A Very Long Summary of a Gone By Too Fast Holiday Season

I had great plans for my blog this Christmas. Each day was going to be filled with tender quotes and pictures that tug at the heart strings and make you fill as warm inside as a cup of hot cocoa... Obviously that DIDN'T happen. I knew it was a lofty goal, but who am I kidding? I'm not a great blogger at the not so busy times of the year. I don't know why I thought that Christmas would make that better. Maybe it's because I think that Christmas makes EVERYTHING better (or at least most things). Anyway, the following sums up our holiday experience. It it the "12 Days of Christmas - Our Style!" It's pretty long, so if you want you can pretent that it's several posts over several days. Or if you don't want to read it, then...well...don't.

12 NOTES A DRUMMIN'
We got an early visit from Santa this year, and we've been rockin' out ever since!



You see, Scott has been SUCH a good boy that Santa couldn't wait for Christmas. Just as we were waking from our Thanksgiving coma, there was a knock at the door. Santa brought Scott a Wii, complete with Lego Star Wars and ROCK BAND! This is a clip of the first time Taz played the drums. He's pretty good at it here, and he's gotten ever better since!



11 PRESENTS OPENED

Not per person, of coarse! We actually kept the gift giving pretty simple this year, since we plan on taking a family trip in April. The kids had a great time. Taz loved his V-Tech and his hot wheels. Asher loved...well, EVERYTHING! I think he was a little overwhelmed with all the commotion, but very excited. Every time he would open a present, he would say (as he was opening it, mind you), "it's...it's...it's...a...a...a...BOX!" It was pretty funny.





10 SONGS A SINGIN'

Taz had his annual "Grizz Kids" Christmas program. Because of circumstance, this is his third year of preschool. Even though three years is a lot, I can't believe it's his last. At the Christmas Program, they sang an array of Christmas songs, which included, "The Reindeer Pokey."



I would have to agree with you that I did not know this was a Christmas song. This is Taz and his best buddy from school. In fact, their teacher told me that they are such good friends, that they are not allowed to sit together!



9 POUNDS AND GAINING

What is Christmas without great food? Ever year, I tell myself I won't go crazy, and every year I do. How can I help it with food like this around?



Asher: "Hmmmm...Now that looks like a delicious giant cookie..."



Asher: "Maybe just one small bite..."



Asher: "I can't help myself! I've never seen a cookie of such mass! I HAVE to eat it all! I HAVE TO!"

Actually he was probably thinking, " I can't believe I am eating this GIANT cookie in front of all the big people and NO ONE is stopping me. They are all acting like it's cute and funny and taking my picture. I'd better hurry and finish it before someone notices that it is the same size as me!" What can I say? It's Christmas... (

(And for the record, Asher DID finish the cookie at an amazing pace.)

8 AUNTS & UNCLES

This number includes Scott and I, but I figured it was okay since we fit into that category. It was so fun, as always to spend a couple of nights at my mom's house with my sisters and their families. We ate food (See #9), played "Rock Band (Yea, BABY!), Watched Movies ("Kung Fu Panda" and "Horton Hears a Who" were my personal favorites), and pretty much stayed in our jammies for 48 hours. We did all take a shower somewhere in there, but then it was back to the jammies!

7 CHRISTMAS PARTIES

This really includes any gathering of friends or family that you could call a party. That's really what defines a party, though, right?

1. Ward Party - We missed it because we were in Vegas for Shayna's baptism (which was WONDERFUL).

2. My Work Party - The highlight of which was Dr. Farns singing! Scott had to miss it because he went to the "Forgotten Carrol's" with the young men, which I really wanted to go to a different day, but Scott didn't want to take me because he's been like three times and doesn't like it, then I was going to go with him and the young men, but my work party got changed and so I couldn't and when Scott got home that night he said it was fantastic and he loved it and he was sorry that he didn't take me and promised he would next year...I'm still a little bitter...

3. Grandma & Grandpa's on Christmas Eve - I've done this for as long as I can remember. Being a parent now, it is a little hard to party late into the night on Christmas Eve, because let's face it, getting kids to bed that night is no treat, which makes for a tired mommy the next day! Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa were understanding enough to start there party a little early for us so that we could come and leave a a decent time.

4. Mom's house - This is pretty much a 2 day long party, with many coming and going. It starts late on Christmas Eve and doesn't end until the 26th. It's GREAT!

5. Party at my Dad's - this was centered around the UFC fight (which I am totally NOT into, but I went and chatted and had a good time anyway!). We had pizza and the kids terrorized his house. It was a great time.

