Christmas times 3

The last couple weeks have been super exciting.  We celebrated Christmas, and then we celebrated Christmas again, and then we celebrated Christmas again.  That is a LOT of Christmas.  Here are some pictures of our celebrations and other stuff. I can’t believe we didn’t take a single picture of the actual Christmas day at the Watson’s. We’ll have to steal some pics from the Watson siblings some time. 

First we celebrated Christmas with my family one week early. We always draw parts for the Nativity and then act them out. I was the donkey this year and I think my dear Watson was a Shepherd. We also did the famous chimes, ate a LOT and played some really fun games. Sarah was in town so that was a special treat. 

You can see some of the nieces and nephews in their Nativity costumes.  

We celebrated our own family Christmas one day early. I wanted us to be able to open our presents as a family and kind of start some of our own traditions. For our Christmas Eve we had Christmas shaped pancakes which we ate by candlelight. 

Me looking at my presents!!

On the real Christmas Eve we went to lunch with the Watson's and on our way we saw Santa on a motorcycle. 

You can see my dear Watson's hand as he waves to Santa.

On Christmas Eve we went to my grandparents party in bountiful.  We also slept over at the Watson's and enjoyed watching some of the grandkids and siblings open presents on Christmas morning. We visited my family for an hour or so and then back to the Watson's to open more presents, play games, have a talent show and Eat EAt EAT! All of our Christmases were great!

Our Tree!

I love Christmas. I love decorating and setting up a Christmas Tree, putting lights on the house, candy canes, making sugar cookies and having Christmas smells for my Scentsy warmer. I love celebrating Christmas traditions and finding and giving gifts to my family members.

This year I’m spending my first Christmas married. I’m excited to set my own family traditions and enjoy them with my dear Watson. I really wanted to go to the dollar store to buy some Christmas decorations, and I wanted to buy a cheap tree from WalMart so that it could really feel like Christmas for both of us. I was really excited about it until we moved and then started spending a lot of money on things for our house (namely, a Washer and Dryer).  So I decided that I could wait for a tree and decorations until next year. I had a few dinky decorations, and acquired a couple awesome decorations- so I just did my best with what I had. Our presents were wrapped and put in the corner of our living room beneath our stockings which hung on the curtain rod.  It was cute and would do. I meant to buy a tiny tree to set on top of one of the presents but I never got around to it. 

Saturday night we stayed at my parent’s house pretty late hanging out with my family (we celebrated the Porter family Christmas Eve traditions this weekend while my sister was in town from New Mexico).  When we got  back to our apartment I noticed the living room was glowing a little bit. I wondered why the 2 strands of Christmas lights I put on our deck were glowing so brightly—in fact, I didn’t even think we turned them on?  I immediately went into the living room to see about the glow.  And there it was. The most beautiful Christmas tree I have ever seen.  It was glowing brightly with its multi-color pre-strung lights; small round ornaments hung from the branches and a beautiful white garland was wound throughout the entire tree. A Santa hat graced the tree as the tree topper.  Our presents were gently arranged at the foot of the tree and 4 chocolate candies led the way to the note. Merry Christmas, love Jenny. (My best friend who lives in Athens—Georgia, not Greece).

I just knelt at the bottom of the tree and tried to stare at its wonder through my tears.  I turned the lights off again and my dear Watson joined me on the couch where I cried some more as I continued to soak in our glowing tree and everything it meant to me.  

This is OUR first Christmas Tree. It embodies so much of what Christmas means to me and what I hope it will mean to my new family. Traditions, family, and love. Having a Christmas tree meant so much more to me than I was willing to admit.

Jenny is the most charitable person I’ve ever met. For her, charity just comes naturally. She doesn’t care about price, or how hard it might be. She is truly an example to me of the Savior. He knew the price He would have to pay and the personal sacrifice He would have to make to give us all the gift of eternal life and exaltation, but He just did it anyway because He loves us.  After this experience I feel like my focus has been re-centered on the true meaning of Christmas. Thank you Jenny!

