Christmas 2008

Well, I guess I ought to do what everyone does and post some pictures of our family Christmas. (I will try not to be too cute about it.)

On Christmas Eve, we had a Mexican feast with our good friends, then came home to open the "soft presents" from Grandma Larson. She always makes the kids pajamas that they open on Christmas Eve, and it is fun to see what her creative juices have inspired. This year, each of the kids' jammies were different, but as you can see, they still matched. Pepper's and Luke's were a bit large, but I'm sure they will fit them by next Christmas!



I love this picture of Luke. He was delighted that he could finally open something under the tree!

After the jammies were opened and put-on, the kids grabbed their stockings to lay out for Santa. When I was a kid, we always put our stockings somewhere in the living room where we wanted Santa to put our gifts, and that is what my kids do now. Luke was a little confused by the purpose of his stocking. As you can see, he took "stocking" very literally!

Christmas morning 2008 - quite a haul!

Later that night, Jeff and Jodi and their family came over for Christmas dinner. We agreed to keep it simple so we Moms could have a nice Christmas day, and it was perfect.

All the kids at the Kids' Table.

And the grown-ups at the Cool Table.

After dinner, a few rounds of Guitar Hero.

Brad and Jeff had a very intense round!

All in all, a fantastic Christmas! Merry Christmas to all!

How do you say "I'm Freaking Out" in German?

Yes, I am freaking out. We found out on Thursday that Brad's company has approved a promotion for him that will take our family to Berlin, Germany for the next 2-3 years. I KNOW!

We have known for a few weeks that he was being considered for the position, and that he was a top contender, but along the way we kept being told it probably wouldn't happen because it is so expensive for the company to have us in Germany. They will pay for our housing, car, and school for the kids, as well as various travel expenses for our family. It is not cheap for the company to have an American in this position, but apparently they have decided that Brad is worth it. Of course I am so proud of him, and he certainly deserves it, but I was relying on the lousy economy to keep me here in the States!

They are saying they want Brad to start in February or March 2009, so this will happen quickly. The plan for now is for me to stay here in our house until the kids finish school in June. Then, we will make our yearly trek to spend the summer with family in Utah. From there, we will head to Berlin. Of course, these plans may change as we get more information, but for now that is what we are thinking.

I don't know what we will do about our house here. The company is encouraging us to hold on to it, as we will be coming back after a couple of years, but we may try to sell it. We have been wanting to put it on the market anyway because we are starting to out-grow it, and this may be a good opportunity to let it go. Then when we return, we could get into a bigger house. Although, it is a no-brainer that whatever we would buy, it would have to be in the Clarkston Ward!

I can't even think about saying good-bye to our friends here. As soon as I start to go there, I can feel the bottom going out of my world, so I have to quickly start thinking of something happy. I plan on using this denial method for a while.

I need lots of chocolate.

The Twilight Before Christmas

I mean no disrespect to Twilight lovers (I am one of them!), but this is funny!

click on the partial green box at the bottom right

(you may want to pause the playlist at the bottom of the page)

What time? Seriously?

Yes, I am a Utah girl, and so of course I attended released-time seminary when I was in high school. Basically, the hardest thing about it was sometimes I got rained-on as I walked the 20 feet from my high school to the seminary building. Other than that, seminary was pretty painless, almost enjoyable at times. It just meant I had one class that I didn't really get graded on, so the occasional test or assignment was very low-key. Sure, the teachers were cool (or goofy, which is its own brand of cool) and I managed to complete the four years of seminary with very little effort on my part. It was just sort of something that everyone did, so I went with the flow.

When I went to BYU, I met kids from out of Utah who talked about some craziness called Early Morning Seminary. They said they met every day at some insane hour like 6:00 a.m. so they could study the scriptures before school. They talked about it like it was No Big Deal, so of course I blew it off like some silly rumor. I figured if anyone got up at that ungodly hour for seminary, they must be ready to be translated or something, and these people seemed pretty run-of-the-mill, so clearly they hadn't really gone to Early Morning Seminary. I figured it was some Mormon myth that un-Utah members had created to make it sound like they were more spiritual than us.

