Familia Balanzategui Pastor: The JOY of the holidays!

So this year we were convinced to stay in Delaware and at the last minute we decided to fly out to Utah and suprise family. (I think mentally Jacob and I had decided that it would be much of a hazzle for me to fly and be in a plane ride for 4+ hours. We had convinced ourselves that I was unable to fly. When at one of our OBGYN visits I asked our doctor about flying and he said it wouldn't be a problem. We got home and started looking for tickets.) This year it was our turn to spend it with Jacob's family.

Pre-Christmas in Delaware...
Of course, we had our own Christmas celebration before heading out to UT so that we did not have to carry our gifts back and forth. We were going to be gone for two weeks and decided to open the gifts Saturday morning. We were leaving Monday morning. Malachi loved the idea!

{Abuelito & Abuelita Pastor's gift for Malachi}

*Funny story with this gift. Malachi and I had gone to Walmart a week prior to opening this gift to buy a gift Jacob needed for a business party. Malach spotted this Batman car and fell in love with it. Usually Malachi is pretty good about looking at toys at the store and then when it's time to go letting them go. Not with this toy. He was very upset about it. I could not get rid of it. Finally, I remembered talking to my mom about what they had bought him and realized after calling her it was the same toy found under our Christmas tree. I had to tell Malachi that Abuelito/Abuelita's Christmas gift was the Batman car. That is the only way I got the toy away from him. So when he was opening this gift he knew and was very excited!

{I got jewelery and clothes}

{I don't know who was more excited about this, Jacob or Malachi}

{Jacob's big gift. He got business clothes and a CD he'd been wanting}

That night, the bishopric, other leaders and their families were getting together to go caroling. We made sugar cookies for the event.

Christmas in Utah...

Malachi is a great sport when it comes to flying. He's been on an airplane 5 times in the last year. Last Christmas to Texas, our trip to Philly before moving out to the East to look for a place to live, and this Christmas. He loves airplanes. He calls them "Jets" because of Little Einsteins, mean Big Jet, Rocket's enemy. Malachi loves flying. He enjoys it and is overall well behaved. As long as he has his coloring book, iPad, and toys he's content...oh yeah and his nap time.

I was excited that I was able to see Norma before she headed to Texas for the holidays! So was Malachi! We met up at Cafe Rio and had dinner Tuesday night.