Merry Christmas



'Twas three days before Christmas ...

We're five days into Christmas break and the big day is only three days away.  The excitement is definitely building.

Here's what we've done to keep ourselves busy the past few days ...

Saturday:  Skied at Park City and then ate in Heber at The Stew Pot.  Wow, the skiing was superb and dinner was amazing ... homemade chips with fresh salsa and delicious french onion soup.  Mmmm.  I'm trying to find an excuse to drive to Heber again real soon.

Sunday:  Went to church and relaxed at home.  That night we watched "A Christmas Story" and laughed. a lot.

Monday:  The boys and I went to see "Despicable Me," then spent the afternoon baking our gingerbread house.  That night we delivered neighbor gifts while sipping hot chocolate.  After the boys went to bed, Ben helped me try to assemble the gingerbread house.  Whoever decided that it's a good idea to use burning-hot-and-very-sticky-melted-sugar to glue these things together was crazy.  By 11 pm, I contemplated throwing the gingerbread house out the window after dropping one "wall" on the floor and breaking it in half.  I came to my senses, glued it back together with the "melted sugar glue" and we finished the uneasy task of assembling the gingerbread house.

Tuesday:  Decorated beloved gingerbread house, and did a little shopping (much to the boys dismay).

And, here's a little of what's planned for the rest of the week: 

Tonight we'll go to Fat Cats with friends

Tomorrow night we'll party with family at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building while over-looking the lights at Temple Square

Friday (Christmas Eve!) is the Annual Thomas Christmas Eve Extravaganza (yes ... I just made that name up) where we go bowling and then spend the evening at Ben's parent's home.  We'll eat prime rib, read a Christmas story, and ring the Christmas bells.

Christmas Day we'll open presents (if Santa comes!), go to the Emery's for scrumptious brunch ... quiche, then we'll visit the Thomases, and then come home and enjoy being together.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas-time favorites ... part 2

A few more things I love about Christmas-time ...

* my Christmas ornaments:

I've collected ornaments for as long as I can remember.  It's so fun to pull them out every year and remember where each one came from.

Some remind me of when I was little.

 Some remind me of my mom.

Some remind me of trips I've been on.  (I always try to buy an ornament when we're on a trip.)

And some remind me of my kids.

* receiving Christmas cards:

I always "decorate" a door in my kitchen with all of the Christmas cards sent to us.  I love to walk by and see so many cute pictures and messages from family and friends.  It makes me feel so blessed.

* and last but not least ... boys sleeping in Santa hats:

Love it.

Christmas-time favorites ... part 1

Wow, the month of December is crazy.  I'm beginning to wonder if the errands and to-do lists will ever end.  But even with all the endless tasks, unavoidable stress and sleep deprivation, I really do love this season.  There's a feeling of excitement and peace and love all rolled up together.

Each year, I love pulling out all my Christmas decorations and making my house feel "Christmas-y."  And, while the garlands, wreaths, and candles all add to that special feeling around my house, I have a few items that I really, really love.  Here are some of them ...

* my Christmas stockings:



I knit these beauties a few years back with my own two little hands.  Each one took countless hours (I'm not a very speedy knitter).  Maybe that's why I like them so much.

* my nutcrackers:

A soldier, a king, Santa, a hiker, a peddler, a shepherd, and more.  Some were painted by my cute mom, some were gifts from her, and I brought some back from Europe years ago.  I don't necessarily have a favorite.  Each is special for a different reason ... the fur scarf worn by the shepherd is the softest fur you can imagine ... the green baron was the first one my mom ever painted for me ... I brought the hiker back from Germany and it reminds me of hiking in Germany and Switzerland ... I could list something special about each one.  My boys love to see these old friends re-appear each year.

thanksgiving

Thanksgiving (well, the whole Thanksgiving weekend, actually) was fabulous.  Filled with family, great food, and lots of fun.  We jam-packed all we could into those four days.  Thursday morning Ben took the boys to help feed the homeless while I started preparing the big feast.  They returned a few hours later with ... 1) a greater appreciation for our comfortable home, and 2) lots of great (and quite humerous) stories about the wonderful people they met (Father Time made quite an impression).  Then, while the smell of turkey and stuffing gradually filled the house, the boys watched football games and wrestled.

  

Grandma Net, Grandpa Ralph, Grandma Margie, Grandpa Dave and Justin came for dinner, and then the Mounteers joined us and we played games until bedtime.

Friday, Emery skiied at Powder Mountain (he bought a season pass this year), and then we went to the Thomases for yet another yummy Thanksgiving feast.  We also saw Mega Mind that night ... good show!

The rest of the weekend we relaxed, watched the Utes barely beat the Cougs, did a little shopping, and played lots of Wii Wipe-Out (which, by the way, is really, really funny).

It was a great weekend!  Happy Thanksgiving!

PS ... Every time Emery goes skiiing, he gets all of his clothes and gear ready the night before.  Thermals, clothing layers, gloves, hat, helmet, skiis, boots, poles, everything.  And for the last few years, he has always laid it all out in his room like this ... 



It cracks me up every time I walk in his room and see it!

grateful

This Thanksgiving season, I'm thankful for lots of things.  Of course, the gospel and my family top the list.  Good health, wonderful friends, our home, and Ben's job are also right up there at the top.  But there are also tons of little things that pop into my mind every day that I'm grateful for.  Of course, these change on a daily basis, but here are a few that come to mind right now ...

the sound of my boys laughter when they're playing together

the toys that are strewn across the basement after an afternoon of imaginative play

game nights and movie nights

a husband and boys that make me laugh

the turkey sandwich at The Dodo

vacations

peanut m&ms and Dr. Pepper

and I'm really thankful that our front yard now looks like this ...