Well, then I moved here, and people in my ward started talking about seminary. I knew the high school kids in our ward wouldn't have released-time, so logically it made sense that they must be going to that weird phenomenon called Early Morning Seminary, but in my heart I wasn't convinced. Some of my friends were even called to teach it, and they talked about it openly, but secretly, I still believed it was all a myth. I mean, it sounds crazy, right?

Well, this year I have learned just how crazy it really is. I have been called to teach seminary in our ward, and yes, we do meet at the ungodly hour of 5:55 a.m. every school day. This, however, is the only painful thing about it. I must say that after three months of teaching seminary, I think this is the BEST calling I have ever had! We are studying the New Testament, and I have loved, LOVED studying about the Savior's life and His teachings. (I know I sound like those crazy people who say they love the scriptures, but I really do!) And even though it is time-consuming to prepare the lessons, the time I have spent studying the scriptures has helped me feel closer to the Holy Ghost, and I think I am happier now with all aspects of my life than I have ever been. I am truly enjoying my children, husband, and home like I never have before. (Oh yikes - I am sorry this sounds like a seminary video. Maybe I am spending too much time buried in the materials...)

Well, for the benefit of all my Utah family and friends, you who attended released-time seminary and secretly believe that Early Morning Seminary is a myth, here are pictures to prove that it is real:


This is my teaching partner Mary holding up the Scripture Mastery scripture of the week. We teach our class in Mary's home, and we alternate weeks that we give the lessons. Mary and I both attend the class every day, but it is nice to have a week off preparing the lessons, because that can take over your life. Mary is awesome in every way, and it has been delightful teaching with her. (This shot is obviously very posed. I think I should submit it to the New Era, though, because isn't it the very picture of Caring, Cheerful Seminary Teacher Encourages Willing, Spiritually-uplifted Student?)


This one is more realistic. I think Allie and Danielle actually blinked, but Travis's eyes were probably already closed.


Candelaria was kind enough to open her scriptures and look enthusiastic for the picture, but the boys' slouchy posture is a better indicator of the true level of excitement at this hour of the morning.

Again, Lowell is putting on a good show, but one look at Krissy's face should tell you how they really feel.

These kids are amazing - it literally took my breath away the first morning I arrived and saw them all sitting there waiting for seminary to start. I can't believe they come back, morning after morning, and they are so nice to us, too. I know many of them are "strongly encouraged" by their parents to come, but not all of them are, and that makes me have a huge respect for them. Sure, they are tired and probably sometimes really bored, but they are also very spiritually mature and can say the wisest, most profound things. I honestly enjoy spending my mornings with them in seminary, and when I see them outside of class, it is all I can do to restrain myself from picking them up in a big bear hug.

OK, sorry for the gushing. I just thought I ought to include something about seminary, since it has been such a big part of my life these last three months. I am just glad I have this chance to see that Early Morning Seminary is NOT just a myth!

All I want for Christmas. . .

. . .well, I think you can finish the song.

Merry Christmas.

Ward Nativity

Years ago, someone in our ward made a bunch of costumes for the Primary children so they could put on a live nativity at Christmas time, and now it has become a yearly tradition. Yesterday was our ward party, and true to tradition, it included the live nativity. We had a brunch this year for the party, so all this happened after a big breakfast of quiches, ham, and doughnuts.



A couple read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and we all sang hymns as the kids entered the stage at their appointed times. The oldest girl and boy in Primary always get to be Mary and Joseph, the stars.



Adam was a shepherd, which you can see he took really seriously.

Pepper was one of the wisemen. Unfortunately, all of the wisemen's robes are really long, so all three of them tripped as they climbed the stairs to get onstage. Once they were seated, it was much safer.

Here is the whole group, singing the Nativity Song for the finale.

Now that she is in Young Women, Jessica is so beyond doing the Nativity. Here she is watching the show with her cute friends Elizabeth, Savannah, and Braedyn.

Laundry room redo

So, other than eating turkey and watching dreamy vampires, I spent my Thanksgiving weekend redo-ing our laundry room. As usual, I was too anxious to start the project to remember to take "before" pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it that the laundry room was dreadful.

