Merry Christmas!

This week has gone by in a whirl wind, I swear! Anyway, Our anniversary was good. Spencer took the day off so that we could do fun stuff. I kinda woke up with a headache, but I had an appointment with my chiropractor that morning so I thought he would help it. He didn't, but he sure helped my sciatic nerves (they are both giving me grief). Anyway, Spencer folded the clothes while I took a nap and then we went to a matinee showing of Harry Potter part 1. I think we will be going to more matinees because it was VERY inexpensive. We saved the expensive part for dinner, The Cheesecake Factory. It was WONDERFUL. We ordered the fried artichoke hearts and Spencer understood why I loved them SO much. Then we both ordered different sandwiches so we could share. He ended up eating all of his and half of mine, they where so good though. It was a good anniversary.

Thursday is our birthing class and we are doing an exchange with her, her classes for my cakes. She lives in our ward and has been really fun to get to know. They have a birthday cake every year on Christmas for Jesus and she asked me to make that for her this year. She had one request, that Mary be holding baby Jesus.


Christmas Eve was really exhausting. We had the missionaries over for dinner. We had prime rib, which I think is now going to be our traditional Christmas dinner. It was a 6 pound roast and we have ZERO leftovers! One of the missionaries, Elder Hunt, is the smallest missionary I have ever seen (he has Cystic Fibrosis) and he ate about 1/4 of the roast, it was AMAZING!! Spencer had carved the roast and I had told him to cut it like bread, when I turned around his first cut had been about an inch and a half thick. I about died! Elder Hunt ate half of that piece AFTER he had already eaten a whole steak. When he was finished with that half, he ate the other half! We were all amazed. To accompany it I made mashed sour cream sweet potatoes with a little blue cheese mixed in, not much of that left either and I made a HUGE batch. The potatoes were so yummy, I think Elder Hunt ate the majority of those too. Then I made a salad that was probably the BEST salad I have ever made. Oh my heck! It had Granny Smith apples in it along with pomegranate, mushrooms, and bacon. Then I got the Blush Wine Brianna's Dressing...need I say more. It was so good that the other Elder, Elder Stafford ate the rest of the salad with the actual salad serving fork that we used because my mom had already taken his plate. It was pretty funny. I then made some baguettes to go with it all, and it was awesome. We had gingerbread for dessert and during dessert Elder Hunt shared a really interesting message with us, it was really neat. It was snippets of Zacharia Chapters 1 and 2 and it made it sound like they were talking about Santa, it was really neat.

Christmas morning was fun. I love it when the girls come down stairs and see all the presents, it brings the magic back in Christmas for me. I kind of lost the magic when we had kids and they were old enough for Santa. But today really healed that for me, I hid in the kitchen while they came down the stairs and it was childhood all over again. Very special.


A tradition we have started is a letter from Santa talking about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. We are really glad that we have started that tradition. CJ had found it and read it then came into the kitchen while I was making breakfast and started to read it to me.

We had our traditional breakfast of cardamom bread, hot chocolate, and fruit salad. I made an adjustment on the salad and added pomegranate to it, I think I will start making that our tradition because we ALL LOVED it. I also made orange rolls to go with breakfast, it was sublime. We then opened presents. Avary was so excited she was about ready to crawl out of her skin, she could hardly wait.

We opened presents youngest to oldest, Avary couldn't wait any longer so we let her go first.


CJ got a special gift this year, she lost a top tooth and got a dollar from the tooth fairy. They both got what they wanted from Santa, Avary got a Lego Horse Jumping kit and CJ got a dolphin Pillow Pet that she has now named "Squeaky". They both got their own suitcases so now we won't get their clothes mixed up when we travel. They were really happy with their Christmas. I finished quilts for their beds just in time for Christmas and they were really happy about those, we also got them new sheets to match. My mom has started a tradition with them, new PJ's that she gives them on Christmas Eve. This year I talked her into making them, the girls were BEYOND thrilled. They were really sweet and drew pictures for each other and wrapped them and put them under the tree. I love it when they do sweet things like that. They got a few more things like new bath towels, art supplies, new dresses, and $5 each from their Grandpa Herb. Avary made a noodle wreath at school that she gave to me to open. I love treasures like that.

Spencer got one of the girls' pictures. It was from CJ, a night sea dragon, go figure. The girls gave Spencer a Snuggie and they were happy to help him test it out, although it is FAR from cold here (yesterday when I was dropping some goodies off at a friends house there were kids outside at a park playing soccer. Sure, I remember playing soccer on Christmas Eve....NOT). I gave Spencer my traditional gift of hot sauce. He has found a new Tobasco, Chipotle, that he REALLY likes, so much so he practically drinks it. Santa brought us new sheets for our bed and he gave me a fun little magic wand with a mini-pillow (center picture). In case you are wondering, the bottom writing says, "The magic will work as soon as the elves can refill the enchanted bank account." I love Santa, he has great humor. I'm having problems sleeping because of my sciatic nerves and I could really use a body pillow, so when the "elves" refill the "enchanted bank account" I will be getting one. I also got a pair of really nice slipper shoes to walk around in. They have cute pom poms on them that Jersey REALLY likes. Going to have to watch that particular adornment. My sister made my mom a really neat stone plaque and Santa brought her the new Tom Clancy book. She got a lot of stuff from my siblings too that she had opened during the week and then she put them back in the packages and put them under the tree, it was pretty funny. All in all I would say that we had a good Christmas. It was nice not to have a ton of stuff.

Merry Christmas to everyone from us. We love you all and are thinking of you this time of year!