6. New Years Eve - We call it our "Party for People Who Don't Have Anything Better To Do." There are no formal invitations, but there is shrimp. If we see you and you mention that you don't have anything to do, we will tell you about it. Otherwise, you would never know. We are totally not great at throwing parties, because we neglect to invite people. So I suppose this is an open invitation to any of you who find yourself with no plans December 31, 2009.

7. The annual "After-Christmas Trade Your Trash White Elephant Bash" at the Elsasser's. We have been going to this party since the beginning of time (which translates into since we've been married). In the probably six parties we've attended, we've made some new friends and come home with some SMASHING gifts. One of them being a scary looking mannequin head... It is a blast. It may be the only time during the year that we see most of the people who attend, but it just proves that true friendship can stand the test of time - especially when there are white elephants involved...

(just a note - there was one more gathering that could be counted as a "party," but I already used something for "8". Scott's brother, Bartt, his wife, Roxanna, and there awesome girls - *SHOUT OUT* HI, GIRLS! I HOPE YOU ARE FINDING GREAT JOY IN THIS EXTRA LONG BLOG POST! (I sort of feel like they are my fan club, because they think I'm funny). They came to visit on New Years Night and stayed until Saturday. The real "party" only happened when the U was at there bowl game (forgive me, Scott, that I can't remember WHICH bowl it was...I do know that they won...), and actually Rox, Brinah and I went to Walmart (which I TOTALLY SCORED on some after-Christmas clearance. I LOVE CLEARANCE! And I am not ashamed. Don't judge me. I'm still having happy feelings about it. Anyway, we just played the Wii and did a little shopping. The best part about the whole thing is that when Taz found out they were coming, he was so excited to sing, "ROXANNE" by the police to Roxanna. This is only funny of you know the song. Not exactly the BEST song for my five-year-old to sing, I suppose, but still funny.

6 HOURS TO GET HOME

I will spare many of you the details of this one. To summarize. It took us almost six hours the day after Christmas to get our car from about 1/8 of a mile a way into our garage. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was HORRIBLE. It finally took chains and Haylee and Brandon pushing us to get home. I ended up with a FREEZING husband (he was wearing sweats and tennis shoes while pushing our car through about 8 inches of snow), a pair of broken chains (they fell off the tire and wrapped around the axle), a dent in the back of my car, and part of the bumper off. The good news is the car still works and with the money we got from Christmas (that was supposed to be for our Disneyland trip) we bought snow tires and they are AMAZING! If you are considering them - I'm a BELIEVER!

5 KINDS OF JAMMIES

My mom started this things...I can't even remember when, where we all wear semi-matching jammies. All of the grown up ladies match, all of the men match, Shayna usually has a variation of the ladies, Bryce and Taz match, and Asher has something that is cute and adorable so that everyone can give him even more attention than he already gets for being cute and adorable.



...not sure why Scott is so scowly in this picture...

4 CALLS FROM DISNEY

Because Santa gave the kids tickets to Disneyland, I thought it would be fun for them to get a call from a character on Christmas morning. It started at 10 am with a call from Mickey Mouse to Asher. At 10:15, Bryce got a call from Pooh. 10:30, Tigger called Taz, and at 10:45, Ariel called Shayna. I tried to upload the videos, but had som trouble. Maybe because this post is so long. Dewey (Lacey's husband and our newest bro. in law) thought it would be funny if we sent a call to Brandon (Haylee's husband/CRAZY Ute Fan/Every Star is Different). I agreed, but I didn't have the energy to do it!

3 VISITS WITH SANTA

You saw Taz's first visit and Asher's attempt at a visit (which I am TOTALLY counting!) in an earlier post. Santa also came to Taz's school. Taz saw him again, but Asher was a no go. Surprised? What's cool about Taz's school is that they actually have a special mail box that goes straight to the North Pole.



2 HOURS OF SLEDDING

It's sort of become a tradition that sometime either on Christmas or the day after, Shane (Kari's husband/dad of Shayna and Bryce) and Scott (the love o' my life) take the kids sledding. They all have a lot of fun, and apparently my kids are quite the fearless daredevils. They totally get that from me because Scott was a wimp as a kid. That's not really the case anymore. I'm kind of the "I too old and scared for this" wimp and Scott is the "I'm so old that NOTHING scares me anymore" daredevil.

AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS FOR MY FAMILY

Christmas was so great. As always it went by so fast, but every time I get to be with my family we make memories that I treasure. I hold them in my heart and they really are the best gifts that I got for Christmas.