Here are the "after" pictures:


I put up this wood on the wall (it's not really paneling, so I don't know what to call it exactly), and painted it white. I also painted the rest of the room a pale yellow color - it is the same color as the half-bathroom downstairs that Lois and I painted a few months ago.


When we had the wood floors put in the kitchen, we purposely didn't do wood in the laundry room. This room gets a lot of foot traffic, and during the winter, this is where the kids dump their boots, so the floor can get pretty grungy. So, we found a vinyl floor that we could lay ourselves. It looks like a tile, but it comes in 3'x1' strips that stick to each other. It took a little thought, but it was simple enough for me to lay by myself one day while Brad was at work and the kids were at school. I already like that it is dark enough to hide all the dirt that gets tracked in. The floor in here before was white vinyl (dumb, I know), so this is much better.



I did two horizontal strips of wood so we could put up a double row of hooks. This is where the kids hang coats, backpacks, etc, and now we have enough room for all their stuff.



On the whole, I think it is much better. This was the only room in the house that had the original builders' flat paint, and it was looking pretty drab. Since this is the way we usually enter the house, it is nice to come in and not be assaulted by the ugliest room in the house.

Someday, when I have my dream house, I will insist that the laundry room be separate from the mud room. It doesn't take much for this little room to get really cluttered, especially on laundry days. And before, when we didn't have enough hooks for all the stuff, the floor would be covered by fallen coats, etc, which we would have to wade through when we came in from the garage. For now, though, I think this little project will make living in this house a bit nicer.

Turkey + Vampires = Perfect Thanksgiving

Well, as long as I'm talking about Thanksgiving, I ought to mention the delightful day we spent with Jeff and Jodi and their family. Jodi was kind enough to host our Thanksgiving Feast (she promised me that she wouldn't have a baby on this holiday!), and as you can see from the pictures, she is truly Martha Stewart.


The tables were all set up and decorated when we arrived on Thursday afternoon.


Look at the cute turkey nut cups Jodi/Martha made!


Let's eat!

Perhaps the best part of the festivities was that after dinner, when the dishes were done, the kids were in the basement, and the men were watching football, Jodi and I snuck away to watch the "Twilight" movie. It was actually the second time I'd seen it, and I must say that I liked it better the second time. So fun - although Jodi was right when she said we should have brought pie to the theater. That would have perfected the Thanksgiving/Twilight Experience!

I love having a sister that lives close!

Joy

OK, so a couple of Sundays ago, Sis. Hofer in our ward did a cool thing for the Relief Society lesson. As each person entered the room, she had them write down something that gave them joy, and then she taped all the papers around the room. The lesson was from Pres. Monson's last conference talk "Finding Joy in the Journey."

Well, I liked her idea of filling the room with joy, so the next night for FHE I had each of our family members write down ten things that bring them joy, and we taped them all over our family room. Even though having 60 slips of paper stuck to the walls with blue tape is hardly a decorator's dream, I liked being in there and reading what everyone wrote. It was especially nice to see them over the Thanksgiving week, because they are all things we are thankful for, too.

I just took all the slips down, and in honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share what all of us wrote. In random order, here is what brings us joy:

Brad -
Adam, Pepper, the Gospel, Bear Lake, Friends, our home, Jill, golf, Jessica, Luke

Jill -
my comfy bed, going to Utah, my 4 children, watching Dancing with the Stars, our warm home, Brad, going to church, my testimony, cars that run, eating dinner together as a family, seminary

Jessica -
Grandmas' houses, Luker, Mom, Dad, family, Bear Lake, friends, FHE, riding horses, Pepper

Pepper -
Jessica, Mom, Luke, friends, Adam, school, Dad, playing, Thanksgiving

Adam -
friends, toys, TV, Luke, books, sharing, snow, family, Jesus

Luke - (yeah, he can't write, so we guessed at his)
choosing which jammies to wear, toys, Star Wars, nursery, juice, candy, chocolate milk, Dora, Mom & Dad

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy." - Guilaume Apollinaire

Happy Thanksgiving.