Getting in the Christmas Spirit

This weekend we decided to get ourselves and our house in the Christmas Spirit. We pulled out the artificial tree (I know for some this is blasphemous, but in Texas we couldn't keep a tree alive so we bought a fake one), decorated it, listened to Christmas Music, finished our Christmas shopping, decorated a gingerbread house (thanks to the Wonka Gingerbread House Kit), and the girls even wore new dresses to church. I think we are in full Christmas mode now.

Emily, keeping us in stitches

On our drive home through many hours and miles of the country side, Emily often had funny things to say. There were several times that Mike and I just busted up laughing...Emily was funny, but I think we were a bit punchy too. Here are 2 of my favorites.

We were playing a revised, Emily version of the alphabet game where you look for things that start with the next letter of the alphabet. Emily was stuck on Q, it is a nasty letter in the alphabet game. She kept finding words that had a "K" sound in them and making them have the "Qu" sound instead. Nebraska would be "Nebrasqua", etc. It was really fun putting the "Qu" sounds in the wrong places. It made for some funny moments on the long drive.

My favorite of all was on the last day of our drive. We were passing through Independence, Missouri. In the LDS church we believe that some day Independence will be a special city called Zion where the Savior Jesus Christ will live for 1000 years. There is a plot of land set aside as land for a temple that will be built someday. We view Independence as a sacred place. As we were driving past Independence we mentioned to the girls that we were going by it. Emily said, "Zion has a SuperCenter!" Yes, it is true, there is a Walmart in Independence so there is a Walmart in Zion.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving week.

We started by driving to UT on Friday and Saturday. We tried to arrive by the start of the Utah vs. BYU football game. We ended up listening to the first quarter of the game on the radio as we drove past Park City. We arrived at Mike's sister Jennifer Kinghorn's house to watch the rest of the game. Sadly, it was not BYU's day and Utah won the game. It was pretty painful to watch. The vacation began at Jennifer and Al's. The kids played and we enjoyed good food and conversation.

Sunday we spent the morning recovering from our drive by sleeping in. Then we visited my friend Julie Morra who was visiting her parents in Centerville, UT. Sunday night we enjoyed a family dinner at Jen and Al's. Al made ribs. Yum. It was really great to see Ally and her husband Alex. It is hard to believe I have a niece who is married.

Monday Laura and I went to see Twilight. Yes it is true, I love Twilight and all things related. Laura was gracious enough to be my date. We saw it during the day, so it wasn't too crowded and there wasn't a whole lot of screaming, well I did a bit, but not too much. Just kidding. We both enjoyed it and found it entertaining. (Of course I still love the book more). Monday afternoon was spent with the Kinghorns. It was great to see the kids play and Emily really liked being the oldest and taking charge. They played a lot of school which I found fascinating considering it was vacation time...away from school. Grace is 3, Sam 2, and Paul is 6 months. We had a great time staying with them and spending time with them.

Tuesday we drove down to Provo to visit BYU. Yes, we like to visit the campus and reminiss and see our old stomping grounds. It makes me feel old and young at the same time. I feel like I should still be there as a student, but then when I see how young they look I realize that I am old. Oh well. We all got t-shirts/sweatshirts and walked a bit around campus. We also went to lunch with Mike's mission friend, Trace Eddington. It was great to see him and catch up on each other's lives after more than 10 years. After visiting campus we visited my friend, Tonya Wendel, and her family in Lindon. We happened to see them last month in Washington D.C., but it was nice to spend some time with them in their home. Again, the kids got to play and the adults got to catch up. I miss you guys! We then drove the mile or so down the road to Mike's sister Robin Eide's house. She lives in Orem. Robin made a delicious dinner and the kids played. Robin has 2 girls, Katherine 14 and Elizabeth 12, who played great with Emily and Julia. Thanks K and B. Andrew is 17 and I enjoyed hearing about his football prospects for college. I have to admit that the boy is huge and I look forward to seeing how his football career goes.

Wednesday we spent at Mike's sister Laura Ludwigs. The kids played great. Jeremy is 11, Ian 9 and Shane 7. It is great because Emily and Jeremy are in the same grade and Julia and Shane are in the same grade. All 5 kids get along great and it is fun to see them together. Laura made a great meal and then we headed downtown to Temple Square. We visited the Joseph Smith Building, the North Visitor Center, and then went to the Conference Center to enjoy a show. It was a musical called, Savior of the World. It was truly excellent and we felt the spirit as well as enjoyed the music and show.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Yummy food, pie, reading books, watching football, kids playing all around. It was great. The only downside was Julia getting a fever. We are not sure what happened, but she looked pale and got fevery. The only food she ate was Laura's clouds (rolls). I think she ate 4 all together over the course of the evening. That night, Jeremy, Ian, Shane, Emily, Julia, Katherine, and Elizabeth had a sleep over on the Eide's floor. They watched movies and hopefully slept some.

Friday morning Mike got up early and did some shopping at Target. I met a friend, Kimberly Poulton, for breakfast at Kneaders. We both had french toast and it was scrumptious. Kimberly and I had a nice visit and then Mike came to get me for out drive home to St. Louis.

The drive back to St. Louis took 3 days. Between the snow and Julia's fever/stomach bug and the Sunday traffic, the drive seemed to take forever. We had snow in Wyoming and stopped at 7 in Cheyenne. Julia threw up for the first time in the hotel and had a just a few more until her last one the next morning. We left Cheyenne and drove through more snow while Julia slept most of the way. Mike really wanted to get back home, but it was just taking too long with the snow and it was dark. We finally stopped in Kansas City for the night and arrived about 9 pm. We all slept really well. I am glad we stopped. Julia woke up feeling much better, but still no appetite. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and set on our way. We drove through more snow and lots of traffic on I-70. We arrived home to a snowy house about 3 pm. We were all so glad to be home. Mike did a great job of getting us home safely and as quickly as possible. I think it will be a long time before we take another long road trip.

I am grateful for family and friends. The week was great because we spent so much time with friends and family. I am grateful for portable DVD players. The girls did a great job of keeping themselves busy with movies and music and sleeping. I am grateful for Mike buying me an ipod for Christmas. He gave it to me early so that we could listen to music in the car. It was fun to have the music play and not have to keep changing CDs (although we did listen to CDs too). I am grateful for Mike. I am grateful for my happy children. I am grateful for my home. There are so many things to be grateful for and I am truly blessed.

A bigger hole!

If you thought Julia had a hole in her smile before then you will really like the hole she has now. She lost the 2nd tooth on the top on Thanksgiving Day. She says that now she can truly say, "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth!"