Sleepover

We did our New Year's Eve festivities a day early this year. Sye and Jake came to sleep over. We played games and had a good time. I am not very patient with games that take as long as Monopoly or Risk and I gave prior warning. Instead, I created my mission to take over where I would want to live which lead me on the adventure of taking over the northern portion of Middle Earth. Once statisfied that the Shire was fully secured from bothersome trolls and orcs, I was done.

What Are You Doing New Years Eve?

I don't know what JD and I are doing yet, but this made me start wondering.....

Primos

We had a cousins outing that was so fantastically wonderful. I have the best cousins ever and we had a grand time galavanting around down town Salt Lake enjoying the lights, Crown Burger, a really strange sing a long, and catching up with what everyone is doing. We went swimming at the Little America afterwards. All in all it was a relaxing and fun evening. Hopefully another such gathering happens sooner rather than later.

Merry Christmas

We had a very merry and busy Christmas this year which involved going to three family gatherings and two gatherings on Christmas Eve. It was fun being with those families though and enjoying the food and presents as well. Some events included me getting a new camera, JD playing 4 Way Chess with his family, playing Christmas Deal or No Deal, Christmas at my home ward with my whole family, and various meals at different locations. We hope you had a happy day too!

Personal Summaries

The craziness has begun. My family has had the tradition of adding to a personal summary book since I was just little. This involves a few pages summarizing the year in pictures and written word. Some questions we answer are our favorite movie and book of the year, what we are doing at home, work, school, and church, the best and worst things of the year, and goals for the coming year. The first Christmas we were married our gift to JD's parents was starting this tradition with them. While I love the summaries, I now have to do one for my mom/grandparents Clarke/grandparents Hewlett, the Speth family, and my personal book. I am solely an annual scrapbooker for this tradition, so this time of year the living room is a mess and it is not surprising to find scraps of paper everywhere or to step on a brad that escaped its container. Thus far the Hewlett pages are done, just two more sets to go.

Legos

My sisters and I watch two shows over the Christmas break every year: Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. These aren't exactly Christmas shows but for some reason we have always watched them this time of year. JD isn't exactly in love with Little Women night so a new tradition was started: while I am with the girls, JD goes over to his house to build Lego structures with his brothers. I may not get Legos and he may not get Little Women, but it makes for a fun night with our siblings for each of us.

Christmas Spirit

What a crazy week JD and I have had, between work parties, work, wrapping up stuff for Christmas, and other activities it has gone by in a whirlwind. The culmination of all the crazy was Sunday. We woke up early and went down to the Motab Christmas Concert. Martin was nice enough to register for tickets down in San Antonio and he not only received and hand delivered them at Thanksgiving, but the tickets were amazing we were on the floor at the very front right next to where President Monson came in. The program was great and we ended up seeing the whole concert minus 3 songs, can't complain about that.
It was also caroling tonight with friends from high school. We had almost everyone there, and those we were in far away lands were definately missed. Tara was nice enough to open up her home and accompany all of the songs. Doing the math, I believe that this was year number 8 for this tradition.
We gave our last lesson to the kids in our primary class today which was kind of sad, they have been a great class and a lot of fun too. We watched the Nativity and had treats and talked about remembering Christ this time of year.
All of these things have helped to make it really feel like Christmas. It feels like we have been caught up in work and school and applications and big decisions so doing things that focus on family, friends, and the Savior has been wonderful....and exhausting.

Individulality

We taught a lesson in primary about taking care of your things and people's things (not stealing, return things you borrow etc). Part of the lesson involved making something that you prize with salt dough. JD and I were absolutely amazed by what one of our kids was able to do. While the others made such things as a blanket and a taco (she really likes tacos-so she says), Ammon was constructing a work of art.

To put things into perspective: he is not the neatest or most peaceful of colorers. Usually the first thing he does with a coloring page is scribble all over the people in black or grey. One day he was actually coloring, to our great surprise, however it turned out he was adding cuts and bruises to the already battered traveler in a Good Samaritan picture.

This time it was different: he had indivdual legs, and was done before even the blanket maker was, so while he was waiting he proceded to add toes and scales. The other kids were impressed too.

It just goes to show that everyone has very different talents and you will never know what they are capable of until you give them a try.

The House of the Lord

JD and I finally made it to the Provo Temple today! We tried going there this time last year and for no apparent reason, it was closed: no sign, no notice on the website, nothing; it was very sad.
What makes this temple trip particularly exciting is the fact that we have now been to every temple in Utah that is open and operating: Logan, 'Old' Ogden, Bountiful, Salt Lake, Jordan River, Oquirrh Mountain, Draper, Mount Timpanogos, Provo, Manti, Vernal, St. George, and Monticello. We look forward to Brigham City, Payson, Provo II, and 'New' Ogden when they open, but today was a great day.

We are grateful for the blessings that come from the temple, the peace that is felt there, and the opportunity to focus on the Savior, Jesus Christ. The fact that we are sealed in marriage forever has been a great blessing and comfort to us. We feel so blessed to have so many temples near us. JD served his mission in India where members tend to hang pictures of the Hong Kong temple in their homes, this is the closest temple to them and it involves an expensive plane ride and several years of saving before being able to attend and do their work. Many members in India are unable to receive the blessings of the temple while alive.

To learn more about temples you can go to this link: http://lds.org/church/temples?lang=eng

Trim the Tree

Here is my annual wrapping job for the year 2011 at the pharmacy. I love my favorite day of work, the day after Thanksgiving, the day on which all of this takes place. This year the door decorating has spread to the whole clinic so now it looks super cute and festive too.

Silver and Gold

I love decorating for fall and Christmas. All of our decorations are up and we are ready for the holidays. I had to relight our Christmas tree this year, it took forever and I have a bazillion tiny scratches all over my fingers, hands, and arms, but I would say it was worth it.

Temple Square

It is fun having both of our finals taken care of so that we have time during the week to do things! Last night we went to Temple Square. We walked around to see the lights before doing a session at the temple. Last year we didn't come to the lights in Salt Lake, but we did go to the lights at the Los Angeles temple, it is a fun contrast between palm trees and pine trees.

Music and the Spoken Word

My family attended Music and the Spoken word with my grandma this morning to celebrate her 70th birthday. It was fun going down the Conference Center and enjoying the program that consisted of all Christmas music. After the program we had brunch and cupcakes at the grandma's house to celebrate. I am grateful for all of the opportunities we have around us to enjoy so many different things such as the Motab Broadcast. We will be back down there in two weeks for the Christmas concert.

Santa Claus is Coming To Town

Erin and I went out to lunch this afternoon and drove past Santa riding the Buffalo on top of Buffalo Bill's Tire Center. He was waving to all of the good boys and girls.....I guess.....people of Ogden: better watch out and better not cry because Santa Claus is in town.

Mahna Mahna

Upon arriving home JD asked me, are you going to blog about what we just saw? I answered yes.

We went to the new Muppet Movie, and I LOVED IT. It was super cute and very true to the Muppets. I loved the cameos, story line, the songs-particularly Am I a Man or a Muppet?-it was just fun. I laughed a lot as did all of the other adults that came to the movie. Seriously I think there was one kid total present the rest were older people, and we did all laugh.

Grinch

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "Doesn't come from a store." "Maybe Christmas....perhaps...means a little bit more!"