Christmas Joys

Christmas is such a unique time of year. I love to decorate for christmas. There is nothing quite like it. I turn on the christmas music, pull out the christmas tree, put on the decorations, put out the nativity scenes and more. Once it is all done, I love to turn off the lights and look at the tree and contemplate the meaning of Christmas and the magic that seems to happen this time of the year. It is a time of reflection and looking back at what has happened this past year. It is always amazing how the year has flown by so quickly yet some things seemed to happen so long ago. I love that people start to look outside of their little world and help others. It seems for a few short weeks that the world is just a nicer place. I love the way the world looks when it is blanketed in a fresh layer of snow. We are definately getting that right now!

Christmas is a time to be with family. This year my Christmas was spread out over the month. My brother came with his family the first of December. We did go and see the lights at temple square. It seemed strange as it was fairly warm and there was no snow. Instead of snow falling from the sky we had leaves falling from the trees. Don't get me wrong, I don't love freezing to death as you walk through Temple Square looking at the lights. I really did enjoy the temperature, it just was different. My sister Marta and her husband was here this past week. We had fun spending time together, playing games, shopping, making scarfs and of course eating yummy food.

One thing that I don't seem so great at is getting cards in the mail in time for prechristmas reading. I thought I had done okay this year...until I opened my mailbox up yesterday. I had a bunch of my cards sent back to me due to insufficient postage. I am not quite sure why one stamp wasn't sufficient...I guess the little charm on the card makes it more expensive to mail....not quite sure. So much for trying to be on the ball.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and that you are able to spend time with your families. Thank you for your friendship and love!

Fun times with family.

This week I had visitors stay with me. It is always great to see family and spend time with them. James, Kailey, Rielyn and Kedric came to Utah for a baptism. They spent Thursday night with me.

We made homemade pizza for dinner. It was fun to watch the kids make the pizza, which turned out YUMMY!

We went to Thanksgiving Point and saw the reindeer. Too bad it was cold outside and the reindeer seemed to walk away from the people. We also drove through their light display. I had not ever done that it is cute.We also drove out to Lindon and saw the house that has its lights synchronized with the music on the radio station. It was pretty neat to see. Kedric loved the lights! He had the biggest grin on his face and was jumping up and down with the music. He thought they were crazy and funny. They have about 4 or 5 different songs that they play. It is worth the visit if you are here in the area.
If you have no idea what I am talking about you can visit their website and see what they have did last year. http://www.holdman.com/christmas/video.asp

Rivalry Week

Today is the day of the big game in Utah. BYU vs. U of U and everywhere you look there are signs, flags and that tell the world which team you are pulling for. It has always been fascinating to me that Rivalry week is only during football season.

Well, where I work all the men are big U of U fans. They are season ticket holders to the football games. In fact when I was hired on and introductions were being made it always came up that I am a BYU graduate. People told me that they wouldn't hold it against me. Throughout our office there are reminders of them being U of U supporters. We are talking stickers on their cars, a big U magnet on the fridge in the break room, mouse pads in red with the U logo.

I decided with the other two girls that we should celebrate rivalry week with great spirit. So, we ensured that our employers were equal opportunity employers. We decorated the office with BYU logos, since they are arrive to work later then us. Lacey plastered one guys cubicle with logos and I recovered his mouse pad with the cougars logo. I placed a lovely framed logo in the owners office with the pictures of his children, we put a BYU sign on the fridge and we made a nice arrangement of sticks with logos taped to them in a vase on the reception desk. It really made it difficult for them to work being surrounded by the cougars and logos. It was pretty funny.

I think it really caught them off guard when they came to work. They seemed a little overwhelmed and were not sure how to act. Of course they all thought it was me acting alone in this scandal. I told them it was Cosmo that came in and did it.

