So the Korea thing didn't work out

December 17 will forever be known as the Worst Day of Bowman's Life. They canceled our flights! Canceled! It was heartbreaking, but we survived, got our money back, and had a really fun Christmas stateside. We got to the Salt Lake airport early in the morning, only to learn after a few hours that they canceled our flight to San Francisco. They were rebooking everyone on the flight, which would have been fine, except that we had a flight to catch from San Francisco to South Korea!! After a long day of looking at options and finding out none of them worked for us, we came back home and found ourselves some new holiday plans.

We got to see my family, who were in town for a wedding! Then we rearranged our already-packed bags and drove down to southern Utah to spend Christmas with some of Bowman's family. We had a great time, and we drowned our sorrows in the suitcase full of American treats we were supposed to take to the Korean children. :)

Some pictures from the beginning of December that I never posted, and then our Christmas ones:

Bowman brought home a sucker from the bank and guess what? She loved it. So much that a bath was in order a few minutes later.

It was incredibly warm at the beginning of December, so we enjoyed it while it lasted!

Maceys had the most wonderful thing to ever grace the aisles of a grocery store: Kids Dress Up Like a Reindeer station! This was the best shopping trip we've ever taken!

The second greatest idea ever: Kids decorate sugar cookies for free!!

Third best: Free sample ice cream cones!

It gets better! Olives!

Rayna got the most beautiful Christmas dress from my Grandma and Grandpa. Thank you! We love it! She is such a cute baby in this dress.

Riding a donkey. She wasn't exactly a fan.

At my cousin Marisa's wedding, playing with Nadia and Avy at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

At the wedding reception: Grandma, me, Ray, my mom

Her little curls were so perfect after her bath!

 We went to Enterprise, UT to Bowman's sister's house for Christmas. It was so fun for Rayna to hang out with her grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins. Dane and Miriam are such good hosts, and we had the best time.

Christmas morning at Dane and Miriam's! Rayna was in heaven with the toys and wrapping paper and kids and sounds and lights and candy... she loved it and happily crawled through the melee the entire time.

New hair clips from Santa

Sally! She is so cute, but the real story is about the toy she's holding... The kids got these wonderful little animals for Christmas, the wonderful part being that they were indestructible. No breakable parts, pieces, etc. Well, not three hours after opening them we came upon a little misshapen plastic corpse laying on the carpet... What used to be a fuzzy bear, with its velveteen coating chewed off by Sally's merciless teeth! Hahahaha, we laughed a long time about that. Indestructible hmm?

Rayna and Ginny are only a month apart. They were so cute because neither one was interested in unwrapping anything, just trekking back and forth across through the debris.

All the kiddies in their pajamas from Grandma: Sally, Ginny, Tacey, Sam, Rayna, and Nolan. We love them!

Santa gave Rayna her own little elastics, which meant the cutest pigtails I have ever seen!!!

I alternated between swooning and taking pictures they entire day she had them in.

 Here are a couple of videos from Christmas. Rayna is becoming such a little clown. She is a master of faking and entertaining. She loves to do little fake smiles and fake laughs and fake coughs to get people to look at her and laugh. My favorite thing she does is get a mouthful of food, then do a cheesy closed-mouth smile with squinty closed eyes to whoever will watch while she eats it.

 

Her cousins had a little bouncy horse that she loved.  She could bounce it all by herself! Bowman's got quite the tune going on in the video too... :) Good job Bow.