Merry Christmas!

Kalee and I were lucky enough to spend some time during the holidays with both sides of the family. We stayed in Rexburg and enjoyed some time with my parents for the first part of the holidays. We ate some very good food that my mom cooked, which included Prime-rib for Christmas eve. We also enjoyed Skyping some of my siblings.

Here is a picture of us Skyping the Payne's in Portland.

 And if you look closely in the bottom right of the above picture, you will see our end of the camera, which is showing mom and dad as below. My camera has some options to do some fun effects, which the kids love. Here I put a sweet beard and hairdo on my dad!

We were able to also play some Phase 10 with my parents and eat some brownies and ice-cream. We then Skyped the Haley's in Nebraska and got a tour of their new home through the computer. 

Christmas morning we got up and enjoyed a very good Christmas program that included a wonderful talk from our Bishop about Hope and Faith. We headed home to cook brunch. My uncle Steve and Grandma pulled up to the house shortly after we arrived home. It was fun to have them for Christmas day, and they drove a long way to be there for a short period of time. 

After eating brunch, we cleaned up and went to open presents. Kalee and I wanted to give each other presents while keeping a good budget. So we were limited to $75 for buying for one another. I told Kalee afterwards that she is the easiest  person I have ever shopped for. For the last couple of months, Kalee has been saying "I want these SOOOO bad, but I don't need them right now, so I won't buy them." This list included sunglasses, the game Wacky Six, a gift card to Wet Seal, and a new designer cup. Kalee got me what I had been wanting as well, because a couple of months ago I said "you could get me an electric screwdriver and bits for Christmas. Ha ha. I made her shopping easy as well. She also got me a new Journal, which I have been wanting for a while, and very nice polo shirt and some junk food. 

After we opened presents, Kalee and I drove to her grandparents home in Kimberly, ID. All her family from that side was together, and so we went down. As we entered the house, everyone was opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Krieger. As a big entrance, we wore these Santa shirts that my mom got us for our PJ's this year. Kinda goofy, but it was fun.

We also enjoyed a very special occasion that evening. We were able to talk to Elder Jared Dalton, Kalee's younger brother who is serving in the Perth, Australia Mission. Elder Dalton is doing great and sounded very good. He has been in a suburb of Perth since getting to the mission in September. He was transferred this week to an area 7 hours north of Perth, which is in the Outback. I am sure the more interesting stories will start to come in on the emails now. I was surprised, but no one cried until just before he hung up. Kalee might have been one of the people crying a lot. It was a very nice experience to talk with Elder Dalton, and it brought back a flood of memories for me.

Kalee and I have been spending some time with her Dad, which we have enjoyed greatly. Kalee's sister Melissa and and family went to California for a family trip this week, which has given Kalee and I a chance to really enjoy just chillin and spending time with her Dad. One of the things we have done is go back to Matt's (Kalee's Dad) house that he was staying in after he moved from Island Park. The house has been sitting empty for while as Matt is living with Melissa. It was kinda gross, but there were thousands of dead flies in the small ranch house. I don't know why, but there are TONS of them dead in there. The cold obviously has killed them, but why they are there in the first place, I do not know. Kalee is crunching them in the picture below.

An advantage to Kalee's sister being gone is that Kalee can wear her dresses! Ha ha. We went to the temple with Matt on Tuesday, which was a very neat experience.

After the temple, we went and visited Shoshone Falls. Although we see this everyday from Melissa's house, which is in the picture as a gray house near the upper right side, we don't see it from this view. So we went down and saw all the ice formations.

So far, Kalee and I have really been enjoying our time during the Holidays. We enjoy this time off, but are looking forward to the time where we are busy during the day with a full-time job.