TEAM JCAT: Christmas!

We had quite a crazy, fun Christmas. We kicked off the holiday season by attending the Festival of Lights "Switch-on Ceremony". Where downtown Riverside get lit up with lights. The Mission Inn is the center of the Festival and it gets covered with lights. It was so fun to see this Riverside tradition. Can't wait to for next year, maybe we'll take time to enjoy it a little more.

Out door ice-rink.

Riverside Community College Marching Band playing some tunes.

The switching on of lights even includes fireworks.

Christmas Eve we got up bright and early, 5:30 A.M. and headed to the airport. There James opened a special Christmas Eve gift and we got on our plane to Salt Lake City. We arrived in Salt Lake to a snow storm. Tracy's mom brought us a car to use for the day and we had a nice lunch at The Pie together. Our plans were to hang around downtown for the day maybe even catch the Temple Square lights and visit with some friends. However the snow storm ruined it for us and we headed straight to my mom's house. We visited for a few hours till the storm cleared up and then started making our way to Tracy's parents house before the roads got icy. Along the way we braved the roads a bit longer enough to visit a couple of my sisters. We managed to get stuck a moment or two outside my sister Melissa's house.

Watching the planes on the runway.

Showing of his special new toy.
A plane that looks like the one we are in.

Christmas morning, we had the traditional waffles. Tracy's mom even made a breakfast casserole similar to the one my mom makes for Christmas morning. Such thoughtfulness on her part to include my families tradition with hers. It being Christmas we received the much anticipated phone call from Tracy's brother who is on a mission in Florida. We even got the nice news that he was able to Skype Once we got that set up, we were talking face to face with him. After talking with Sam, we packed up the car and headed to Las Vegas. We stayed at our favorite place, Sam's Town.

Sam's Town had their atrium decorated for Christmas.

There's a deer that you can't see, but James just fell in love with it.
All he wanted to do was watch the deer.

Looking down into the atrium from our room.

The next day we headed home. That evening we opened gifts and just hung around. James received books (How do Dinosaurs say Goodnight?, Frog and Toad Collection, The Sneetches, and Go Dog Go), clothes, puzzles, a small keyboard, legos and a small electric train set (from Aunt Kandace). Tracy received clothes, a new camera, The Dark Knight Trilogy (we bought it for both of us), the book Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, and the DVD set National Parks: The Best Idea (I think that is it). I received clothes, the book What Makes a Mom, the DVD Inception and a laptop. I think I listed everything.

Tracy's parents stayed with us till New Year's Day. We took them to several beaches. Shopped the weekly Farmer's Market and the near by town center. They went on a tour of the Mission Inn. Tracy took them to the Citrus State Park. Sunday evening we visited Tracy's mom's best friend from high school. We had a fun time and I'm sure they had a great time. Visitors are always great. Though James has a rough time if his schedule is messed up and I was having a ~~PMS~~ rough week as well. The only down side was they shared a nasty cold with us and we are all finally on the mend.