The Sacred and the Profane

Hey there! In accordance with our tradition of month-long lag times in this blog, here are some pictures of our Christmas celebrations.

First, the relatively sacred part. Connor's little Joy School class has been learning about service, and spent several weeks preparing a Christmas program that they presented at a retirement home. They, plus a few older siblings, did a little Nativity Scene, then sang some Christmas songs and gave hand-made cards to each of the residents. Here are some of the moms prepping the cards with little photos of the class:

These are all the kids that participated. The Joy School kids are the first crooked row of four, plus the little girl at the top. (The others are older brothers and sisters.)

The kids shuffled roles alot during practices, and it happened that Connor got to be Joseph for the performance. It was pretty cute.

After the songs, the kids each personally gave out the cards they had made. There were slightly more cards than people, so Connor (the slowest) ended up gifting people who had already received, but they were very gracious and just fawned over all the kids.

After Joy School was out for the Holidays, we were able to get things ready for Christmas at home.

Oh, yeah, and Elise got sick. She's good at looking miserable, poor thing. (She was better by Christmas.)

We decided to stay at home for Christmas this year - it just makes things much more manageable and relaxing. Connor had a "Christmas chain" he took apart every day in December, so he was beyond excited when the day finally came. We had Christmas Eve dinner at the home of some friends from our old Ward, then I came home and stayed up until 2am wrapping presents (hey, I'm a procrastinator, okay?)

Anyway, now for the somewhat profane part. The materialistic gimme-fest! The kids woke up moderately early, and we all gathered in Elise's room before exposing them to the fruits of my late-night labors. What follows is pretty easy to understand, so I'll stop my boring narration for a minute.

Ryan traditionally makes waffles on Christmas morning, and he added an extra element this year by picking up a crate of berries at the farmers market downtown the day before. I made sauce and whipped some cream, and Ryan was so proud of the results he had to take a picture.

So, in case you couldn't tell, we had a great Christmas. The kids (and Ryan and I, too) received so many thoughtful gifts and cards from extended family and friends, we just want you to all know how grateful we are. Thank you!

Happy Birthday!

So, Ryan and I recently had birthdays (we were born a couple days apart, so we usually just celebrate the entire week.) Anyway, I have to admit, this year was pretty awesome. We had an early cake-and-ice-cream thing while we were up in Utah - thanks Grammy Cloe!

Back home, a few days later, Ryan's birthday was a little slow, but he was able to play his new MarioKart for the Wii and got treats and cards from lots of people. Oh, and his work gave him balloons tied to a little cement paperweight (he pretended that he had gotten the balloons for me). Connor liked the little weight so much he threw it at the living room window - so now we have one more thing to explain to the landlord if we ever move out of here!On Saturday I was given my choice of anything in the world (meaning in L.A.) I wanted to do, so we took our first trip to the Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia. I was expecting it to be pleasant, kind of like Descanso Gardens, but this place was totally amazing. We wandered through dark bamboo forests, walked across the Australian outback, fed some very aggressive geese, and even saw a wild bobcat crossing the path ahead of us (probably looking for the geese).After the Arboretum, we stopped at Porto's in Glendale to get lunch and a birthday cake. I love few things in the world more than Porto's baked goods, but I think I've found my absolute favorite. Their strawberry-shortcake-cake is my new true love. Sorry Ryan. We had planned a fancy birthday dinner-date for Friday night, but our babysitter got sick at the last minute, so we ate burgers with the kids at the Americana instead. I was feeling very sorry for myself, I must admit, but it turned out to be pretty fun. Then, Saturday night we had planned to go to Ryan's work party, but, again, no babysitter. We've finally come to terms with the fact that 16 year olds are just too busy, so we've since shifted down to 12-13 year old babysitters with much more success.

Instead of the work party, we went to the Ward party, and Connor got to meet Santa! He was a little confused at first, but when he saw that candy was involved he was all about standing in line for twenty minutes. His understanding of Santa is currently "the guy who gives us candy-canes".

