Adventures of an Idaho Christmas

We are home from our incredibly WHITE Christmas spent in Idaho with my family. It snowed and snowed and snowed.... the only day it didn't snow was Christmas day! It was such a wonderful holiday with my family, but full of funny and memorable moments! Above is the latest from the Karen Anderson Photography Studio. Thanks, Mom!! We love our family portrait!!

I am a very bad blogger/photographer because this is the only picture with any snow in it!!

As many of you know, my dad is an avid hunter. He has a wide collection of heads and literal stuffed animals from his crazy adventures in Alaska & Canada... So, this white sheep became Rowan's most loved fascination this Christmas. He would point and squeal and say "Baa" over and over again. He would cry if we took him out of that room and away from his sheep. No matter where he was in the house, when you'd say, "Where's the sheep, Rowan?" He would look and point to the office where it was at and say "Baa"! He loved that sheep... too bad it couldn't come home with us...
My dad has another head (a caribou) that he was showing Rowan here. But, his fascination was still with the sheep, he didn't care so much for the caribou, but did love sitting on Grandpa's lap hearing the tales of the hunt.
Christmas morning was so fun for Rowan, so many presents and toys to play with!! He had a nasty cold which kept him up at night with a fever so his Christmas morning was cut short by the need for a nap, but he enjoyed it while it lasted.

My lovely Grandma Jody came over on Christmas day and babysat our little sheep boy while we went to see National Treasure (SOO GOOD!) Unfortunately, we missed the 5 o'clock show, so we had to wait for the 7 o'clock... No big deal, we thought, we'll just go grab something to eat... Little did we know that the entire town of Idaho Falls literally shuts down on Christmas... and I mean, shuts down. It was eerie. We drove through the entire town, everything was closed. EVERYTHING. Even Taco Bell, even McDonald's, every restaurant, fast-food joint, everything. I mean, we've all seen the movies where some Asian restaurant is open on Christmas, but even those were closed! We drove around laughing hysterically that we'd have to resort to eating at Maverick (for you Utah/Idahoans, you know Maverick - a gas station with apparently great hot dogs). And, so it happened. Our Christmas dinner consisted of Maverick hot dogs, beef sticks, Doritos, Chex Mix, gas station nachos, microwaved burritos with questionable contents, bean dip and licorice. YUM! We seriously laughed the whole night about our culinary adventure in the ghost town of IF. So, word for the future - don't try and eat out on Christmas day in a small town... you might end up with a plump hot dog to satisfy your Christmas cravings.

Of course, the highlight gift of the season was Rowan's new toy gun from Grandpa. Much to my brothers and husband's dismay, it was announced that the gun collection was getting passed to Rowan in my dad's will. :) Lucky little boy!
He is definitely getting closer to walking! He took a few steps between me and my dad and Mark and just loves to walk around everywhere holding your hands... It's only a matter of time now before he lets go and does it on his own! I'm so ready... he's heavy to carry around.

As for my Christmas, I got the long-awaited Kitchenaid!! Thank you, Mark! And, I get to pick out a lens from Pictureline from my parents and I can't wait!! I am really wanting to unlock the secrets to this whole photography thing... so we'll see what pictures 2008 will bring!

Happy New Year to you all.