The beauty of it all is I simply don't care about football or who wins the game. So even if the Utes end up on top, they can try to "get me back" or rub it in, it won't matter. Of course I would prefer BYU to win, but I won't lose any sleep if they don't

Embracing Change

Well, strap on your seat belts everyone this country is going to be taking a wild ride these next four years. Obama promised change and I have to admit I am a bit fearful for the changes that we will be experiencing!

Take a listen to this audio clip on you tube from the Glen Beck program, where he addresses the ideas of socialism and he plays a clip from Pres. Benson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMzLgSuBr54
It seems that is exactly where our country is. We need to pray for our country and pray that Obama will have a change of heart. That he will do what is best for this country.

I've been tagged

I have been tagged by Kristen. I was to go to the fourth file in my pictures and select the fourth picture. The only problem with this task is that I have pictures on two different drives on my computer. So which drive should I select? I decided to do both of them...so you get a two for one. Aren't you lucky!

This is a picture from my parent's 40th anniversary party a year and a half ago. My mom and dad are with my Grandma Raymond. What a great night this was...mom was alert and having a good time. There were lots of friends and family there to honor my parents. I love you Mom and Dad!

This picture is from last Thanksgiving at Grandma Raymond's house. I am cutting up the cranberry jelly. I really don't know why there is a picture of this. But, it was the fourth picture. Aunt Carla, Grandma and her friend Becky along with Marta and Joel were at Grandma's for dinner. I miss you grandma!

Well, there you have it. Now I am crying as I am remembering the good times and good memories from the happy days of the past.

So I am tagging Marta...because you haven't done it yet. I am also tagging Michelle, Kailey and Jen Soptich.

Grand Witches Council

So a few weeks ago I headed out my door to work. As I opened the door I found an invitation taped to it, informing me that I have been invited to the annual grand witches council. We needed to RSVP to Wanda the witches email and let her know if we would be in attendance. We would be divided up into teams and we would have clues that would lead us to different places where we would gather ingredients for the witches brew. Once we completed all of our clues we would find out who Wanda the witch was.

Well, it sounded like a fun party and it didn't require a halloween costume. WHEW! I am just not one that gets into dressing up in costumes. I did however, forget to RSVP by the deadline. I emailed Wanda and pleaded my case for being tardy...but received no response.

On Thursday of last week I was asked by my neighbor if I was going and I said I wasn't sure if I was allowed. She told me her husband couldn't go so I could go in his place. It was all settled.

We showed up at the park at the appointed time and found out what teams we were on. We got our first clue and headed off to the races...we about had an accident leaving the parking lot. The clues lead us within a 6 mile radius of our starting point. One of the clues took us to the ice cream shop at thanksgiving point where we were all given ice cream along with our clue...that was so nice of Wanda! Everyone had the clues in different orders so we were not following each other around.

Let's just say my team was a bit challenged...for some reason we had a hard time solving one of our clues. This put us way behind everyone else. We then arrived at the most difficult clue after dark and this made it impossible to find the clue. How in the world are you supposed to find a clue in the dark by a river? But, we did have quite the adventure searching for this clue. We were going very fast down the road and hit the railroad tracks and caught air. The car was driven into a ditch, which we had to lift up the bumper so we could reverse out. Then we were almost hit by a car. Hailey lost her shoes in the mud...they were sucked off her feet.

Everyone had been at the house waiting for us and after an hour they decided to call and tell us to just come to the house.

It was a fun time! I am sure we looked funny, grown adults running through thanksgiving point on date night, racing down the streets like mad men, people running all over looking for clues under bushes, in trees etc. Everyone guessing who Wanda the witch was...I guess several people thought I was Wanda.

Anyway...I would highly recommend this party idea for anyone wanting to through a halloween bash that takes you back to your teenage days of participating in scavenger hunts.

John McCain's humor

I don't know if any of you saw the charity dinner where they had the presidential nominees participate in a stand up comedy roast. Well, I have to say that McCain was certainly funnier then Obama!

If you missed it here is the link to the youtube sight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N-j0W6MW-U