How We Spent Our Christmas Vacation

The Christmas break was a welcome respite from school and work for Brianna and I. We left the land of clouds and snow behind for 10 days to spend some quality time with Brianna's family in sunny Arizona and Mexico. Brianna's little sister returned from serving a mission in Scotland the same day we flew in. It was a lot of fun (and kind of awkward) to get to finally meet one another.

"Hi. I'm Justin. I married your sister." (handshake)

We spent the next few days eating loads of good food, hearing mission stories, riding bikes in the sunshine, schooling Brianna's little brother in ping pong, getting schooled by my father-in-law in ping pong, and all the usual Christmas fun. Christmas day was memorable as we all took turns opening presents and eating unhealthy but oh-so-tasty food.

The day after Christmas, we piled into the trusty Suburban and crossed the border to spend some time building homes in Punto Punasco, Mexico for poor LDS members. We had some great adventures, including getting pulled over by a Mexican police officer for "speeding" ($20 covered the infraction, but for some reason he never gave us an actual ticket...). The tacos in Puerto Punasco were splendid, and building the houses was a lot of fun (and a lot of work). One day was really windy and pretty chilly, but the other days were beautiful. We got to practice our spanish a bit, and really enjoyed spending time with Brianna's younger siblings. We decided they are much easier to talk to when they are outside of cell phone coverage.

We spent the last few days in Phoenix enjoying our break and spending time with family. All too soon we were packing our bags and saying our good-byes. It was refreshing to be surrounded by loved ones. Now we just can't wait for next year...