Happy New Year! Christmas has been over for a while now so I guess I should go ahead and get the blog up about it. There is a lot to write about and I’m sure it was more fun for us to live through than for you to read, but I’ll write it anyway.
This year we decided to throw a little white elephant party with a few of our friends – only the twist was that each of the presents had to be comically useless. It was so much fun my cheeks (face cheeks) hurt. The gifts included some giant pants, expired cheese puffs, shirts with scary faces, and random family pictures among other things. I’m sure that both Aaron and Jess (Winn) will appreciate this photo.
We had a pretty full house for Christmas this time around, with my parents and my brother Kimball in town. We had tons of good food and played some good games, but I think the most fun was had by Brody and Bridger wrestling with their Grandpa. I have no idea how that man has so much energy, but the boys sure loved having him around and beating him up all day. I got a good wrestling match in with my bro as well, and though I’d like so say that I came out conquerer he actually did beat me in the end. My only excuse was that if we could wrestle at the same age I would beat him hands down. My 24 year old body against his would have pinned him in five minutes and left him crying. Unfortunately, with my 29 year old body the opposite was true. Yes, I really am that old.
On Christmas Eve after dinner we did a very small version of the Nativity in which Jess and I were Joseph and Mary (she’s even accurately pregnant) and the boys were shepherds. It was kind of a mess. Maybe its one of those things that needs to be done when the kids are a little bit older and have a longer attention span. Or maybe when we have a real donkey, instead of just Kimball.
Christmas morning was great (except that it began at 5:30).
The boys were so excited to see all the gifts under the tree and know that Santa had paid them a visit, despite their many naughty moments this year. Over all I guess he thought they were “nice enough”. Whatever they were throughout the year, on Christmas morning they made great little present-passer-outers. In fact they were so enthusiastic about it that we could hardly keep up. They loved it and we did too and had so much fun watching the unwrapping process. We all got and gave great gifts this year, but my favorite of all is the new trampoline!! Woot. My parents helped us buy it for the boys, but really I think I am more excited about it than
they are. We had to wait for the rain to clear up, but once it did and the sun came out it felt like spring and we put the springs on the trampoline. So far there are no broken bones to report. Also, for Christmas all of my brothers and sisters and I pitched in to get my parents a GPS for their car. Hopefully the number of times I call them and hear them arguing about which way to go in the car will be reduced.
Also, for Christmas morning I did something probably not very nice, but enjoyable none the less. I put pens in my Dad’s and Kimball’s stockings. Kimball was the first to unwrap his and, as expected, clicked the end of the pen to test it out. Bzzzzz. It was a shocker pen, and the shock on his face at having just been electrocuted was classic and priceless. I laughed quite a lot. When my dad opened his I assured him that his was not a shocking pen. I guess I deserve an Oscar because the old man fell for it and I was delighted to have another source of wild laughter. Ahhh. Good times. I highly recommend giving shocker pens for stocking or white elephant gifts. You’ll never forget it. Also, expect retaliation. Later that day or the next Kimball try to shock me with the pen while I was stirring something on the stove. The result of my reaction was messy and pretty hilarious, especially since it didn’t even shock me, I just jerked at the realization of what was about to happen and ended up tossing goop all over myself. Kimball nearly wet himself with glee; but wouldn’t you?
We also did the obligatory and traditional visit to the Lights of the South, only this year wasn’t as cool because it was COLD! Hello! “Harry, your hands are freezing!” Its always fun to see all the lights but when your nose and ears feel like they’re going to be stolen by elves and used as human popsicles it takes some of the fun out of it. (Not to mention adding the fear of cannibal elves into the mix) Luckily they did have a bon fire where we were able to restore our inedibility. As a side note, the animal on my head was borrowed from my sister Faith after I acquired the fear of elves.
On the Monday after Christmas I convinced Jessica to go to see Avatar in 3D with me. It was pretty rad. On the surface it is just a good movie, not something you’d quote all the time or anything, but the special effects were simply amazing. It was awesome to see the world they created come alive and look so realistic. As an added bonus you get to see a 10 foot blue alien woman pick up a human man and caress him lovingly… it’s weird.
Other than that it was pretty much like any other Christmas – lots of good food, lots of family drama, lots of games, and lots of listening to children whine and cry.
Oh, and I guess I should add in that Bridger is now a whopping 3 years old. We had a little birthday for him on Tuesday. He chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese where he and Brody burned through about 100 tokens in an hour and then chose pizza for his birthday dinner. Luckily he didn’t seem to mind the fact that his birthday falls so close to Christmas. I can’t believe he is 3 already. It seems like just 2.8 years ago that I watched him come out black and not breathing. He sure is a cute little very opinionated psycho devil. He makes us laugh all the time and we love him tons. (But really, he is psycho. Please. Help. Help me.)
When I was growing up, there was a woman in our ward- Wendy- who had started a tradition on her first Valentine's Day with her husband. They didn't have a lot of money so she made a big sparkly heart sign that said "Sweetheart's Cafe" and she made a nice romantic dinner for two. They have done it every year since. I'm not sure how long ago that was but I know it was more than 25 years ago. Every year she makes it bigger and better and opens her house for people to come and see all her crazy decorations and the fancy family table. Just to be clear, I love her. When Adam and I got married, I thought it would be cool to do this too, so we have. Every year. It is never as cool or fancy or amazing as Wendy's but it's still fun and something we look forward to.
Sunday morning for breakfast Adam made pink heart pancakes that were a big hit.
This year was the first time that we invited our kids for dinner. In the past, we have put them to bed and then had a late dinner together so that we could actually enjoy it without getting anger indigestion (see here) and last year, our rad friends the Winns had a babysitting night and offered to take our kids so we could enjoy our dinner. Since our boys are older and like fun things, we decided it was time to let them join us. Adam and I talked about it beforehand and decided that we weren't going to worry about them eating their food like every other night- we would just have fun and enjoy it.
Our grill broke a while ago and we've missed all of our barbeque recipes so for Valentine's Day, Adam and I got each other a new grill (although we still couldn't bring ourselves to buy anything but the cheapest one we could find). To celebrate, our menu consisted of Honey Garlic BBQ chicken, twice-baked potatoes, corn on the cob and then heart brownies and ice cream for dessert. Oh- and Raspberry Pomegranate Italian soda with red heart ice for the drink.
Brody ate every bite of dinner and then ate so much dessert that Adam had to carry him to bed because he was so full. Bridger politely declined the potatoes and corn but he ate all his chicken and, of course, all his dessert. It was pleasant and fun and I'm so excited to do it again next year.
