Christmas 2008

It isn't entirely over yet, but the "big bang" part of the holiday has come and gone. It was a little different this year, since my parents weren't here. I can only think of two Christmases in the last 17 years that we haven't spent with my parents and we all missed them. The girls even commented that it didn't seem like Christmas without Grandma and Papa here. We're excited for them to come home tomorrow, but we're happy they've had a wonderful visit with my sister and her family and my brother in Alaska (although they've been much colder than we have...it's been shirt sleeve weather all week!).

I'm proud to announce that my Christmas cards were actually mailed before Christmas this year. OK, so they got mailed on Christmas Eve. Technically, that counts as "before Christmas." LOL Maybe next year they'll get mailed earlier than that. I'm working on it!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We got a Wii and lots of games, and the girls got Nintendo DS's with lots of games. I have to put in a plug for the Personal Chef game -- we made a recipe from it last night and it was really good! Brain Age 2 and Crosswords have also been a huge hit. The favorite Wii game so far is Mario Kart (although I can't drive that darn thing to save my life!). The girls tried the Dancing with the Stars game last night and had a great time -- it's a good workout and we laughed and laughed and laughed.

DH and I ventured out yesterday morning to do some returns and found no lines in the stores (two people in front of me in one store but I didn't even wait 2 minutes)...none of the insanity I have come to expect on the day after Christmas. Then yesterday afternoon the girls and I went to the grocery store and stopped in at Target. Oh my goodness. It was a madhouse! Apparently everyone slept in yesterday and waited to hit the day after sales until afternoon. I was proud of myself for not buying any wrapping paper, gift boxes, gift bags, or tags -- I didn't even make a tiny dent in my stash this year!

I haven't been in to the office all week -- haven't even called in -- and it's been nice. I'm thinking about going by the office today to clean out my e-mail inbox...not to respond to anything, but just clean out the junk. I get the dreaded "your mailbox is over the allotted size" message every day and just thinking about how much stuff will be waiting for me when I go back to work in January is scary!

We're enjoying spending time together and just relaxing. Nothing has gotten done around the house (so much for my big plans of getting the house cleaned and organized while I was off work for two weeks!) but we've just been hanging out. I think it's important to do that, and especially important to do that together as a family. We've been eating lots of cookies (gotta love Pillsbury ready to bake cookies) and just spending time together.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful, happy Christmas filled with family, friends, fun, laughter, and love!

A Christmas Miracle

In the Everly Brothers song, "Unchained Melody," the lyric says that "time goes by so slowly..."...well, not in our world! I just realized that today is December 20.y goodness. December 20. SO much to do before Christmas comes!

It has been one heck of a roller coaster week. On Wednesday, we got the absolutely devastating news that my sister M's foster daughter, Adorable, was going to have to go with her biological mother into a drug rehab center shortly after Christmas, the first step to possibly losing her back to her parents (sadly, that would not be the best situation for Adorable). We have all become so attached to Adorable and feel so strongly that she is meant to be part of M and B's family. We were all devasted -- no one more than M and her husband. Imagine spending your first Christmas with your daughter, with the knowledge hanging over your head that shortly after Christmas you would be losing her. I know how much my heart ached at the news...and I know M and B were is much more pain than I was.

Many, many, many prayers were said -- by family, friends, and even dear friends who have never met my sister. My fried Gena sent me the most touching, fervent, heartfelt prayer in M and B's behalf. We are so thankful for all of those prayers...

Because, 23 hours later, M and B received their own Christmas miracle. We know that God still works miracles, and he worked one in our family. As a result of actions on the part of Adorable's biological mother, she will not be entering the inpatient drug rehab center and the caseworker will be asking the judge to move towards adoption (by M and B) instead of family reunification. They have gone from being a few steps from losing their daughter (yes, we all think of Adorable as their daughter already) to being much closer to having her as part of their eternal family.

