Christmas loot and a lost tooth...

Well, the crazy Christmas Season is over! I feel like Christmas is becoming WAAAYYY too commercialized. I know I am guilty at times about losing sight of the real reason for Christmas. Hopefully among all the goodies and presents we can also think about the birth of Christ and his ultimate love for all of us. It is pretty amazing.

Christmas day started about 8:30 a.m. for us. YES! Somehow our kids let us sleep in a little bit! Don't ask me how or why! As for the loot, here is a quick summary...

Elizabeth came out with some accessories for her i-pod, as well as clothes, shoes, games, and art supplies, a skateboard, and guitar picks, among a few other things. (For those of you who don't know, Elizabeth has taken a few guitar lessons and is waiting to be able to start them back up.)

Alesea came out with dolls, stuffed animals, games, clothes, and a toy laptop computer among a few other things.

James mainly came out with anything with wheels on it, and some clothes. After every present he opened, it had to be taken out of the packaging and played with before he would open anything else.

We spent the day at our house being completely lazy and enjoying each others company. A small ham, "funeral" potatoes, corn, and homemade rolls filled our stomachs at dinner.

Last but not least, Alesea lost her very first tooth that evening. As you can see in the picture, her permanent tooth had already started growing in behind it, so she officially did not have a tooth-less smile. She needs to lose the tooth next to it because that permanent tooth is already growing in as well. (To Shawn - my orthodontist friend - do you foresee any problems because of this??? j/k)

We hope all of you had a great and relaxing Christmas and were able to spend valuable time with family. Take care and we hope your new year is great!

Oh, just to elaborate on the crashing Christmas tree from my last post...

Mike woke up at 2:30 in the morning to a crashing sound and checked through the house to find nothing. Except for after he crawled back in to bed he realized he did not check the living room. He got back out of bed and checked the living room to find that our whole Christmas tree had fallen over. He ran upstairs and woke me up to help him. Sappy Christmas tree water had spilled all over our carpet and ornaments had fallen off. We ended up cutting extra limbs off of our tree to fit it in a larger and deeper tree stand. Fun times at 2:30 in the morning.

2:30 A.M. and the cRAsHinG ChRiSTmAs tReE

Ok... I was going to make a story out of this one too, but I think I have written enough for this week. I think the title of this post explains it all. If anybody would like me to elaboarate, let me know. HAPPY HOLIDAYS to EVERYONE! Take care!

The Plywood Christmas Tree

It was December 2004. Mike was studying for and taking his finals in order to graduate with his Batchelors Degree that semester. I was pregnant with James, and in the beginning stages of taking and reviewing applications for the people that would replace our job as managers of the aprtment complex we lived in. We were also trying to make as many repairs and fixes as possible around the apartment complex before we had to leave. On top of that, we had started looking for jobs for Mike and looking for a place to move. You might say things were a little busy. We normally take a day and head up to the Uinta Mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. 2004 was a different story. We really had no time that year to head up to the mountains as usual, so we scoped out a few tree lots around town. The price of trees seemed to be outrageous, and for trees that did not seem to be what we wanted. We somehow had it in our mind that if we went tree shopping on Christmas Eve, we could find a tree at a discounted price. We would spend Christmas Eve as a family decorating our tree. Christmas Eve came and as we drove to the first lot we had browsed earlier in the month, the tree lot had packed up and left. No worries, we would just continue on to the others that we had scoped out. As we went to every lot we had found, we discovered they had all packed up and left town. We were getting worried and frustrated, hoping we wouldn't have a Christmas without a tree. We were getting desperate and started driving around the buldings of local businesses hoping they had thrown out their trees in the dumpsters or back behind the buildings. No luck. We drove by many trees that were planted on the property of some of the businesses and briefly thought about breaking the law and cutting one of them down. (Don't worry, it was just a brief flash of desperate thoughts, we never would have really done it! LOL) It was very late and there were no trees to be found. The mood was somber as we drove home empty handed. We got home and put the kids to bed. Mike was determined and would not let our kids wake up Christmas morning without a tree. He disappeared in to the storage shed of our apartment complex for about an hour. I heard banging and power saws sawing. Finally Mike emerged with saw dust all over him and spray paint on his fingers. He told me to go out to the shed and take a look. Mike had created a 3 foot 2 dimensional Christmas tree out of plywood. He had spray painted the tree green and the stand red. (The couple that had managed the apartment complex before us had done many Christmas projects in the past and left cans of green and red spray paint. I almost threw them away on many occassions, but never did.) I have to say I have never seen anything so creative, and made with as much love as Mike put in to that tree for his kids. We brought the tree in to the living room and decorated it with Christmas lights and candycanes that could hang on the "branches". We now use the plywood christmas tree in our holiday decorating and laugh about the year we almost had no Christmas tree.

Our month in a minute... or two.. or three...

Ok, it has already been a month since I had an update. It seems only like a couple of weeks. A lot has happened in the last month. Here goes...

Elizabeth received her first report card with amazing grades, academically and citizenshiply (Is citizenshiply a word? LOL). She started basketball and has had two games. Her team kicked heiny both games. I should add that she made two baskets the first game. Yeah! She is now officially a teenager. The big 13! I can't believe it!

Alesea received all 100% in a round of kindergarten testing. She also has two loose teeth. The fun part is her first two permanent teeth are halfway grown in right behind the two loose baby teeth. Yikes! She was sick for two days the last week and a half, just the two days were a week apart. She is doing well now. She has been having fun with a new friend that I babysit after school for an hour.

James is still throwing fits and tantrums, but has his adorable moments too. He still can't get enough of trucks and cars. He is learning so many new words and new things, he amazes me every day. His new argument is any time we ask him to do something his response is..."YOU!" As in you do it. He is getting big, but still has no desire to start potty training. Any tips or hints from any of you out there?

Mike is still working for BD. He went "surfing" with a couple of his buddies at the new Solamon Center in Ogden about a week ago and enjoyed that, even though he took a beating. The Solamon Center has fun games and activities including rock climbing, surfing and swimming, indoor skydiving, video games and I think bowling, among other activities. We both would like to try the indoor skydiving sometime, as well. (I'd prefer that over the real thing any day.)

I quit my job at the Target Portraits Studio because the hours were too crazy. I was working 5-6 nights a week just to get 17 hours of work. I am now working in the Macey's Grocery Store Deli. It has been a good job so far. I especially enjoy the times when we are required to sample meats, cheeses, and salads so we can tell the inquiring customer whether they are good or not, or what the flavor differences are, or what we recommend. I really like the people I work with, and the time goes by fast. Plus, I work more hours than at Target in 3-4 days. That gives me more time with family. I have been busy taking portraits of several families for their holiday cards and gifts, as well.

As a family we finally went up to the Uinta Mountains and cut down our Christmas tree yesterday. We took our snowmobile and a couple of sleds and made a day of it and played around. It was freezing, but we had a great time.

We hope everybody enjoys the Holidays. Merry Christmas and just in case it is another month for an update, Happy New Year.