Our Tree!

Yes, we saw David.

This is a picture the firemen pulled from the Provo Tabernacle that burned down. Isn't it cool that everything but Christ is burned?

Nephews

This was my conversation with my nephew Porter yesterday:

(I called Betsy and asked to talk to Porter to wish him a Happy Birthday. Porter comes on the phone and immediately says: )

Porter: Happy Birthday

Me: Hey! That’s what I was going to say!  How are you?

Porter: 5

Me: I know you’re 5, but how is your birthday going?

Porter: Grreat! (he said it just like Betsy would)

Me: What did you get?

Porter: A pirate costume and a movie and a puzzle.

Me: Cool! What movie did you get?

Porter: Um…Cat in the Hat, and I got a puzzle.

Me: Awesome! And are you….

Porter: I can’t say anything very long, so bye!

Apparently he was doing his puzzle when I called and was a little distracted. AND, Betsy told me he didn’t get a Cat in the Hat movie--not sure where that came from. He is hilarious and super cute.

My other nephew Jes got baptized on Saturday. We celebrated his birthday afterward and you should have seen him open presents.  He LOVED everything! He said thank you even before he opened each gift and was just literally in heaven.  One gift in particular he kept saying "I can't believe it!" in utter amazement.  My thought the next day was that he doesn't realize it yet and probably won't for a lot of years, but the greatest gift he got that day was the gift of the Holy Ghost. Learn more about the Holy Ghost HERE.

Coming soon: I'll tell you all about my new favorite things (no, I will NOT be giving all my readers my new favorite things, I'm not Oprah). 

Sneeze (or move) if you Want To

The other day I SNEEZED (click) at work. It was a medium-loud sneeze, not one that is intrusive or disgusting or anything like that. My boss said “bless you.” Well I had to sneeze again immediately following the first sneeze but I didn’t want my boss to say bless you again because THAT would be awkward. I mean, what if I had to sneeze a third time and he had to say bless you AGAIN? So I tried to hold my sneeze in.  I must have thought of holding it in a little too late because what happened was my cheeks filled with air (and literally puffed up) and I let out a phhhh that sounded less like a sneeze and more like a, you know, *toot*.  No one said anything of course, because it’s one of those things you wonder “what was THAT?” without wondering it out loud.  I couldn’t stop laughing about it!

On another note, we're moving!

So, farewell mysterious long-haired Chilean chain-smoker/organ playing neighbor. We'll miss you 6 year old Chinese boy who jumps on a trampoline in the apartment above us.  Goodbye ward members who can't help but think the Gospel should be more complex. See ya strange (but nice) couple a few doors down with a cat.

Goodbye South Provo, HELLO WEST PROVO!

Hello nice landlord and nice landlord's business hooked onto our house. Hello giant construction equipment new neighbors, nice to see you Freeway. Glad to meet you nice fenced in front yard and small deck. We're happy to see you mice in the storage closet. Hi second bedroom that will serve nicely as a craft room, I mean project room. Hola cheaper rent. Hey new ward, and oh, hey brother and sister-in-law Watson who we'll see at church every week! HELLO washer and dryer hookups.

We're excited for a change!

If you see any of these (of the empty variety) let me know!

MATH TIME!

This is the clock I made for Jenny B.F.  She is the smartest math person you’ll ever meet. She’s currently going to math grad school to get even smarter.

First I mixed my own paints until I got a really good Jenny green.  She likes green things.

Then I asked my sister-in-law Andrea to cut the vinyl equations (you should SEE what else Andrea can do!  Check out her amazing talents HERE—trust me, you’ll want to be a follower.)

I used the font called Georgia for the numbers because Jenny lives in Georgia.

Each equation equals the number on the clock in its respective position. I didn’t come up with the equations, I found those on-line. 

My dear Watson helped me put the equations on straight (well he did as much as he could for a person with a chronically crooked perspective), and then installed the clock hands.