I am reminded now, in a very personal way, of the first Christmas miracle. That miracle, too, involved a child. A child who came willingly to this earth, in the humblest of circumstances, to teach us the way back to our Heavenly Father, and to willingly give up his life so that we could all have the gift of eternal life. How grateful I am for that first Christmas miracle...and for the Christmas miracle our Heavenly Father has bestowed on our family.

It won't matter if the gifts don't get wrapped, if the cookies don't get baked, if the cards get mailed late. What matters is that we remember the true meaning of Christmas and focus on that. What matters is that we show Heavenly Father through our actions that we remember and understand the importance of that first Christmas miracle.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men."

December Comes too Fast...

It's December 1st already. It seems that I just barely got used to writing 2008 instead of 2007, and now it's almost time to start 2009. The older I get, the faster time goes by. When I was younger it seemed that Christmas would never come, and now that I'm an adult it seems to sneak up on me. So much to do!

All of the family who came in for Thanksgiving are gone now. It was so wonderful to see my sister and her husband and their foster daughter. She is so adorable! It was fun having two 2 1/2 year olds in my parents' house -- they got along really well (at least when I was around). It was also wonderful to see my grandfather and his wife. It saddens me that his health has declined, but he is still so sharp mentally. He really is one of the smartest people I know. It's always neat when family comes to visit and I'm sad when they leave.

I am hoping to be able to focus more on the meaning of Christmas this year and less on the commercial, materialistic side of the holiday. I need to spend more time thinking about why we celebrate the special holiday and about the miraculous blessing of the Savior's birth.

It's time to rearrange furniture in the living room and set up the Christmas tree...hang the stockings and lights...deck the halls...all of that. It's now "legal" (in my book) to listen to Christmas music and read Christmas-y story books (I have several and I love them). I am looking forward to sitting in the living room in the glow of the tree lights and just looking at it. It's so peaceful to do that -- one of my favorite things about Christmas is just sitting in the glow of the tree lights at night when it's quiet.

We are working on a Christmas cantata at church (I play the piano for the church choir). It is "First Christmas in Bethlehem/First Christmas in Zarahemla." One of my favorite parts of the Christmas story is the Wise Men...thinking about how they watched and waited and watched and waited for the sign of the Savior's birth, and then followed it. Action -- they took action. They didn't just see the star and say, "Gosh, there's the sign. Isn't that nice?" They did something -- they followed the star and went to find the Savior. I was thinking about that last night and today -- I am fortunate to have a strong testimony of the gospel and faith in the Savior...I have "seen the star", metaphorically speaking. But am I following it every day? Am I taking those actions I need to take in order to "find" the Savior? To become more Christ-like, a little more every day? Sadly, the answer is no. I need to work on that.

Another part of the Christmas story that I love is the angels who appeared to the shepherds...the singing. I like to think that I was there -- who knows, maybe they needed a pianist, because I certainly don't think my voice is fit for a heavenly choir! LOL But I like to think that I was there -- that I sang with joy at the Savior's birth.

Music is such an integral part of Christmas to me. So on this first day of December, my first gratitude of the Christmas season is music. I feel the Spirit more strongly through music, and find it easier to express my feelings through music than other ways. Feeling angry? Play something dark and stormy. Happy? Something light that moves quickly. Sad? Moonlight Sonata. Excited? Definitely fast and bouncy. I can't help but move and dance when I hear music. Music conveys thoughts, feelings, and emotions that I can't always easily put into words.

And so, to close this entry, I close with the words of those heavenly angels on that night so long ago -- which I am sure they were singing with all their might:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Merry Christmas!

I've had every intention of blogging every day for the last week...things just seem to get in the way! But today is Christmas and I really wanted to wish everyone (that would be all 5 people who read this blog, LOL!) a Merry Christmas!

My sister M and her DH are here visiting and we've had so much fun together. I'm sad that her visit is so short, but it has been wonderful to have her here. I'm enjoying some time off work and sleeping in (except this morning) has been great.

