweet home to me. I love almost everything about it ;)
We got to stay for practically a week and still I felt like there was not enough time to do everything that I wanted to. Here's what we
did get to do though...
Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom & Dad's. It was so delicious. I'm sure Ti Tonga was glad that he got to have some of my mom's home cooking instead of anything I would've been able to whip up. Everyone was there except Misi :(
Black Friday shopping. Nothing really big or extravagant. Wait let me rephrase... nothing really big or extravagant for US. We went specifically for a bridal shower gift and did manage to find a pretty good deal on that. Me and Sila even stopped by Bath & Body Works to by a little something for ourselves. The line was, in true Black Friday fashion, ginormous!
Line's bridal shower. I can't believe she's getting hitched. I also got to see Sini for the first time since she's returned from her mission.
Dinner with my girls. Almost every time I go out to Utah I meet up with my best friend Crystal. This time we were joined by Lisa and Camilla as well. We went out to a karaoke cafe and had dinner, chatted, laughed, and sang some songs. It was sooooooo much fun!
Utah vs. BYU game. Not sure if anyone heard, but we won ;) After the game we went out and celebrated at Crazy Buffet -- mine and Ti's favorite!! Mmmm! And for the first time since arriving we finally got to catch up on sleep.
Dinner and FHE with my in-laws. It was like Thanksgiving all over again- yum!
Crafts with my sisters. Pressed for time, so we didn't get to do as much as we would've liked, but it was better than nothing.
We left first thing Tuesday morning. I know there are so many things that I have been blessed with. So much that I have to be grateful for, but there is always 1 thing at the top of my list:
Family. I am so fortunate to be connected to the wonderful people I call family.
On Monday the kids headed back to school after such a nice winter break. We woke up that morning to snow falling! Sunday night was actually really cold and I kept seeing facebook updates saying it was snowing, but I didn't see any on the strip. I got home that evening to see a thin layer covering the cars in the neighborhood. I was bummed that I didn't see any action though, so to wake up to actual snow fall on Monday was great!
It didn't last very long. Within about an hour it all melted and you could never even tell that Las Vegas had been graced with a beautiful blanket of snow. It was wonderful. Even if it was only for a brief moment.
[the boys & max heading off to school]
[sleepy head siope staying inside where it's warm]
