december dailys--choir christmas concert

Another holiday tradition we have is going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert at the Conference Center in Salt Lake every year. We have been going since the very first year they had it--it's been something like 8 or 9 years. Back in the day before being chosen randomly from the internet registration, you used to be able to stand in line for tickets, and the sooner you got there the better the seats you got. Daren's mom, Susan, is a die-hard for things like this, which led her to either get up early, or sometimes "sleep-out" for tickets. I think the last year they did it that was 2 years ago, and I'm pretty sure that was the year it was a snowy blizzard most of the night that she and Brandon (D's bro) were out. Susan makes new friends everywhere she goes, though, and she has quite the stories to tell about people she has met there. I guess it's more "fair" now with the internet lottery, but it was sure fun when we could all go together and be in some pretty sweet seats--I was thinking this as we were watching from some of the furthest possible seats in the balcony tonight!

This year's concert was amazing once again. I didn't really know who Brian Stokes Mitchell was before, but he has a beautiful voice with a range that is incredible. We took Ben with us this year, and he seemed to like it. Probably my favorite song the choir sings, which I think they do at the end of every concert every year, is Angels, from the Realms of Glory.

We had plenty of time in our seats before the concert started, so I brought a sketch pad for Ben to draw on, because-as he says- "I just love drawing so much. Do you think I will be an artist someday?" I forgot my memory card for my camera, so I asked Ben to draw what the Conference Center looked like to him (from way up high in the balcony). This is what he came up with--obviously all the pipes was something he was impressed with. Then there is the choir seats, a Christmas tree, the organ, and who-knows-what. It was a fun evening, and I'm so glad we got tickets once again this year.

december dailys--the nativity

So, I got this Playmobil nativity set the other day, and the boys and I had so much fun putting it all together. There are quite a few pieces, and already some are lost. (I can't imagine at this point ever having Legos around, but I know our time is coming!) Will got up early this morning to play with them.
When we got it out we talked about the birth of Christ, and how Christmas is really a celebration of His birthday. So then Ben starts going off, "I can't wait for Christmas to get presents!!!...but that's not really what it's all about, is it Mom.....but I can't wait for presents!" It's an inner battle, isn't it?!

december dailys--the stockings were hung...

One of the many things I love about Christmas is our Christmas stockings. Perhaps that's because I have always loved the Christmas stocking I've had as long as I can remember. I always wanted knitted Christmas stockings for the boys, so a couple years ago I found these at Pottery Barn Kids and had their names stitched on them. Ben reminded me to get them out today, so here they are.

This is my stocking I've had my whole life...and now you know my real age!

Here is a picture of all of them together. I love this mantle they hang from--my Grandpa Cottrell (aka: Waterwheel) made it for me years ago when I was on my mission. He made so many beautiful mantles over the years. We built this fireplace just for this mantle and for the prize-winning deer head (obviously not pictured) which Daren's grandpa shot almost 50 years ago. It's a beautiful setting for our Christmas stockings, if I do say so myself!!

And if I would have written yesterday, I would have said that along with Christmas in the month of December, there is also a lot of college football being played. Utes got the word last night that they are playing in the Sugar Bowl on January 2 against Alabama--a battle of the crimson colors! It should be a tough, but great game. Bad news is that it's in New Orleans, which is a little further away and harder to get to than Arizona where they played in the Fiesta Bowl four years ago. We made it to that one with our then 9-month old twins in tow, but sadly we won't be able to make it this time. Still, we will be cheering loud here--GO UTES!!!!!

p.s. Happy Birthday to my mom today!! Love you!

december dailys--the countdown

I can't even begin to tell you how many times since Thanksgiving I have been asked, "How many days until Christmas?" And then Ben and I have been talking about making a Christmas countdown chain for days now, so to appease both Ben and the other questioners, we made the countdown chains today. Danielle joined us, so we had plenty of cutting and taping going on at the same time.
Ok, perhaps I'm a lame mom, but somehow Ben turned out ok without doing much cutting and crafting at home in his earlier years (he has more than made up for it since then!). I'm sitting there watching Will and Jake both trying to cut paper strips and they can barely figure out how to hold the scissors. Crafts just aren't one of my strengths, so they haven't had much practice.

(In the middle of their creations, Will lifted up his shirt to show me how starving hungry his tummy was! Nothing that a little pizza and breadsticks can't take care of!) Will never did quite catch on to the whole thing, thus his strips turned into confetti after a while. Danielle was kind enough to make one for Will after she made hers. Everyone made their own chain to hang in their rooms to make it a little more fun.

