Phoenix, Arizona

This year Eric's side of the family spent Christmas in Phoenix, Arizona. Dalene has a brother who lived there with his family, a brother who lives in Utah, a sister who lives in Vancouver, and another sister who lives right here in Calgary, who's family Eric's is really close to. Eric's dad's boss owns a house in Phoenix, and so we all rented it out and went down there for something new and fun.
I had to work until Friday, so that evening Eric, Ben, Logan and I all got in the car and drove down overnight. Trevor built us a bed type thing in the back, which I'm sure was basically illegal, but that gave me the best night sleep I've ever had in a van. We got to Troy's in Utah for breakfast, and then got back in the van for the second half of the trip.

 After all the stops and detours that all the vehicles made, somehow ours beat the other to the house. When we walked in we saw the best Christmas surprise I could have asked for.

Aunt Christina set up a Christmas tree for us! She brought over all her extra decorations, and made it feel like a real Christmas in here! She is such a sweetheart.
We took the chance to look around and see what the place was like, and it was a pleasant surprise. It's 4 HUGE bedrooms and a den, and 3.5 gorgeous bathrooms. The kitchen is huge, and the backyard is wonderful. I could really get used to being here. Of course we don't rank among the most important people (when there are two families with small children, the head honchos who rented the place, and two young teenage girls), so we did not get to just start staking claim on things. We waiting patiently until everyone arrive soon after us. Bedrooms were assigned, beds set up, and bags unpacked. The home quickly went from a clean and peaceful getaway resort, to a chaotic mess of everyone and everything related to this family. Isn't that was Christmas is all about though. Eric and I are only staying for 4 nights, while most people are staying for over 2 weeks, so we were very fortunate and given the guest quarters by his dad. It was attached to the house, but had it's own separate entrance with a bedroom an ensuite bathroom. It was like another honeymoon for us out there, and it really made the quick trip feel like a vacation.