A Holly Jolly Christmas

Christmas, of course, started at my parents' house. Christmas Eve was a delicious turkey dinner (Mom, that was seriously some of the best gravy ever) followed by a photo scavenger hunt, the chaotic nativity scene put on by the kids, and Christmas Eve presents.

My parents got all the grandkids aprons with their names embroidered on it.

This was part of my team for the photo scavenger hunt. Look closely. We are all Rudolph. We dipped our fingers in hot, red wax and put it on out noses.

We took our time Christmas morning and just enjoyed the fact it was Christmas.

Usual Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls and smoothies

We decided this year to start a new tradition. We lead the kids into the living room and read Luke 2 in front of the Christmas tree.

Then Kamri put baby Jesus in his manger.

Miles' first Christmas was spent eating his presents. He enjoyed the wrapping paper.

The usual pictures of the kids with their presents.

Our family's first surgery....

One week ago, December 18th, we took Sara in to get her tonsils out. She's always getting strep throat/bad case of sore throat. She had strep 4 times this year with some sore throats on top of that. So we took her to an ENT and we decided to get her tonsils taken out. She was very eager to get it done. She was sooooo tired of having sore throats and her tonsils were so big it hurt and was difficult to swallow. We were LUCKY to get an early (7:15 am) appointment so she didn't have to fast all day.

Modeling her fancy new PJ's and comfy socks

We got to walk with her to a certain point...

...then she had to leave us to go back to the operation room. She was acting brave and gave us both a big hug and let the doctor lead her back. Afterward I asked her how she was feeling at the at point and she said she was really scared. But you couldn't tell. The anesthesiologist told us she was very brave and cooperative.

In the recovery room a half hour after surgery. She was totally out of it.

Watching Scooby Doo and a little more coherent

She (and Ben) loved the fruit punch slushee from the hospital

Doesn't she look happy being wheeled out to the car.

**********

It's been a week and she has done remarkably well. Sara is a little dramatic when it comes to pain. So we were a little scared about how she would act afterward. But she had been great!!! Yes, she's had times when she hasn't been happy because her throat was hurting, but she hasn't complained much. We haven't yet had the terrible day that comes between 3 and 5 days after I keep hearing about. Or the ear aches that sometimes happen. She still has to be careful about what food she eats, but she eats more than I would have thought she would. And she is loving those popsicles. I hope that this solves all our problems with her throat and we won't have to hear her complain about food hurting to swallow. Way to go Sara!!

She did it!

On Tuesday, Sara was in a Spelling Bee for the 1st through 3rd graders. She was REALLY nervous and studied really hard. All the studying paid off because SHE WON! You could tell she was nervous and if you know her well you know she used to have a really hard time getting up and doing anything in front of people. We are so proud of her!! She overcame her nerves. A few teachers came up to me afterward and commented on how she seemed very calm and how well she knew her words. I knew she wasn't very calm inside but on the outside she looked confident. The list included 225 words ranging in difficulty for 1st through 8th grade students. We studied every night for a week so she would be comfortable. She knew every word on that list. We are so very proud of you Sara!! Not only for winning, but for working so hard and for overcoming your fear and nerves. Good job!!

Waiting to start

One of her best friends in her class got second place

She got a trophy and a $15 gift card to Barnes and Noble. She thought that was pretty cool.

Yep, we're proud parents.

Here are the words she had to spell:

ham

drop

some

summer

cloth

wrap

because

babies

cartoon

thousand

family

urgent

brighten

squeeze

ounce

examine

piano

Thanksgiving and other little bits of our weekend

Happy Thanksgiving

Human Race 2009

I started Thanksgiving morning off with an early morning run at the Human Race 5K. (proceeds go to the Food Bank) My sister Misti participated last year and convinced some of us to join with her this year. It was cold, but it was fun and a good way to start off the day. I surprised Trina by wanting to run some of it. I'm usually just a walker, but I think I was so cold and numb I just wanted to get it over with so we ran about half of it.

Here are the participants in our group -

Misti, Cassie, Norah, Leona, Pace, Trina, Me

Trina's friend Chelsea and little brother Stephen joined us

Waiting for our bananas and oranges

And this weekend post wouldn't be complete without a post about the BYU/Utah game.

For those of you who know my family, they are big Utah fans. But, I have turned to the dark side (in their opinion) and cheer for BYU. We had a little party at my parents house during the game. I made this big cookie. It was good. Ben went to the game with our friend Scott so Elisa and kids joined my family. Since my family are big U fans and I and all the children-in-law are BYU fans, it's always a very interesting night. My brothers took the Utah loss very well. It was a good game and Ben was excited to get to storm the field after.