California Christmas!

We're here! At Chad and Kenna's, that is. (Kenna is Greg's little sister, for those of you who don't know).

We began our journey at 8AM on Saturday morning, stayed in Susanville, California that night, and then made it to Ruth, California by Sunday afternoon. It was a pretty good, but long trip! Grayson was a pretty good little traveler! We brought along our portable DVD player and some fun DVDs, including The Polar Express, some VeggieTales, and a few others. I think it would have been a much longer trip if we'd not had that.

Ruth is a three-hour drive away from Redding, and pretty much anything else! There is a little store in Ruth, but we hear the prices are sky-high, and it's a place to go when you absolutely have to have something that can't wait for a trip to town. There's a town an hour away from here called Hayfork, and they have a little grocery store, but the prices are also pretty high, and there's not a lot of selection. So, Chad and Kenna do most of their shopping in Redding. I don't know what I'd do if I had to go that far to get anywhere! It is just gorgeous out here in the mountains, and very peaceful. I'll have to post some pictures later!

We had a really fun Christmas, and the boys got lots of fun presents, including trains, planes and trucks....their favorite things! We had Christmas in Utah with my parents last Friday night, and Grayson got more fun stuff! I bought a laptop for Greg and I, and he was pretty surprised to get that! We didn't have time to set it up yet, so that will be a fun thing to do when we get home.

The boys, Grayson and Jonathon, made some cookies this morning! With the mommys' help, of course! They had lots of fun!

Also, Uncle Chad built a railing for their staircase, which was Kenna's Christmas present! It is really beautiful! He and Kenna have done most of the building of their house, and there are still some things "under construction". It is amazing, though!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas! See you all soon!

TGIF!

So, it's 11:58 p.m., and I am so, so glad that the day is almost over!

Why? Well, for starters, I've had one of the worst colds ever, since Sunday - ick! Grayson and Sharon have both had it, and now it's my turn! It really ganged up on me, too. I've been on a steady regimen of Mucinex, Airborne, multi-vitamins, and a nightly dose of the good cough syrup that helps you sleep when you have a cough. Sharon even made me a couple of rounds of the "Stephens Family Cold Remedy", which consists of fresh lemon juice, raw honey, and scotch (or some sort of alcohol). I'm not someone who drinks anything much stronger than Diet Coke, but that stuff really helps! : )

Then, this morning there was some sort of alarm clock malfunction. Grayson likes to play with my clock, so I bet he's the culprit. I woke up this morning, shortly after Greg got to bed (he works graveyards), and noticed that my clock read 7:30! I'm supposed to be to work at 8 in Layton, so I hurried through a shower, threw on some makeup, etc. etc. I went to wake Grayson up, and opened his blinds. It was dark-thirty outside! I reasoned that it couldn't possibly be 8:00, so I went to check another clock. Oh, it was only 6 a.m.! So, I set a timer for 30 minutes and took a nap on the couch. I REALLY wanted to call in sick, because I am, but I have just over 40 hours of PTO (paid time off), and I'm saving it for California next week. (Yay!!)

So, I made it through another day at work with my cold! It really does seem to be getting better. Hopefully I don't overdose on Airborne before it's over with. I did go to see a doctor today, just to make sure that I didn't have something that required antibiotics. The strep test came back negative, so I'm good! That was my lunch break, so I didn't have time to do my last-minute shopping! Maybe tomorrow.

Then, my boss asked me to run an errand for him. (He's a great boss, by the way!) The errand entailed stopping in South Ogden, in the Uintah area, on my way home to get some documents signed. No big deal, I thought. I could leave work a little early, beat some of the afternoon traffic, and maybe get home a little earlier than usual. Sounds great! Well, I left at 4:30, and it was just starting to hail. I don't think it had snowed a bit up until then. Before I could get from Target in Layton to Highway 89, it was a full on BLIZZARD! I even had to roll down the driver's side window a couple of times, because the snow kept building up so much that I couldn't see out. Traffic was moving at a snail's pace.

