A Decade of Love: December

In 2005, I worked at Nu Skin, in the mail services department, first floor of the big blue highrise in Provo. It was the best job ever. Pushing a mailcart through a fancy office building, sorting packages, taping up boxes, and stuffing evnvelopes. And that was just an hour of work spread over a 4-and-half hour shift. The rest of the time we did homework, surfed the web, listened to my boss's homemade ringtones, and talked. Another great perk of that job was Nu Skin's Christmas party. They gave everyone an iPod that year. I sold it online and bought my first digital camera. Pictures of Justin and I pick up at this point.

See, there was a purpose to that story.

Do I share non-Justin related things in these posts? Here's a quick one: My roommate from a year earlier, Diane Johnson came to visit me from Nevada. She transferred to some Nevada university because Nevadians get free tuition due to some settlement with the tobacco companies. Or was it casinos? I don't remember. Anyway, we bought tickets to see U2 in concert before she left and that December she came back for it. We were pretty obnoxious together. I miss her. I miss that shirt. Bono is weird.

Justin checking out my awesome new flip phone. I miss that phone.

 Distracting the driver.

This is at my aunt Karen's house but I don't remember why we were there. Or why we were doing this.

Christmas Eve. My parents were living in Alaska at this time and they brought me back a moose hat. I made Justin wear it. I've made a lot of people wear it.

Yup, pretty happy with how he looks.

My mom thinks it's funny to give me slightly weird gifts like this wedding cake topper.

 I was not engaged at this point in time. And I did not use it.

This is Justin's 22 birthday. He once said he liked the Messiah Series by Bruce R. McConkie so I wanted to get him the complete set. It was out of print. I called every LDS bookstore, checked online. I found it at a Deseret Book in Cedar City so I sent my mom and dad down there to get it. Okay, they were heading to St. George so it worked out. Every year since there seems to be this impossible gift I'm trying to get for him and here's where it started.

 See that? He just realized how much I loved him.

 He used to wear suits. Here we are just going to church.

I don't remember much else about that month but I do like this picture. Couches set up in stadium seating, fake Christmas tree left behind by precious tenants, homemade snowflake decorations. Ah, college.

Christmas Kids

I think it's just the age my kid are at but Christmas is a very.big.deal. this year. Sarah is counting down days and announces each morning how many more we have to go, Henry is asking all sorts of good questions about Santa that I don't know how to answer, Erica is calling every bearded man she sees either Santa or Jesus (depending on the color of the beard). Yup, I'd say we are rich in the Christmas spirit around here. It's great.

Okay, I'm a little stressed with my to-do list but I'm learning to just let things go. I think what makes Christmas the most magical and spiritual is if mom isn't stressed and cranky. So if I can't make gingerbread houses without losing my cool (I can't), we'll just shelve the idea. Or who says fudge can only be made in December? If I don't get to that fifth batch this week, we'll do it in January. Or February. Or both. Will I look back and think this was a good Christmas because we did all the Christmasy things on my mental list or will I think it was good because we enjoyed it? Even if that means just watching Garfield's Christmas for the eighth time in our pajamas.

Alright, enough about me. Here's some cute kids all festive-like.

This hat was a prize and Erica loves to wear it. She did not like when I took a picture of her instead of showing her the screen of my camera. "I see!"

 Monday morning we woke up to a ton of snow. Henry wanted to go out at 8 am and play in it and I said no, too cold. But by 10, he had worn me down and I relented. I got a knock at the back door and Henry had brought me "the biggest snowball in the whole world."

I went out to shovel and he collected more "biggest snowballs in the whole world." He's pretty much hilarious to listen to when he's playing in the snow. He kept saying things like "I'm the snowball expert, Mom, and you're the shovel expert." And "I can't wait for it to snow again!" literally while snow was falling. "It's snowing right now, bud." "I know! I just love snow. Snow snow snow."

Sarah came home from school and in one swift movement, hung up her backpack and pulled on her snowpants and was back outside. They played long after the sun went down.

I'm glad someone appreciates our slick, steep driveway in the winter.

Justin was working late that night and after we ate, I asked Sarah to double-check that the sleds and shovel were out of his way. A minute later, I heard the sound of this.  Best kid ever. Justin came home a few minutes later and finished up for her. I hope the neighbors didn't think I had sent her out there.