Jenny’s cousin David gave me the idea of writing It’s Math Time on the clock because I was worried about how accurately it would keep time (it’s just a clock kit from Joann’s--although I should have bought it from Hobby Lobby because it was cheaper.) No matter what time it REALLY is, it will always be math time.

Then I shipped it to Athens (Georgia, not Greece). 

The best part of all---Jenny LOVES it!  

p.s. I think snow is kind of magical -- the gentle kind, not the violent stuff.

What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

Halloween was fun. My dear Watson turned into a chicken and I turned into a fried egg.  We ran into some mummies and some old friends. We watched a video of our friend Monte shoving 6 full sized cupcakes in his mouth; it was an amazing trick (watch him do it HERE ).

I taught the Nature merit badge at BYU’s Merit Badge PowWow where I accidentally called on the boy in the blue SKIRT (instead of shirt) to answer a question.  I told the scouts I was going to talk about a plant in Utah that is protected by law, and a nice boy raised his hand and said, “flower?”  I was passing out candy for answering questions after I reviewed them—but I hadn’t asked a question yet. This boy rrreaallllyyy wanted some candy.

I delivered a birthday package to Jenny B.F. (when she receives it I’ll show you a picture—it was homemade with love).  I got mad at FedEx because the store signs were uninformative and confusing. Luckily my dear Watson was there to tell me to take a chill pill and I managed to not be mean. 

I’ve been making real good dinners this week. I came prepared with a two week meal plan and it has made all the difference. Making dinner is fun now that I know what I’m going to make sooner than 15 minutes before I make it, AND I know I have all the ingredients, AND it’s more than just chicken and rice or beef and rice.  I often get frustrated while making dinner because I feel pressed for time, I don’t really know what to make, I don’t have something I need, I drop the cheese grater, cut my finger on the cheese grater etc.  I make grunting noises like a 2 year old.  In the last 2 days the only time I got frustrated (and grunted) was when I realized I would have to wait for the White Sauce Chicken Enchiladas to cool down before I could eat them.  I’m a very patient person though (right, honey?) so it wasn’t that hard….Anyway, I have enjoyed it immensely. It’s amazing what a little bit of preparation can do to lessen stress. 

Oh yeah, check out my Turkey headers (at the top of each section of my blog) and my new blog banner. I made it all by myself.  I even used Illustrator to make that branch with leaves :). It's the only thing I could figure out and it actually wasn't what I was trying to do, but it looked close enough to a branch.  The rest was done using Photoshop.

Yes, he is wearing tights.

Yes, I do have a spatula on my head.

Yes, this is a REAL mummy.

Don't Forget to Wear Clothes on 10-31

Today in The Daily Universe (BYU’s daily campus life newspaper) there was an article about maintaining modesty—and decency, even for Halloween.  My dear Watson and I have been putting a lot of thought into what we are going to be for Halloween, and as a result have dropped in at a few Halloween stores looking for inspiration.  We were anything but inspired. Instead, we found a lot of incredibly inappropriate and perverted costumes. Since when does Dorothy from Wizard of Oz wear a booty-skirt, hooker heels and a skin tight cleavage showing blouse? Have you ever seen a nurse wearing lingerie on the job? Last year I went to a few different Halloween parties around BYU, most of them put on by people in my ward. A lot of the costumes were really creative and funny, but I was surprised at the number of skanky costumes worn by girls in my ward.  The article from The Daily Universe argued that we should be modest at all times including Oct. 31^st.  She also of course brought up the leggings issue which is an interesting one to talk about around BYU. I mean,  I totally understand how someone could think wearing skin tight leggings can make a shirt-- only slightly longer than a t-shirt-- modest to wear with no pants. I guess the “Dresses, skirts, and shorts must be knee-length or longer” part of the Honor Code doesn’t apply if you wear tights underneath. The author of the article brought up a good point that you don’t have to ‘dress like a square’ in your everyday life in order to maintain modesty. You can make a modest version of what’s fashionable and still look great.  Here’s the best quote from her article:

“So while you’re putting together your Halloween costume this week, try to give a little more thought to your outfit. There are plenty of ways to feel cute, even hot, in a costume while still maintaining the standard. You just have to be a little more creative.  It’s cold outside anyway—you’ll thank me later.”