The ward choir sang on Sunday, despite 90% of the choir members being sick with various colds, sinus problems, etc. It was truly a Christmas miracle that most of the choir members were able to sing...one brother in particular was hardly able to speak before we started singing, but he sang beautifully and perfectly...right after Sacrament Meeting was over his voice started to go away again. I love music, and especially Christmas music. I enjoy being part of it.

We celebrated our traditional Christmas Eve last night...A and B put on a fun show filled with piano performances, two dances they choreographed themselves ("Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" will now be a perennial favorite), a story reading (story written by B and her uncle B), and of course the reading of the Christmas Story from the Bible. We were able to engage in some service activities that we enjoyed and had a huge Christmas dinner. Last minute errands and shopping throughout the day, of course, but it was really fabulous. Got to bed too late and got up too early...

The girls woke up bright and early to see what Santa brought. My parents and sister M and her DH came over for the opening of the gifts. Santa was very good to all of us, as usual. I'm looking forward to trying out my new Cricut and my new car stereo. We've spent the day with family, playing new games and watching new movies.

But it wouldn't be Christmas without an adventure of some sort...for us, it was locking ourselves out of our house this morning! ROTFLOL Yes, we really did. After we finished opening gifts at our house we decided to go to my parents' house for them to open gifts. Went out the front door and I didn't take my keys. DH doesn't have a house key right now (it got lost) and all of the doors were locked. DH had to break into our house. It really wasn't funny at the time, but it is now.

All in all, a completely wonderful Christmas. I'm excited to see what the new year holds for all of us.

I hope you have all enjoyed a merry Christmas, filled with fun and love and surrounded by family and friends!

All I Want for Christmas...

I'm a simple girl, really, with simple desires. For example, allow me to share my Christmas wish list:

1. Stockings (nylons, pantyhose, etc.) that don't run the first time I wear them, and that come in colors that at least somewhat resemble my actual skin tone. I really don't want my legs to scream, "Why, yes, I did use an exorbitant amount of cheap, expired self-tanning lotion last night!", nor do I want people to have to cover their eyes because of the glare coming off of my alabaster white legs. Surely the same scientists who invented that paper thin heat covering on the space shuttle could come up with something?

2. A self-cleaning house. If the house gets dirty by itself (because we all know that "not me" never makes a mess, so it must be the house messing up itself), then it should be able to clean itself. It's only logical.

3. Full-service gas stations that don't charge more than self-service. Oh wait, I haven't ever even seen a full-service gas station where I live! We had them in Anchorage, and it was wonderful in the winter or when you had your kids in the car. But, if we can't have full-service gas stations at the same price as self-service, could we at least have gas that doesn't stain everything and doesn't smell? That really isn't asking much.

4. Uniform clothing sizes for women and children. Men have it so easy!

See, that's not much, really! It's not like I asked for world peace (or is that whirled peas?)!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

at our house! Would you like to take a tour (of the part of the house that's decorated)? Please, come in!

This is our front door. Terribly exciting, isn't it? Maybe not...but it's really beautiful at night when the lights on the trees and the garland are turned on. I do need to replace the wreath on the front door but haven't found the right one yet.

I should mention that there is, obviously, no snow on the ground. That's because it was 80 degrees outside when I took these pictures this weekend. Insane, isn't it? Definitely not typical Christmas weather...

I found this wall hanging at a fun Christmas shop several years ago. I love its beautiful, muted colors. I prefer to decorate with burgundy, deep green and blue, and silver. I guess the rebel in me generally avoids traditional Christmas colors.

The exception to my Christmas color scheme is found hanging above our fireplace, in these beautiful Christmas stockings my MIL made for us. They are so pretty and festive and we love them. A commented the other day that she hoped Oma (German for Grandma) would be able to make stockings for her family when she gets married and has children. That's how much we love them!