This is Ben's finished product (complete with a picture of the Polar Express train heading toward the frozen lake), which is hanging in his room now. I forgot to get a picture of him with it when he was awake, so this is all you get. We had a blast making them, and I think it is something they will look forward to every day.

As a side note: this was a funny conversation I had with Ben when I was tucking him in and tickling his back. He mentioned how cold his sheets were, to which I replied that I was going to get him some flannel sheets soon. I told him that was nothing, because when we were growing up here in Utah, my dad, like everyone else's dad, turned the heater off at night so that when you got up in the morning you could almost see your own breath and I had to sit by a heater for the whole time I practiced my violin just to thaw out. I also mentioned we used electric blankets, and he got a wierd look on his face. I explained what they were, and he thought that was pretty crazy. Look how far we have come in just one generation!!

december dailys--o christmas tree

Not long after Daren and I were married, we drove our old baby blue Bronco all the way to California to pick up my mom and dad's old fake Christmas tree. It was nice to have, especially since my mom had already taken the time to braid all the lights on to the tree, but it only lasted a few years. Since then, every year we buy a real tree which never had any lights on it at all. This year would be different though. Daren took the boys shopping to Costco last week to get our new fake tree, complete with lights already braided on all the branches.


It's a very nice tree, but there are 2 or 3 reasons we won't be getting out too many ornaments this year--can you guess who, I mean what they are?! I love this picture of Jake by the tree--can't you see his sassyness (that has to be a real word!) shining through his expression?!

I used to love that the Christmas trees we had growing up were always filled with ornaments that were either made by one of us kids or given to us by someone. It was fun to pull out the same ones every year and reminisce about what certain ornaments meant to us. Well, this year the boys have taken it upon themselves to decorate the tree the way they wanted, and this is the result: trains, Cars cars, blocks, and stacking blocks (including the one at the top acting as our "star") all adorn our lovely tree. I love the creativeness and their excitement for this holiday. And who knows, maybe we will get a real ornament up there someday!!

december dailys--traditions

A couple of Sunday's ago I was listening to Music and the Spoken Word, and I heard Lloyd Newell share this story and his thoughts about gratitude. The subject matter wasn't a big surprise since it was the Sunday before Thanksgiving, but then a thought came to me. I'll share it after you read this:

A few years ago, two researchers conducted what they called the Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness. They found through science what most of us know intuitively: gratitude makes people happy.
For the study, several hundred people were divided into three groups and asked to keep diaries. The first group listed the day’s events in their diaries, the second group recorded any unpleasant experiences they had during the day, and the last group made a daily list of things they were grateful for.
The researchers found that the simple act of taking time each day to count your blessings makes a person more enthusiastic, determined, optimistic, and energetic. Those who expressed gratitude experienced less depression and stress, exercised more regularly, and made more progress toward personal goals. Researchers even noted a relationship between feeling grateful and feeling loved, and they observed how gratitude inspires acts of kindness and compassion.
Remarkable, isn’t it? All this from daily gratitude and thanksgiving.
Of course, the best way to discover the benefits of gratitude is not by observing them in an academic study but by experiencing the miracle for ourselves: When we daily count our blessings, we feel better about life, even in the midst of adversity; we garner a strength of character and largeness of soul that will help us through hard times; and we see life as basically good, despite its challenges and heartaches.
Gratitude does not need to be reserved for holidays and special events. Every day is filled with miracles and blessings. If we open our hearts and look, we’ll find reasons for gratitude and thanksgiving each day, all around us. (text found at http://www.musicandthespokenword.com/)

Not long before I heard this I had found a (scrapbooking) website, http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/december-daily-album-2008.html, through another blog, where this girl, Ali, is making a scrapbook called "December Daily" to "celebrate the traditions and everyday blessings during the month of December." I'm not doing one of those--too much work this year for me--but it did give me an idea to maybe write down in our blog some of the things I am grateful for each day and the things I love about this time of year as a way to transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and hopefully keep more of an attitude of gratitude at this crazy time of year. And I'm sure my boys are hoping that it might help make me a little more happy like it said, on those not so happy days I have sometimes!! Sooo, hmmm, today is December 4, and already I'm behind. It's the story of my life; what can I say. And I probably won't get to it everyday, but I'll do my best.

