Thanksgiving and Christmas 2010

I'm trying to catch up...and I'm almost there! Below is a photo log of what we did during the holiday season.

This year, we met up with Carson's family in Utah for Thanksgiving. Since I had time off for school, I headed out early and spent time with Jenna, Addison and Granny before Carson's family came.

This was Addison's first experience in deep snow...or any snow really. This was at my Grandpa's grave site.

She was doing pretty well, until she fell down..hands first! It's almost all the way up to her waist, so after a few minutes, she was pretty cold (we didn't have her in any snow clothes).

As you can see, it's pretty deep..

Grandpa's grave. There is something special about visiting family after they are gone from this Earth. We think of you often and miss you Grandpa!

At Grandma's feeding Addison.

Carson's family came into town and we were busy in the kitchen! This was one of the first nights we were all together. We had all sorts of amazing cheese from all over the world...

Yummy cheese and crackers...

Linda also brought these tasty oil & vinegar dips for fresh bread. They are paired specially to create an amazingly fresh combination in your mouth! It was amazing!!

Enjoying wonderful food and drink!

Thanksgiving morning, everyone went out to run a turkey trot...pretty sure it was 10 degrees out and no, I did not join in the fun. Instead I stayed back with Linda, Steve and the kiddos working on dinner.

Thanksgiving day, we stopped by and said hello to my family in the area. I didn't really take any more pictures during our UT trip, but we had a blast with our family. Rhandi/Graham and Derek were wonderful to house all the Orme family (7 of us) during the festivities. As always, we had amazing food and fun times.

This is Rachel's band playing at our ward Christmas party. They were the hit of the night and we hope to hear them perform again soon!

Rachel rockin out on the drums! Funny story actually... I convinced a bunch of little children dancing in front that I was taking pictures of them, just so I could get a few of Rachel! So mean, I know...

Carson and I before we left for the Romanian dinner with all the people who served in Romania. He was very proud of his eggplant dish. It was really good! I didn't realize there were so many people that served in Romania in our Stake.

Here is the full plate of food of typical Romanian food. It was pretty tasty and those that spoke/served in Romania had fun reminiscing while the spouses and children visited and got to know one another. It was really fun and hopefully we'll all get together again.

My birthday fell on a Friday this year, and most people would be super excited about that! Well, Friday is my clinical day, meaning I'm at the hospital late the night before working on my care plan (creating a packet of information about the patient I will take care of the next day) and I typically don't get home until somewhere between 10pm-12am. Then, on Friday, I am back at the hospital by 6:45 am, meaning I am up around 5:30 to get there on time, and am there until 3 or 4pm. Carson, being the sweet man he is, did his usual thing on Thursday (after cub scouts, he makes lunch for me, irons my scrubs and tries to have the apt clean--I know I'm spoiled!!) but got up before me on Friday, without me knowing, to decorate the mirror. Unfortunately, I can't find the picture..but it was a puzzle that had pictures of various things with plus signs and then at the end equaling birthday on Dec. 18th. So sweet...

On the actual day, we did what I always feel like doing on a Friday night...getting in my sweat pants, relaxing, and watch a movie. We celebrated later in the month by going to a fancy schmancy restaurant in the city and seeing the Nutcracker.

Here we are at the Nutcracker--one of my many birthday treats. We had a great time and had a wonderful view of the performance.

This is one of the few pictures I have from nursing school. Our Friday clinical group is wonderful and I love working with each of these people. Rachel (the picture square) was out this day because of knee surgery, but she was there in spirit! Lisa (second over from me) brought me balloons and a card (so sweet!!) and we all enjoyed cheese cake during our lunch break. I didn't have any code browns (thank goodness!!!) and the kids I take care of made a card (which is still on the fridge) and gave me my very own lamby pie (lamb stuffed animal--super soft). Talk about a perfect birthday (for having to go to school and getting up early)...I wouldn't be able to survive nursing school without these guys!!

Here is what Santa Clause left our neighbors, Art and Fran! Snow and all...we were all shocked!

I didn't take very many pictures during Christmas, but here is one of the MANY puzzles we completed as a family (all Hamilton's contributed). Lots of good family time and wonderful food. Overall, I think it's safe to say that we all really enjoyed the holidays this year.