December

Let's see... December. Does anything really happen then? I guess we did a few things, saw a few people, ate a little food, participated in some great American consumerism, and then tried to recover from it all.

Actually the real thing we had to recover from was our trip home. We had gone to the pediatrician and asked him for a sedative for O's flight-- he gave us valium. We figured we'd use that as a last resort but after getting only an hour of sleep before heading to the airport three hours before our flight in a vain effort to secure a bassinet for O, we gave in. Honestly all I remember from that flight is that by the time we landed in SLC we were explaining pitifully to everyone around us that we had given O valium but had been traveling for twenty-four hours and didn't know what else we could do. He was just squirming and fussing and slept I believe a total of on hour the whole trip. No no no fun. Found out later that valium just kind of lowers inhibitions but doesn't necessarily put babies to sleep. Basically O felt no qualms about letting his emotions all out.

But we made it home and got to enjoy time with family and friends. We stayed in Salt Lake for Christmas and then headed to St. George for some Benson Family Time. We were lucky enough to get Abram and Arin and Dad to Utah but missed Lauritz and Michelle-- they had some excuse about having a baby or something. I was quite grateful for the sacrifices everyone made to be there especially since it always seems that Christmas is the time to throw everyone we love in one place and then try to spend enough time with everyone with whom all you want to do is spend more and more time. There's something sadistic about it-- like putting a diabetic in a candy shop once a year.

St. George was fantastic because it let us focus on visiting with just one side of the family. There was hiking, nightly family fiestas, the big family photo, and of course, family germ sharing. New Year's Eve I came down with some really nasty cold. It stuck around until we got to California and broke down and had a doctor come out to the house. A house call-- yes, they still do that if you have our insurance. Did I mention that in order to get to Dad's we had to drive through Bakersfield? We stayed the night there and thankfully had to leave early enough in the morning that fog covered the whole city and we didn't have to see a thing.

Here are our best photos from December. Enjoy.