Arizona Christmas

After a great CO celebration, we loaded up and headed to Tucson for Tallon/Huffman/Marrs Christmas.  The kids were excited to see everyone, though Noelle was beyond excited to see Nanna and Poppa.  She kept saying how special it was to see everyone and how extra special it was to be with Nanna and Poppa.  Her desire to be with her great-grandparents kind of got the ball rolling for our AZ gathering this year, and we were all thankful.  

We got 3 rooms at a hotel close to Roscoe and Vivian and spent each day moving between their house, our hotel, restaurants, and exploring Tucson.  This year, we simplified gift-giving and did stockings for everyone.  It was very sweet to pile into their living room to share a Christmas celebration together.  

A big highlight of our time in AZ was the desert museum!  Everyone had a lovely day - 

Happy!

These 2 sure hit it off.  Sweet little buddies!  

Christmas jammies!  This was not an easy picture to take.  Little Mr. Elliot was not at all interesting in sitting still for a pic.  The rest of the crew thought his squirming maneuvers were pretty hysterical!

We enjoyed being at Mountain Avenue for church.  Here's the crew for the Children's Lesson.  Our 5 kiddos really expanded the Children's ministry that day!  

I was sorry I couldn't get Poppa into this pic (I think that's him in the corner), but time is of the essence when you have 5 little people going different directions!

I was so struck by the legacy of faith that Roscoe and Vivian have built.  I know it, but to see them with 5 of their great-grandchildren at church was beautiful.  These 5 are growing up to know and trust the Lord in large part due to the faith passed down through the generations of our family.   

The last bit of the cheese crisp appetizer before our after-church lunch.  This pic is funny to me.  Everyone looks so forlorn!  It was not a sad lunch!

This was maybe one of my favorite moments of our whole trip.  On our last day, I got word that Nanna wanted Noelle and I to come pick her up and take her to the mall to buy Noelle a dress for her 6th birthday.  She told Noelle she could choose anything she wanted.  We perused the dresses at Macy's until Noelle settled on this Elsa dress.  Nanna was very happy to buy it and Noelle was thrilled with her new dress.  It was a very sweet moment.  

Once we had enjoyed our last AZ meal (tamales) and said our goodbyes, we hit the road the next morning for our marathon 17 hour drive home.  We had had great, clear road for the duration of our travels, so we were quite surprised to hit our first ice storm between Pecos and Abilene.  We were on a stretch of highway going 80 mph in light rain when we noticed that everyone was suddenly slowing down and cops were in abundance.  Apparently, we were not in mist, but "freezing rain".  The roads iced up, there were cars off the road, and the front of our van developed a solid 1/2 - 1 inch coating of ice.  So, a stretch of road that should have taken 2 hours took - 10 hours, marital arguments, tense muscles, and lots of Looney Tunes!  Although we'd hoped and planed to be HOME by midnight, we happily rolled into Abilene and carried sleeping kids up to bed. This ended up being Lucy's first night in a big girl bed with me and Noelle.  We finally made it home the next day, thrilled to find dry roads and In-n-Out along the way.