Utah Visit: Family pictures & Ian & Tykena's wedding dinner

In November we went back to Utah for Ian and Tykena's wedding. It was a good excuse to fly out for a visit since we weren't going to make it for Christmas (I couldn't get the time off of work). On Friday Joe and I met the family at Cafe Rio, because we always need to there when we come to Utah. Afterward we all went up to Memory Grove to take some family photos. It was the first "official" Grigg family photo session, so we all dressed up and tried to look cute. Even though the day was chilly and overcast, it made for a beautiful setting and the lighting was perfect for taking pictures. I don't have any of the official ones yet, but here are a few I snapped while moving between spots in the park.

This one was taken by Dana Sohm, the photographer we used

We had some time between photo taking and Ian & Tykena's wedding dinner, so we stopped over to Nate and Libby's house for some Rockband rock out! This started Joe's obsession with Rockband, which is why we had to get it for our Christmas present to ourselves.
Robbie was a great drummer and Sharon really got into being the lead singer.

Robbie is taking after his dad

Sharon totally rocked out

Nate and Libby were great hosts and made us gourmet hot chocolate, each a different flavor!

For Ian and Tykena's wedding dinner we went to one of their favorite Chinese restaurants in Bountiful. The decor was very elaborate and the food was good. Here are some pictures of the people and speeches.Maid of Honor

Best Man Hunter & Jordon

Tykena had a hard time with her dad's triangle talk :)

Tykena's mom giving great advice

After dinner a few of us went to the church where the reception would be to help set things up. It was a lot of work, and we didn't stay all night, but we managed to get most of it set up.

A Braselton Christmas

Well, I guess since I've been a total slacker, I'll have to get back to posting our Disney pictures once I blog about Christmas. So here we go.

For Christmas Eve, Emily was nice enough to invite us over, so we went over to the Nicolich's for dinner. We settled on having ham and potatoes, just like what we would have if we were back in Utah. It was fun to spend the evening with Bill and Emily and their girls. And of course the food was awesome. Emily did a spiral ham with orange-horseradish glaze, and Joe decided he wanted to make "funeral" potatoes and a yam & apple casserole. It all turned out awesome.















I unfortunately ruined the pumpkin pie! It looked really good, but I totally forgot to put in the sugar!
After dinner, Joe had a quick violin lesson from Emily, which was totally fun. He wants to add violin skills to the guitar and banjo ones he already has.





















Sally and Alice got cute matching jammies, which Sally wasn't exactly excited about, but really, what 2 year old is excited to open a present of jammies? Still, they both looked cute in them














We watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas, and I helped Emily build some awesome blocks for Sally. Joe and Bill got some video game time, which is always necessary. It was a great Christmas Eve party, Bob wants us to call it, The Griglich, which is fine.


Joe and I went home and slept on one of our presents to ourselves. . . a new memory foam mattress topper! Super exciting! But really, it's totally awesome. In the morning we woke up to open our 3 brown boxes that we received in the mail from family and Rock Band 2!
Joe really wanted Rock Band, and when we saw the last one in Costco we decided to just do it, another gift to ourselves. We got jammies, a San Francisco puzzle & an awesome "card" from Joe's parents. My parents sent us a great book of art from James C. Christensen, Joe is really excited, he's one of his favorite artists.
My brother bought me the Gospel Art Picture kit which I had asked for, I'm excited to have it.






After opening all of our stuff we started on making our Christmas day meal. We sort of missed a traditional Thanksgiving, with turkey and what not, so we made up for it. The meal turned out nice, and Joe is so good to touch the nasty gross turkey!















Later in the evening we went over to the MacPherson's, Emily and Bill came too. We played some awesome Fusion Frenzy and had a nice Christmas chat.















Our Christmas was really nice, even though we weren't around family, which would have been the best. But it was low key, and virtually stress free. Joe and I made a pact that we wouldn't buy each other any gifts. Not having to stress about buying gifts for each other was great, we were able to focus on just being together. We also decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for a family this year. I had done this growing up and decided we should do something special for someone else this year. It was a lot of fun, it's about the only time you can doorbell ditch someone and feel OK about it. I hope the family enjoyed it as much as we did.
Here are a few Christmas day photos:


































Joe actually bought me this Willow Tree Nativity last year, but this was the first time putting it up. I totally love it.


Find the hidden Mickey!