It really wouldn't be Christmas without an advent

calendar of some sort so the kiddos can count down the days. B and I made this a few weeks ago with a Making Memories kit I found at Target. It was quick and easy...a fun project for the two of us to do together. It came with everything we needed, and then some. Each of the numbers is on the front of a little drawer. We put some candy (chocolate, of course) in each little drawer for a treat. I need to add a scripture verse and Christmas song to each drawer, also.

This is a wide view of our entertainment center. I don't know if you can see them or not, but the words "Love" and "Joy" and "Hope" are on top. I found those at Wal-Mart last year and I leave them up year round. The garland and poinsettias were aded for the holidays. The shelves look a little bare because I can't find some of the decorations I usually put out on the shelves. Guess that means I have to buy new ones!

This is the lovely nativity set I wrote about a few days ago. I love the soft, muted colors and the classic elegance of this set. It is set on a top shelf in the entertainment center, underneath a light that we like to turn on at night to illuminate the scene.

This is half of our glass tree "forest." Note the fake snow...since we don't have the real thing this will just have to do. It doesn't make as much of a mess as the flaky snow (confetti-type stuff) and isn't as hard to handle as that silky angel hair stuff. I have two shelves of these trees, one on each side of the entertainment center. I really would love to get more of these trees but haven't seen any anywhere in a few years. If you know where I can find some, please let me know!!

And of course, the Christmas tree. I'm still trying to achieve the look I want, but I'm happy

with the tree, generally speaking. We want to get a much taller, prelit tree...maybe next year. We definitely have enough room for a taller tree. I try to keep a theme of stars, hearts, dated silver bells (one for every year we've been married), with words (love, hope, joy, peace). I try to keep the color scheme to mostly burgundy, blue, green, silver, and white, but the girls love to add their special ornaments so the theme doesn't exactly stick every year. That's o.k., because someday they will be out on their own and will take their ornaments with them...and I will miss seeing them on our tree.

OK, so it's not Christmas-y, but I had to show you this fabulous vinyl lettering quote that my friend Sheila did for me. I love it! I'm going to frame some black and white pictures to hang with the quote. It takes up quite a large space on one of our walls (a few feet high and wide) and I love it! Check out her work... http://www.asimpleimpression.blogspot.com -- you'll be glad you did!




And finally, as you look up at this beautiful quote on the wall, the following message is spelled out atop our bookshelves....

I have a wall plaque that Sheila made for me, that says "Wise Men Still Seek Him" (you can see it on her blog, use the above link) and I really love it...just didn't get a picture of it. And I received one other wall plaque in the mail today but haven't had a chance to hang it up yet. It was made another friend of mine and it says "Believe."

Those are my closing thoughts for today's blog entry...."Wise Men Still Seek Him," "Believe," and "Merry Christmas!"

A Christmas "MeMe"

In honor of the Christmas season, I present this Christmas "Meme"...and invite everyone to post their own Christmas "MeMe".

Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, although we do use a few gift bags. And for gift exchanges with friends, I almost always use gift bags (much easier to deal with the clean-up when exchanging gifts at a restaurant!)

Do you have a Nativity scene? Yes, a special one received as a bridal shower gift. I love it.

Do you like eggnog? Yes, but only in small doses.

Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas (no contest on this one!). LOVE that movie!

Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail.

Easiest person to buy for? My girls or my sisters.

Hardest person to buy for? DH or my in-laws.

Real tree or artificial? Sadly, an artificial tree. I'm allergic to real ones.

Angel or star on the tree top? Star

Have you ever recycled a Christmas gift? Not that I can recall.

Favorite Christmas song? "Mary, Did You Know?" or "Mary's Lullaby" or "Homeless"...so many.

Do you travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home...DH's job doesn't allow us to travel for the holidays.

White lights or colored on the tree? Always clear lights.

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Anything chocolate or mint!

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Of course!

When do you put up the tree? The Saturday after Thanksgiving, usually.

What is your favorite place to go at Christmas? Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and anywhere my family is.

