Friends, Fun, and NO WORK!

Addendum for Mother

Mom was sad after reading the previous post...understandably I guess. However, I think if she tried really hard to search her memory and try to picture herself in the EXACT same situation on Christmas Day at the age of 27 and not married and being the only kid at home...she might at least somewhat understand, right? I dunno. Let me say that of course I am sooooo grateful for my whole family and many things in my life and the Gospel and the comforts and blessings I have. I realize that while Christmas Day this year was interesting and different and maybe not super exciting, it mostly just gives me a giggle and joy at looking toward the future and the many more Christmases I will have. And I never meant to even say this much about it! It was fine! It was fun! And I love my mom.

Christmas Day With a Pooch

Who knew that someday MY Christmas Day entertainment would be provided by a puppy? I mean, I've spent a lot of calories arguing my dislike and annoyance with dogs- mostly due to my extreme allergies...well...and because most of them truly are annoying.

Back to the story...I slightly reluctantly headed to my parents house a couple days before Christmas, not because I don't love my parents or because I'm not grateful for the holiday "festivities", but because the exchange of presents and enjoyment of my brother and his family had already happened on Thanksgiving. Thus, my Christmas was going to consist of my parents, 2 grandmas and 1 step-grandpa. Hmmmm...

Then came Christmas Eve when I learned that there must be a Santa Claus! Due to some out of the ordinary circumstances my "cousin" Kevin showed up at my house with his little puppy Jaxon! Now, Kevin was enough himself to cause me to jump for joy.

Because the whole Christmas Day itself was mainly the oldies and we didn't even open presents until like 2 p.m. after we went and retrieved my grandma from her assisted living joint in the pounding snow, the puppy ended up being the life of the party!
He got jingle balls from Santa and we watched him for hours it seemed. We took pictures of him, we took videos of him, we held him, we played with him. It was so odd for my life.

I will admit I love the little varmint. I'm not very allergic to him and he never barks and he's tiny and he looks like a teddy bear.

Interesting year.

Hoping Christmas Day 2009 IS spend with my brother.

'Tis the Season...of getting fatter

Does anybody else kinda dread this time of year for that reason? I mean, I like to eat, but the continuous treats from little gifts, church activities, work parties, friend parties, family parties...it's enough to kill someone! Or at least make it impossible to button the pants and I start to kind of fell sick all the time and half of it I want to just throw away. I'm a big time sucker for the salty stuff like the crackers and dip and finger foods yada-yada...the cookies and pastery crap don't even appeal to me for some reason. Anyway, on another note, I've gone to see the Christmas lights a couple times at Temple Square already and it has been such awesomely "warm" weather here until about 2 days ago and then the snow hit. So what I'm saying is, it was soooo much fun to go see the lights with a jacket and gloves and to feel cozy the whole time instead of freezing! Thank Heaven above for the late start to winter here!!!
This was the first trip of the season with Lisa and Brittany :) I also went last weekend with Amber, John, Kyle, and MJay (Cedar City boys), but Am took pictures that time. It was MUCH more crowded last weekend!

Nate

He did great! They are pretty sure they got it all and are waiting the testing on it, but they said it is low grade so it has a very small chance of growing back whatever it is. He may have some peripheral vision impairments apparently, but shouldn't be too bad. And he looks great! I saw him last night and he was pretty with it and had an awesome cotton helmet!

Prayers

My cute cousin Nate (the one with the glasses in the white shirt with red stripes) is having brain surgery to remove a tumor in about an hour. Any extra prayers would be very sweet of you! Thank you! Love you all!

Thanksgiving...no, Christmas...wait, Thanksgiving...

My Brother's fam come down from Oregon and we had an absolutely perfect Thanksgiving weekend! It was such a needed break and it was sooooo much fun! I only wish we had had a lot more time together! But our three days were awesome! I hauled Lisa all around on Friday shopping, starting at 4:30 a.m.! I bought a lot of things for great deals and spent way too much money- the largest purchase was my new pair of ski's and ski boots! We were going strong for like 6 hours...that's probably what caused her to wake up with the flu the next morning :( Since we won't be with them for Christmas, we did a little early Christmas exchanging...