First of all, sorry it has taken so long for us to update this. Zach started an update at the beginning of December but then got so busy with finals and was never able to finish it. So, I have taken the liberty to update about our Christmas vacation. We were able to go home to Idaho for almost 2 weeks. Some highlights of our vacation:
1. We were able to spend SO much time with both our families. It is nice to have our families only a half hour away from each other. We stayed with Zach's family the first half and with mine the second half but basically we were back and forth between Rexburg and Idaho Falls the whole time. We spent Christmas morning with Zach's family and were able to take part of the traditional breakfast. Zach's mom makes the most amazing sausage rolls. Actually, this is the only way that I will ever eat sausage! Zach's family completely surprised us and got us a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. We both love it! Yep, I caved...many of you know how against Nintendos I have always been...the Wii is so much fun though. We got to spend a lot of time with all of Zach's grandparents also, and even saw some of his extended family.
2. My older brother, Mike, and his family flew home for Christmas from North Carolina so it was great to have my family all together. We spent Christmas night with my family and the highlight was playing with our niece, Bella. She will be 2 years old next month and is just so cute! She is so smart too. The whole trip she would point at our shirts and tell us what color they were and she knows her letters already too. Her new favorite word during the trip became "Zach." Whenever Zach came into the same room as her she would start waving her hands and get all excited and say, "ZZZAAACHHH!!!" She also started saying my name which was, "Zach Ninny." ha ha. My parents got me a magic bullet which I absolutely love! I have used it almost everyday since we've been back!
3. It was great to see so much snow while we were home. It snowed almost everyday we were there. We miss having such extreme seasons. When we came back to Memphis, we turned on our air conditioning for a few days!
4. We were able to attend the Rexburg temple Open House with my family. It was amazing. The temple is so beautiful. I can't wait until we go back and can actually do a session there! Oh and a random fact we found out about the Rexburg temple, it has the largest sealing room of all the temples.
5. Of course we ate at Craigos while we were home...twice. ha ha! For all who don't know, Craigos is this amazing pizza, pasta, and salad buffet. We used to go all the time when we lived in Rexburg and we've missed it a lot. We were able to go once with Zach's family and once with my family. :)
6. We were able to go to our old BYU-I 67th ward. Before we moved to Memphis, this was the only ward we had been in since we were married so it was really hard to leave. It was great to see so many of our old friends from the ward and especially to see Bishop Beazer. Zach served as his first counselor for a little over a year and became really good friends with him.
7. It was great to see so many of our friends while we were home. My best friend from high school, Becky and I were able to have our traditional Fongs date. This has been a big tradition for us since high school. We were able to spend a lot of time with our friends Guy and Amy who came home from their Christmas in Portland early just to spend time with us! We used to hang out with them ever Saturday night and lots of other times during the week so it's been really hard to be away from them! We got to go bowling and play games with them like we used to. Amy and I were even able to go shopping together for a whole day and left the boys at home!
Our Christmas was wonderful. We loved being home with all our family and friends. It was a pretty emotional Christmas for both of us, mostly me though. I was just so thankful to be able to spend another Christmas with Zach. For those who don't know already, the week Zach passed his kidney stones he ended up back in the hospital because of a blood clot in his left calf. While he was in the hospital part of the clot broke off and moved to his left lung. We are both so thankful he was already in the hospital when it moved to his lung. He was hooked up to blood thinners the 4 days he was in the hospital and then they released him but he had to give himself 2 shots everyday for 5 days. He is now on a pill form of blood thinner for the next 6 months. Thank you to everyone who helped us during this scary time. We really appreciate all your thoughts and prayers for Zach. He is definitely my Christmas miracle. :)