 My kids were being so sweet gathered together around the tree so I tried to sneakily capture it.

Aww, they are so sweet.

 They are also this:

 And this:

 And this: (Erica is developing her pouting skills. Lovely.)

 But they are also this:

 And yet this: (I convinced her to join us so she stood right in front with her arms still folded.)

 But they are this and I love that.

 My kids' school does a cute "wish list" tree outside of the classrooms where teachers can write what they need for their classroom or want for Christmas and parents can take an ornament and buy the gift. It was mostly all basic school supplies and restaurant and store giftcards. Not on their wishlist: cheap Christmas mugs filled with candy which was what I gave my teachers every year. I know now.

A December to Remember

The only day that comes close the excitement of Christmas around here is the day we put up the tree.

I was most excited to watch Erica see all the decorations since this is all new to her.

And I did a really good job letting the kids decorate the tree themselves. I don't think them hearing me say "space them out more" and "don't put so many red ones on the same branch" make for holiday cheer. I figured I'd let them have their fun and I'd make it how I like it after they went to bed. It's been a week and I still haven't rearranged anything. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Henry enjoyed it a little more this year too. Usually he gets frustrated with the hooks but I think he has the coordination now.

Have you seen Henry?

There he is!

Erica got to do the honors of putting up the star.

She is very intrigued by the countdown pockets. She'll bring me ornaments from the pockets then I have to feel them all to see which one she pulled it from. It's a great game.

I love these houses so much. They were my favorite when I was little and my mom lent them to me when Sarah was just a baby. Six years later I still have them and I may never give them back. Sorry siblings.

Eating a cracker and enjoying the new sparkly things to look at.

Last weekend was a weekend of parties. Friday night was Justin's work party. We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building at Temple Square for a prime rib dinner. I always look forward to going to a nice place and a reason to dress up. And I am undefeated for the third year for their prize. This year I won five jars of treats. Last year I won these glass goblet candle holders which the kids LOVE but I think they're tacky 

Okay, they're kind of growing on me. If they were my mom's I'd probably borrow them and never give them back.

The time before that I won a mixing bowl filled with ingredients to make sugar cookies. But it's not about the prizes. It's about beating engineers in games of skill and chance.

Saturday morning Sarah had cousin Allison's 7th birthday party and I had a baby shower for Justin's best friend Dave's wife Jill. That afternoon Sarah had another birthday party for her friend in the neighborhood then we had our ward party that night. 

The primary kids could dress up as wisemen, angels, or shepherds. Henry wanted to be a sheep. Erica's coat turned inside out made a good sheep costume as well.

Sarah was a shepherd just like last year.

Cute little lamb.

Erica wanted to go up with the kids which was no surprise. Henry wouldn't go up when the time came which was no surprise.

I love stuff like this.

Next we went to see Santa. Erica liked to watch him but wouldn't get close.

Sarah, on the otherhand, went right up and told him she wanted a kids sewing machine.

Henry said he wanted to see Santa so I took him back in. But as the line got shorter, he stopped moving. I asked him if he just wanted to watch him for a minute and he said yes so we stood to the side for awhile. 

Then we ate cookies, made an ornament and left. But then Sarah discovered she lost her watch so we turned around and went back. We asked a family that was still there if they had the watch and their little boy said yes and that he gave it back to Sarah. "Did he?" I asked her. "Yeah" "So where is it? Did you lose it again after that?" "Yeah" She lost it, found it and lost it again at the ward party. Too bad, I told her. As we were getting into the car she said "I found it! It slid all the way up my arm." Sure enough, it was near her armpit inside of her coat. Sunday evening we had cake for Allison with the rest of the family. Whew! There were a lot of gift bags that weekend. I hope everyone ended up with the right present.

Nadine also stayed with us this weekend while the movers packed up her house and headed out. She flew out today and we had to say goodbye this morning. I think she'll like this picture of Erica. It pretty much captures her personality and stage she's at right now.

Since there's nowhere to hide a bowl of this size in my house without me knowing, I got an early Christmas present from Nadine. It's for stirring caramel popcorn or stirring other obscene amounts of delicious treats. It's the biggest bowl I've ever seen.





Today while Henry was playing with the toy kitchen with his buddy Dexter I heard him say "I'm the best pie maker in the whole wide world and you're just a regular kid coming to get one of my best best pies." Henry's humility is impressive.