Utah Vacation, Part Deux

In the Winn family, Christmas is not associated with fancy meals, as we (I consider myself a Winn) are not a fancy people. After presents are opened in the morning, a large breakfast would be prepared and eaten. The rest of the holiday you were pretty much on your own to make whatever you chose. The Hegewald family tradition is pretty much a polar opposite. Christmas dinner is a fancy, dress up, sit down affair akin to Thanksgiving. In an effort to keep a small part of her childhood alive, Lix asked Nancy if it would be okay to have a nice dinner on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas. Her position is not anti-dinner, she just doesn’t want to spend all of her Christmas preparing food, so she was thrilled with the idea of Lix making some stuff. A honey-baked ham was ordered and picked up and rolls, potatoes, etc… were gotten and some class was brought into the Winn Christmas. It didn’t last long, but it was there for a moment.

Lixi's masterpiece

Christmas morning came at a leisurely pace, since there are no children at an age that puts them in a hurry. It was just the two toddlers and a bunch of adults. So the family went downstairs whenever and opened gifts and chatted about them and about each other. Grandpa got a ridiculous hat that he will wear a little too proudly, a Russian style one with the ear flaps that can be folded up. David got a coat that was very nice, but he complained that it was a little too tight in the arms. We get it, you’re a meathead. Alixa got the maternity coat that she has been asking for, so now she doesn’t have to choose between wearing her own coat unzipped or one of Jarom’s. Jarom got some professional grade hair clippers that are so nice that Alixa actually wants to help him cut his hair now. And the statuette that Lix picked out for Grandma made her cry when she opened it, so it was a pretty good morning all around. That night there was a mission party that Bruce and Nancy had to attend so the kids all went up to Temple Square to see the lights, which were lovely. When they got home Jarom and Rob decided to have a little wrestling match. Rob just finished a jujitsu class at BYU and Jarom is always looking for a good competition. Unfortunately, Jarom is a little bit out of practice since he hasn’t wrestled anyone for about a decade. He did okay until he remember how totally exhausting it is, and nearly had a heart attack after 2 minutes. He is planning on doing some training so that he can be better in late January for the rematch.
















Inspired by the wrestling match, Jarom tried to think of other physical activities he could do in Utah that he hadn’t done since the 90’s and made plans to go skiing with David and Rob at Brighton. Might as well take advantage of the “Greatest snow on Earth”, right? He was actually impressed at how well he did considering the layoff. The biggest obstacle he had to overcome was actually the ski boots, which as usual were not the most comfortable piece of attire he wore that day. But he didn’t crash into any trees or require the assistance of the ski patrol, so we’ll call it a good day. The girlfriends that were left behind took advantage of their freedom by heading out to some of the 375,000 bridal stores in the Salt Lake Valley to find a wedding dress for Kristi. They found one that everybody loved and it only required the one morning, so we’ll call it a good day.



Before heading back to the right coast Nate and Kenz came down from Farmington, where they had been spending a week with Kenzie’s family, for an Enna photo shoot and a nice meal at the Cheesecake Factory. The photos were taken at Sears by a girl who had little to no interest in taking pictures that day. Despite her best efforts to sabotage the session, the cute little girls managed to get a few good shots taken.

How many one year olds try to eat french fries with two utensils?

On their last day Lix convinced Jarom to make a drive up the canyon to the bustling metropolis known as Heber City. Heber is home to nearly 300 people, including one of Alixa’s best friends and classmate, Heather. Any time that Heather talks to Jarom she tries to convince him to get a job wherever she lives. Her case was a little bit weakened by the 23 inches of snow that had been dropped on the town the previous night. You could hardly tell where the houses and stores were. The fact that there aren’t a ton of jobs in Heber probably isn’t helping either. But it is a quaint place to visit for a few hours. They went out for a pizza at a nice little restaurant and then Heather got to show off her cute house and Jenna got to play with/look at her two black lab puppies.

Exhausted, at the end of a day in Heber and two weeks in Utah

Sadly, although it sometimes seems to be the case, Jarom does not have infinite vacation days and they had to return. The universe once again smiled on the Winns in their travels and provided them with an empty seat in their row so that Jenna had space to color and wriggle and lay down. This was surprising to Jarom, because he had recently won his fantasy football league title for the third time in four years, and assumed that he would have to sit next to Rulon Gardner for four hours to make up for his good fortune. But Lix is always giving her loose cash to beggars in order to amass good karma points, so a big thank you to her.





The Winns flew back to Philly, where they spent another day visiting with the residents there, and were lucky enough to attend a 2nd birthday party for Hailey Jane. The party was crashed by a slew of Slaughs, who were all in town for the holidays. Hailey got about a dozen presents, and it was all fun and games until both Hailey and Jenna decided that they wanted to play with the piggy bank. Then the screaming started. There were some tears and some yelling and physical violence was narrowly averted when the two parties were separated. Since they had been away for so long, Jarom decided that he wanted to get home to sleep in his own bed, so on New Years day they hit the 95 back down to Richmond, where everything was just as they left it. Such a great vacation, but it is nice to have them all back in the house.