traditions
Every year for the past 5 or 6 years maybe, we have gotten together with Daren's family sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas to make gingerbread houses. It is a fun tradition everyone looks forward to each year. It has always been at our house, and for the first few years I actually made and cut out all the gingerbread for everyone's house, thanks to JoLee's mom's recipe and templates. Then came the glorious day we discovered the gingerbread houses at Costco!! And they come with the frosting already made--it's heaven! So here are a few pictures from this year's gathering.
This picture of Will and Gma Train needs a little explanation--as another yearly tradition, the boys love to watch the Charlie Brown holiday shows like 67 times before that holiday arrives. We have discovered that Will can really pick up well on movie lines and songs that he really likes. So all morning on Thanksgiving Day Will kept asking both of us, "Are we going to my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving today?" He was sure our meal was going to consist of popcorn and toast! It was much MUCH better than that!! So I had to take a picture of Will and his "grandmother," even though it was the day after Thanksgiving at our gingerbread party. And I'll put a shout out to Barry and Susan, aka Gpa and Gma Train, since it was Susan's birthday on Thanksgiving, and then Barry's the very next day (gingerbread house day). They are wonderful parents and grandparents, and I'm very fortunate to be a part of this great family.

We did miss Brandon, Lori, and the boys, but everyone else came. We had all kinds of good food for our brunch, and then it was on to the decorating. Daren has taken the lead on making ours, and the boys LOVE to help out!! So it doesn't look too professional, but as you can see, it has been made with plenty of love!

And last, but not least, the finished product. All the boys did a great job helping each other. This is just one tradition I love doing each year.

12-0 football and thanksgiving

Ok, seriously I have been trying to do this blog for over a week now. It seems to be a busy time of year or something!

It seems like forever ago that we went to the Utah v. BYU football game--probably because it was! For the first time since the 2004 season Utah went 12-0 during this season, appropriately capping it off with a 48-24 pounding of BYU. (And for the first time this season, or maybe even seasons, we were on time for the kickoff!) Utah was the first team to ever bust into the BCS back in 2004, and they are the first team to repeat since then. We can't wait to find out which BCS game they will be playing in, but we'll know this coming Sunday. GO UTES!!

Grandma Airplane came up for a short visit a couple weeks ago. We picked her up from the airport, which the twins hated, as you can imagine:). That night Gma, Ben and I, along with Brenda and her daughter Ciera, went to watch our niece, Chloe, dance in a production of The Nutcracker, up at Weber St. She did a great job and it was fun to go to. Ben was a trooper for going with us. Gma stayed with us long enough the next day to go on a field trip to Albertson's with Jake's class and then to watch the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas with us--it was all she listened to in the car when the boys were in it! She spent the rest of the weekend up in Kaysville with Brenda and (brother) Darren's families.

And just like that Thanksgiving week was upon us. Gma and Gpa Train got to visit Jake's class on Monday and Ben's class on Tuesday to get the week started off right. They all had a great time.

FINALLY Thanksgiving arrived, and this year we were fortunate to have Daren with us. He was supposed to work at the fire station, but at the last minute another fire fighter offered to work for him, so Daren got to join us. It's one of his (and mine) favorite holidays--family, yummy food, and time to reflect on all the many blessings we have; it doesn't get much better than that! I have been thinking a lot about that lately, and I have so much to be grateful for--Daren, our three boys, amazing friends, good jobs, a beautiful home, good health, and the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

So, we spent the afternoon and Gpa and Gma Train's house. Grandma already had her beautiful tree up and decorated--nobody can decorate a tree like she can!! I gave my camera to Ben and asked if he would take a picture of Grandpa cutting up the turkey, and this is what we got--exactly what I asked for I suppose!

Will, along with the rest of us, was eager to eat so he sat right down and put his napkin on, which didn't stay long. It was a wonderful dinner, and I have been so blessed to marry into such a great family. My favorite part, though, was the homemade pumpkin pie that both Gpa and Gma made--Gpa makes the crust and Gma makes the guts of it, and it's the best pumpkin pie ever!

Not long after we were full and done, we headed up north to JD and Brenda's to spend some time with them. We had enough time to throw a few haircuts in too, as you will see. This is how my evening began...

...and then this happended...

...and this is what I ended up with! I seriously think the last time my hair was this short I was only 6 or 7 years old with my Dorthy Hamill haircut in the mid-70's! I have been thinking about doing it for a while, and now that I've done it, I like it, but also realize that it's a bit harder to take care of. I actually have to plan "doing my hair" into my day. It's fun, though; thanks Brenda!!

So that's it for now. Bye!!