The backyard is another story.  Lots of dirt and weeds.  Maybe next year!

halloween 2010

Nacho, Spiderman and Coach had a spooktacular Halloween.  Coach hung out with friends while Nacho and Spidey went trick-or-treating.  The rain didn't seem to hinder the festivities at all.  They all ended up with plenty-o-candy.  I think Nacho may have set a record for the most candy EVER collected on Halloween.

hiking the west rim trail

Ben and I (along with our good friends the Ingrams) went on a 14-mile hike in Zion National Park last Monday (did you know it's Zion National Park, not Zions National Park??  I didn't.).  Anyway, I'm hoping my legs make a recovery sometime soon.  We went to Zion with the intent to hike the Narrows, but a downpour Monday morning and the resulting risk of flash floods crushed that idea.  So, we ended up hiking the West Rim Trail instead.  There were plenty of uphill climbs ... enough to give my thighs quite a workout.  But the real kicker was the drop in elevation (about 3000 feet) ... which gave my knees and shins a thorough beating.  The trail begins at an elevation of about 7500 feet and ends around 4200 feet.  But man alive, it was totally worth it.  The views were spectacular.  We saw areas and canyons in Zion that I didn't even know existed.

Ben and Bill at the beginning

me and Aubrey 

Beautiful views along the way

About 8 miles in

On the shuttle afterwards ... worn out but still smiling!

UEA trip to Natural Bridges and Mesa Verde where we didn't actually go to either of those places

We had big plans for UEA.  Ben (being the seasoned back-country traveler that he is) pulled out a few of his books about Utah's parks, trails, and hikes. 

He spent a couple of hours planning our great camping, hiking, and sight-seeing weekend.  In fact, he talked so much about all these amazing places, that I was actually excited to go camping.  And I mean sleep in a tent and have no running water or toilets kind of camping.  Yep, I was on board and looking forward to it.  The big plan consisted of the following:  leave Wednesday evening, then Thursday we'd go to Mesa Verde and see the Indian ruins, Friday we'd go to Natural Bridges and hike to all the arches/bridges, and hopefully end at Horseshoe Canyon on Saturday with a hike to the Great Gallery.  (For years now, I've heard all about the spectacular petroglyphs at the Great Gallery ... and I was psyched that we were finally going to see them.)

It was a great plan.  But the great plan never really got past the planning phase.  In fact, the great plan pretty much fell apart.  Wednesday rolled around and Ben got swamped at work.  Thursday rolled around and we had a slight boomerang mis-hap.  We had pretty much abandoned all hope of going anywhere over the long weekend.  Until we decided the weather was just too nice not to get out and enjoy it, so we came up with Plan B.  Plan B consisted of the following:  join my sister and her family at Lake Powell.  Plan B was simple, but good.  We do love Lake Powell (so what if we were just there last month!), and we had a great time, so all was well ... I'll just have to wait a little longer to see those spectacular Great Gallery petroglyphs I've heard so much about.

Here's how the trip went down ...

We stayed in the slips on the Mounteers houseboat, so Luke took full advantage of this by fishing first thing in the morning.  (Nothing like doing a little fishing in your pj's!)

Emery was thrilled to finally retrieve his "sling-shot-harpoon-thing" after it had been in a Bullfrog warehouse for a month.  (Harpoons, boomerangs, what is it with all these weapons?!)

We hiked to the Indian ruins in Forgotten Canyon.

 

We explored the beach and found some cool rocks.

Of course, Emery wouldn't miss a chance to wakeboard.

And Sam shocked us by practically becoming a pro-wakeboarder ... the first time he ever tried to wakeboard!

Even Luke gave wakeboarding a shot.  I'm sure his stitches will be just fine after being in that nice clean lake water.  (Come to think of it, the doctor did say to keep those stitches clean and dry.  Hmmm.  I think we'll just take those antibiotics for an extra day or two.)

After dark, we carved some delightful pumpkins.

And the nice park rangers stopped by to judge the pumpkin carving contest.

There was no clear-cut winner.

My kids loved boating, swimming, tubing and cliff-jumping with their cousins for a few days.

 All in all, it turned out to be a great trip to Mesa Verde, Natural Bridges, Lake Powell!

the boomerang

Dictionary’s definition of a boomerang: “a flat curved piece of wood used as a weapon by Australian Aboriginals that is designed to return to the person who throws it”

Let's analyze this for just a moment …

Point no. 1:  First, I fully support the description that a boomerang is, in fact, a weapon.  Not necessarily a toy, as my unsuspecting trio of boys once assumed.

Point no. 2:  I disagree with the definition where it states that it is designed to return to the person who throws it.  Because while this may be true for the Australian Aboriginals, it fails to mention that the boomerang may, in fact, follow an unpredictable and perilous flight pattern if thrown by a novice-boomerang-throwing-13-year-old boy.

With all this being said, Emery made a sweet boomerang in woodshop.

The boys had a fabulous time flinging it high and far.  Ten minutes later, the reality of points no. 1 and no. 2 became quite evident.

Needless to say, Luke was the unfortunate victim of the boomerang-ing band of brothers.  A trip to InstaCare and seven stitches later, he was all sewn up.

At least Luke will have an interesting story behind this scar.