 You can read the entire article HERE.

I Made an OWL

Lately I have been having an owl fetish. I think owl's are so cute I can hardly stand it. SO, I decided to try to make my own and this is how it turned out.  It looks like an owl which means I did a pretty good job, I suppose. I made it using Adobe Photoshop. It's just a bunch of shapes all thrown together. I'm bad at choosing colors that go well together, so I got the color scheme from a pre-made color sample from kuler.adobe.com. You can sign up for free and download really cool color schemes to upload to Photoshop, InDesign and I think Illustrator (I don't know Illustrator very well and I haven't figured out how to Load Swatches). 

Enjoy looking at my cute little owl! hoooot hoooot!

CELEBRATE

Everyone say WOOT! for my Dear Watson!!  It’s his birthday today!!!! Now we’re the same age (I’ve been older than him for 3 months).

For his birthday we stayed one night at a hotel (I won a free night’s stay), ordered pizza, stayed up late and watched a movie at his parent’s house, I got him some movies, chapstick and a UVU t-shirt, and today we’re going to eat at Red Robin (because they give you a free meal on your b-day).   

My dear Watson is one of the most genuinely kind people I’ve ever met. He treats people so well, no matter what—he just assumes the best of everyone. He also has this amazing super power to turn the negative into positive. He is eternally patient and humble. He can fix or build anything, and somehow always finds something that needs fixing. He so willingly cleans the house and helps with dinner (in fact, I think he does both jobs better than me).  Did I mention how handsome he is? You should see how children flock to him. It doesn’t matter if they’ve never met him, they instantly love him. One time a lady walked passed us while my dear Watson was whistling (he whistles a lot) and she said “you are such a good whistler—I think that means you have a happy heart.”  And that’s the truth.   

Since the moment I met him 6 years ago, I’ve been drawn to him. And now, I’m MARRIED to him. It is definitely a dream come true.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY my dear Watson, I love you!

I'm not sure if he is in pain or if he's happy in this picture. Probably happy, because he's drinking Sprite!

MOOSE

On a relaxing and much needed drive up the canyon last Sunday, my dear Watson and I saw a MOOSE.  Strangely, moose are and will always be an indication of God’s love for me. 

The last time I saw a moose, which was my first time ever seeing a moose, was in answer to a prayer that ended something like this:  “oh…and…please help me see a moose.”  I was spending my 13^th or 14^th birthday (I can’t remember which) at girls camp that year. For me, it was the worst way to spend a birthday. I didn’t like girls camp because of its tightly regimented schedule and uptight rules.  Not to mention the cliques in my ward which I was never included in . As I shed some tears by my cot the night before my birthday, I wondered if it was even okay to ask Heavenly Father for something like a moose. There’s only one roaming the mountains of Camp Shalom girls camp and I reeealllly wanted to see it.

The next morning, on my birthday, there was a moose taking a dip in the lake right by my cabin.  It waited there long enough for me to grab my camera and take a few pictures.  Then it walked away and I never saw a moose again, until last week. Feeling stressed and slightly overwhelmed, I need an escape to nature. Again, I shed some tears and prayed silently that I would be able to feel Heavenly Father’s love for me—to strengthen me and lift me higher. Traffic along the Alpine Loop slowed and I thought for sure someone hit a bicyclist.  My dear Watson spotted the young black moose along the side of the road and we knew immediately that it was the real cause of the stopped up traffic.It moved deeper into the woods as we came around the bend. He froze for a few minutes while we drove by him and took a picture.  

I wasn't looking for a moose this time just some manifestation of God's love, and there it was once again in the form of a Moose. I think He was telling me to remember, and that if He loved me on that birthday at Camp Shalom, He loves me today and everyday.