Open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Open one gift on Christmas Eve (usually from a sibling or cousin), and the rest of Christmas morning.

What do you love most about Christmas? All the sights, sounds, and smells...especially the music and smells!

Please Read This....

Melody Ross (yes, the founder of Chatterbox) has this beautiful post on her blog today...please take a moment to read it: http://melodyross.typepad.com/

And please keep it in mind as you go throughout this holiday season...may we all be observant and watchful, aware of opportunities to show love, kindness, compassion, gratitude, service, and charity. After all, 'tis the season!

Christmas 2006...over already?

It's now December 27. Christmas Day is officially over...too soon. Usually I feel the Christmas spirit very early in December. I love it. I love everything about it. This year, though, things were different...strange...delayed. And I didn't love it. Maybe it was that I didn't have the Christmas shopping finished in early December like I usually do. I felt so rushed at the end, trying to find the perfect gifts at the perfect prices (is it just me, or is that getting harder every year?). Or maybe it was because we were so busy between work, school, the girls' activities, church, and everything else that there just wasn't time to sit down and absorb the Christmas-y-ness that was all around us. Maybe it was because the stores put out their Christmas displays before Halloween (there ought to be a law....) and it just felt too commercial, too overdone. I don't know. Whatever it was, I didn't like it at all. Even after we went to bed on Christmas Eve (after panicking over a missing gift, which was finally found), I told DH that I just didn't feel it this year. And I was so sad about it.

But then, at 6:30 a.m. on Christmas morning, I heard the girls up and about, in the bathroom. They told us they were going to get up at 6:30 to get their hair and teeth brushed and get all ready to open their gifts. LOL! Hearing them giggling together, 12-year-old A helping 7-year-old B, getting along, warmed my heart. It started...that Christmas-y feeling I had been searching for all month. The girls bounced into our room at 6:45. The rule in our house is that they aren't allowed into the living room until 7 a.m....DH wanted to give in but I wanted to build the anticipation a bit longer, while we waited for Grandma and Papa to arrive for the fun. According to the girls, it was 7:02 when we finally let them out into the living room.

Usually there are very large, unwrapped gifts awaiting the family. One year it was a huge Barbie house...another year it was a ride-on Barbie 4-wheeler. As the girls have gotten older the gifts have gotten smaller, but more expensive (read: Electronics). It seemed a bit bare and sparse and I was hoping the girls would love their gifts. They did!! A was especially excited about her cell phone and upcoming trip to Massachusetts to visit Aunt M and Uncle B and see SNOW (she has missed it terribly since we left Alaska).

Brienna was thrilled with everything she got. She loves that monkey Bobby Jack, and her favorites were a monkey pillow and a stuffed Bobby Jack monkey from Grandma and a Bobby Jack fleece hoodie from Grandma Gaye. Of course, she also loves the new bedding Santa brought her!

Santa was very good to me this year. After years of doing my own Christmas shopping, I decided to let Santa handle it himself this year. And he was wonderful! An iPod Nano, a beautiful ring, a gorgeous bracelet...a lovely sweater from A along with a soft pillow she crocheted herself, and a really nice black handbag from B along with a name sign she hand painted for me...I was truly spoiled this year and it was so much fun to be surprised with my gifts! Santa brought DH a small fridge for his classroom and he also got a new stereo receiver, so he was happy as well.

Later in the morning we went to Grandma and Papa's house where we were further spoiled. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the new games Santa brought us (Deal or No Deal, Rummikub, and Blokus -- all huge hits!), spending time with our family, and especially enjoying baby N, my sister's son. It was a beautiful day. It made me so grateful that we are blessed to live near family (right around the block!) and be a part of each other's daily lives, and share these special holidays. We spent time on the phone with extended family and siblings and missed them so much...hopefully next year more of us will be together.

All in all, it was a beautiful Christmas...everything I could have asked for and more...it just ended too soon.