The perfect place to be in December...

Marcus and I went to Arizona this weekend to see my family before Christmas. It was a very fast trip, but luckily the weather held out for us-- it was so nice. I loved how you could just take an extra sweatshirt with you outside. Perfect. I don't have pictures of everything we did, but I have some highlights. I wish I had taken pictures with the Shields, but I may get another chance while they're here in Utah. And if you could take pictures in the airport, I definitely would have documented Marcus' experience with security given he left a pocket knife gadget in his backpack... haha. Anyway, I do have pictures from the Desert Botanical Gardens where they have luminaries set up for Christmas. We'll start there...

You can't see how many luminaries there were in these pictures, but you'd be amazed. Plus, they all have real candles in them! It must have taken hours to light them. My mom kept walking through as I tried to take this picture :)

And I had to add a crazy cactus picture.

A group (Campanillas del Sol) was playing bells inside-- pretty cool!

This is Marcus' favorite picture of the night:

This guy is a world percussionist, so we listened to him for awhile too:

Marcus and I went with my dad and grandpa to see Trevor play basketball in Wickenburg. His team is fun to watch-- there's definitely a lot of personality on the court :)

And they won the tournament!!!

We also went to Trevor's last Christmas piano recital. I don't think I had been to a piano recital in a long time-- it was fun.

Somehow I convinced my parents to open their Christmas gifts from us, but Trevor would not open his early.

Allegro must have wanted a present too...

I'm guessing Charlie liked us being in Arizona. Or if he didn't, he liked to lay on our laundry piles. Ha.

Right before we left town, we have the privilege to meet Claremont, the friendly neighborhood rooster. Seriously, a rooster in Phoenix.

It was a quick trip, but I'm glad we went. It was really nice to warm up a bit, and it was just in time. We got back late Monday night, right before tons of snow hit Provo.