We spent Christmas in Elko with my parents and my sister’s family also down from her home in Oregon. The drive up there was not bad, I had some concerns about the weather but other than some rain in the northeastern part of Arizona, the rest of the way was pretty smooth. Driving through rural Nevada, I can only think of how lucky we are to have XM Radio in Sarah’s car. Satellite radio has put long road-trips on a different scale!

It was a fairly short trip but we managed to get some quality family time and our fair share of food. There was plenty to eat and I don’t think the kitchen had seen this kind of action probably since last year. We even ventured into the kitchen and made dinner for everyone on Saturday night.

Christmas eve is somewhat of our big day around the Heredia household. Sarah and I headed downtown around mid-morning for a cup of coffee and walk around a couple of stores that were open. We actually found some cool stuff. A new lamp for our house and even an extra present for my parents’ house. After a little while we headed back home to help with the evening’s preparations. We usually have a nice meal that evening before heading downstairs to exchange presents. Usually, presents are opened later in the evening but it would be too late for Marcelino. Actually, any time after sunrise is already too late for Marcelino to open his gifts under the tree. He even wanted to open presents first and have dinner afterwards. He was voted down!

We got some pretty good presents from the family. Sarah got a new Forerunner 301 from my parents as well as some stuff for the house. I got some pretty good presents as well, including a few items from the list. Sarah and I exchanged our presents at the end of the evening and we had some good laughs while going through our stocking.

Of course, I also need to mentioned about the mixed emotions that came with spending our first Christmas together. This was the first year that Sarah spent the season away from her family, which was a bit sad for all of us. We certainly had everyone in mind and in our hearts. It will take some getting used to but we’ll certainly make the most of our family-time regardless of which zip code we are in. We have also been thinking and praying for Dwight and hope he bounces back soon.

update: this post was stuck in draft mode for a few days as you can imagine. Photos from the weekend will be online soon too.