Just to clarify, we are NOT anti-Santa. We just don't enjoy trying to convince the kids of something that isn't true. It seems awkward for us, for some reason. Sooo, we simply told Connor that Santa is a fun game that even grownups like to play - kinda like witches and ghosts on Halloween (but, obviously, a good guy.) I have a bad feeling, though, that this may get us into trouble down the line when Connor goes ruining it for his playmates.

Oh, and I got a new camera! Thanks Ryan! The old one was okay, but it took about thirty seconds to focus and snap anything, so my shots of the kids were based on high-volume and luck. The new one is a much-updated version of my old one, and I'm excited to see if there's any improvement at the blog level (the main reason for taking pictures, of course!)

Here are the remnants from the old camera. Elise helping unload the dryer and Ryan and Elise's "photo-booth" pictures.

At Last . . a Thanksgiving Post!

Hi again, everybody! I've certainly taken my time getting this post written, so my apologies. We had a great Thanksgiving vacation last month. I was able to fly up to Springville with the kids about 1 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving, and Ryan joined us the day before Thanksgiving. (He drove up in the van [with the dogs], so we were all able to drive home together.) The flight wasn't as bad as I had feared - JetBlue's individual TV's and kid-friendly snacks kept them mostly occupied. Occupied, but not quiet. I was lucky enough to sit next to an older lady with lots of grandkids at home, so she was pretty patient.

Our vacation in Utah was great. The kids and I were able to spend alot of time with my family, including my brothers and sister-in-law. Kevin actually spent the whole Thanksgiving weekend at my mom's, which was awesome, and Kelli and Kyle were really nice to sacrifice all their free time hanging out with me each evening. We stayed up practically all night playing Arkham Horror, which is really fun despite being ridiculously complicated. (Note: Kevin was in attendance, but he was the one taking the picture.)

Here are some pictures out at my mom and Chuck's property near Elberta. Nobody should know where Elberta is, by the way, but it is very pretty. My mom let the whippets run, and Connor walked for a couple of hours without being carried, I was proud of him. He had alot of fun finding the pink ribbons in the trees that marked the property boundary, and used them like a scavenger hunt to lead us back to the car (he thought we might be lost.)

Connor spent what was left of his strength that evening grinding wheat. He has this thing about licking flour off countertops that drives me nuts, but he's convinced that anything whitish in a canister is a treat, so this was like making candy for him.

Thanksgiving itself was great, too, as always. It says something about me that a day dedicated to being thankful for food (among other things) is my favorite day of the year. It's probably not my mom's favorite, since she does the majority of the work . . .

We left for home Monday night, hoping that night driving would be easier with respect to entertaining the kids. I'm not sure what the verdict is on that. It was definitely easier and less stressful dealing with kids (they slept most of the time), but then there's always that falling-asleep-at-the-wheel-and-plummeting-off-a-cliff thing. That can be stressful, too. We're thinking next time we'll try half-and-half, where we leave in the early evening and get home around 3am.

I guess I'll quickly do the Thanksgiving name tag Kelli sent me, although I apologize at how dorky and lame my answers are. They are sincere, though.

E: Elise, Connor, & Ryan. These guys are my reason for getting up in the morning (metaphorically as well as literally - I'd like to sleep in once in awhile.) I love them more than I thought I could love anything.

R: Relatives. Spending time with so many members of my family reminds me how lucky I am. Family is the most important thing we have in this life, and I'm grateful we have such a great one, both in Utah and all over the country.

I: Income. Just happy we have one. Quite a few of our friends have lost their jobs in recent months, and I know how stressful job-hunting can be. I'm also grateful for how hard Ryan works to support us.

N: Nation. Reading the news is depressing enough on the "national" page, but the international stuff can be truly nightmarish. I'm so thankful to live in a country of relative freedom, peace, and plenty.

N: Nazarene. Okay, this is stretching Google's "N words" search to it's breaking point, but I couldn't find anything else beginning with N. (Thanks, Kelli, for the tip, by the way.) By Nazarene I mean the Savior. Not the kind of thing I normally blog about, but I have to mention my thanks for Him and for our Heavenly Father. Everything good in my life is somehow the result of their love and inspiration.