Well, I knew exactly where to turn off Highway 89 to get to the address, and I started driving up a hill, trying to read the snow-covered street signs in an unfamiliar area. Even my trusty MapQuest map couldn't help me now! I'd talked to the woman on the phone whose home I was going to, and I remembered her saying that her house was about as far as you could go up that road. Ahead of me, there was another car stuck in the middle of the road, wheels spinning. So, I chickened out and turned around! I called the lady to let her know it was just to snowy for my car to make it up to her house, and she completely understood. It turns out that she and her husband own a business somewhere in downtown Ogden, and I could go there to drop of the documents tomorrow. (Wish I had known that before!!)

So, I started on my way home, and Grayson and I had an appointment at my hair lady Tiffani's house at 6:00. There was plenty of time, or so I thought. It took an eon to drive the rest of the way home! I finally picked up Grayson, and at 5:55, we were off to Tiffani's. We got there, after getting stuck on a couple of hills at 6:30! Woohoo! At least our hair looks good! That was a fun part of my day.

Then, we got back home at 8:30ish, I think. We'd ordered pizza, and it took about 45 minutes to come. Grayson was loving this - getting to stay up late, eat pizza, and watch the Polar Express! Maybe he'll have some good naps on our trip out to Aunt Kenna's!

Oh, and to top the day off, I started to get all of our laundry washed, since we need to get packed to leave on Saturday morning. Grayson and I put on our PJs as soon as we got home, and I gathered up all the laundry. After I started the first load, I remembered that I left my cell phone in the pocket of my sweater! A sweater that had been in the washer for at least 20 minutes. Arrgh!! I got it out, and it is (of course) not working. And, of course, it is only about 6 months old!

So....I'm off to sleep. Here's to a better day tomorrow! :)

Christmas Edition of Getting to Know You

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? - Wrapping Paper, but sometimes gift bags, if I'm feeling lazy or the gift is oddly shaped!

2. Real tree or artificial? - You know, I've been married for 5 years and we haven't actually bought a tree! I am looking forward to the day when we'll have a house with enough room for a "standard-sized" tree. They seem to get better every year, though! I have my eye on one that's artificial, pre-lit, and it spins around! My friend Sharmilla has one, and it's so gorgeous! We do have a set of 5 Gatlinburg trees (the tall, skinny ones) that we put on the stairs of our front porch.

3. When do you put up the tree? - I always have to decorate first Saturday in December.

4. When do you take the tree down? - New Years Day

5. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate? - Can I get a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks instead?

6. Favorite gift received as a child? - socks for my doll, Amy :) (I was about 4, and asked for them!)

7. Do you have a nativity scene? - We have a toy one for Grayson, but not a fancy one yet. A friend of mine sets up her nativity scene under her tree. When her kids do good things, they get to put some hay in the manger. Then, on Christmas morning, she puts baby Jesus in the manger! I think that is such a cool thing - we will have to find one and start that tradition.

9. Easiest person to buy for? - My little guy, Grayson. Although, he's asked for a remote-control garbage truck for Christmas. Where on earth are we going to find that?!

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? - I would have to say some awful earrings that my dad bought, which were broken when he bought them. He has good intentions, but he doesn't Christmas shop! :)

11. Mail or email Christmas card? - We have been awful about this! I'd really love to send out a Christmas card with a nice family photo, but haven’t ever done it! I'm such a perfectionist that if I can't do something just the way I want to do it, it doesn't get done. I did send out a few the first year we were married, though.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? - I've not ever bought anything before December! I have, however, started baking things the day after Thanksgiving. I love to bake lots of stuff for Christmas and give it to friends and neighbors. I used to do a TON, but that was before Grayson! :)

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? - I have given stuff away to the Salvation Army, but I don't ever think I've re-gifted any Christmas presents.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? - Holiday Cherry Salad! It's got cherry pie filling, Cool Whip, cream cheese, pineapple, nuts,... I'm sure it's really bad for you, but it is so good! It's Edna Kilgore's recipe (she was kind of my "adopted" Grandma here in Utah). She now lives in Alabama, and has Alzheimer's. It's so sad, but the recipe always makes me think of her.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree? - Clear!

16. Favorite Christmas song? - Mary, Did You Know?

17. Favorite Holiday Show/Movie? - It's a Wonderful Life. Oddly enough, I have an uncle, Harry Bailey, and my mom is Mary Bailey! :)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? - I guess the preferred thing would be to stay home, but we are going to my sister-in-law's house this year! It should be really fun to get our little ones together - I can't wait!

19. Favorite thing to do this time of year? - I love going to the Christmas Eve service at church, singing Christmas carols, etc. Also, last year we did a progressive dinner where we went to one house for appetizers, one house for dinner, and then to church for dessert. It was so much fun, and a tour of Christmas lights at the same time!

20. Can you name Santa's reindeer? - "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen... but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer..."

21. Do you have an angel on top or a star? - nothing yet...see #2

22. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? - Christmas morning!

23. Most annoying thing about this time of year? - the commercialism, lack of focus on what the season is all about, not enough time to do all of the things that I'd like to do!

Math 9-1-1

My friend Stacy just sent me this funny clip from Leno! I know I've felt this way about math before!

I can't believe that 4 year-olds have math homework now! That's just a year older than Grayson! I guess we'll have to get started on that. He likes to count, but he says 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10. We keep reminding him that 5, 6 & 7 are feeling left out!

Random Acts of Snowmen...

Tonight, Sharon, Grayson and I went to Chili's to get dinner. (Greg is working tonight, but don't worry, we got him something too!) As we were leaving, we noticed that one of the neighbor kids had made a cute snowman out in one of the common areas.

I have been telling Grayson for weeks that when it snows we're going to go out and make a snowman. Last weekend, it snowed, but the snow was so dry that it just wouldn't stick together -- that good old Utah "powder'! I thought that we might be able to do it later on, but we got busy with things, and it got late, and eventually most of it had melted. There was one night we could have made one, but I ended up having to work late. I felt so bad for not getting his snowman made!

This afternoon it snowed some really great snowman snow! So, when we saw the snowman out in the common area, I promised Grayson that we will make one tomorrow. It was already pretty dark and cold outside, not to mention close to Grayson's usual bath and bedtime.

When we got back from getting our take-out at Chili's, we saw the most adorable little snowman on our front porch! Then, I looked at the porches of the rest of the condos in our building, and they all had snowmen, too!

I was almost in tears! (I know, dumb thing to cry over, but it meant a lot to me!) Grayson just giggled and smiled about them. He had to go and look at each one. We are going to have to write a thank-you note to the little boy who put them together for us. This is one of those things that's like a "hug from God"! He knew how much I really wanted Grayson to have a snowman, as silly a request as that is!

Here are some pictures of our little friend!:

The neighbors' snowmen! There was one on every porch!

Grayson checking out the snowman:

Grand-Sharon and Grayson, admiring the snowman:

Our Porch is All Decked Out!

It's a little Martha Stewart meets the Griswolds...don't you think?! I was so excited to finally get this done that I had to post some pictures. It's only 12:30 a.m.!

I even found this cool gadget at Home Depot for $10 that turns your lights on at dusk and off at dawn. We'll have to see how that works. It can even be set to turn off after 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours.

There are some Gatlinburg trees over to the left of the porch - they are hard to see because there are no lights on them yet. Our front porch is so bright now!

Evergreen garland around the porch railing

This is about all I've done inside! I've got my Rustic Star Scentsy warmer on top of the armoire with the "Blue Christmas" scent in it. At least it smells like Christmas! Our walls really aren't mustard yellow like they appear! : )

Sock Monkeys!

My incredibly crafty (in a good way) friend Stephanie just made a cute sock monkey (see her blog)! I did a quick Google search, and found all kinds of monkeys. The kids who get these may need some therapy later in life:

Mr. T

Princess Leia

Spock Monkey

Geisha Monkey

Ballerina Monkey

Zombie Monkey