leading up to christmas

As mentioned in my previous blogpost, this Christmas has felt a little more scattered than usual.  I felt more like I was in survival mode than even the usual chaos zone leading up to Christmas.   I'm still stress eating too much junk, having trouble sleeping, and still fighting off a variety of  bugs...including a cold sore that arrived just a few days before Christmas Day.   Having said that...we did accomplish some fun Christmasy things along the way.  Here's a  little glimpse at the last few days leading up to Christmas this year...

We had a little treat making party with Emma, Ellie, my sister, and Mom at my Mom's house...

Emma tempered the chocolate and Emma and Ellie made the truffles...

Heather made the caramels, Mom was the ingredient gatherer, and I was on fudge duty.  I do make a mean fudge, though this year's was a little more "decorative" than usual with my helpers adding sprinkles and marshmallows to the top.   If you like a creamy delicious fudge that's not as sickeningly sweet as most, then try my recipe.  I spent several years getting it "just right" and am quite proud of it, though I do tend to eat too much of it when it's around.  

As you know, I LOVE Christmas cards.  Love getting them, love sending them, love thinking about them.   I was a little less on-top of things this year than usual, but I am happy to say that they were all sent before Christmas at least. 

I do my Christmas card sending in phases every year.   Phase #1 is  the bulk of the cards, phase #2 are the people I need to doublecheck addresses on, phase #3 are the locals, and phase #4 are the people I need to spend a little more personal time on.    All in all, I sent about 230 this year, but likely will send a few fewer next year as there are quite a few people on my list I haven't heard from in several years.    

In case you didn't know or didn't remember, this past summer I went as the Trip Mom on an HXP (Humanitarian Experience) trip to Thailand with Ellie.   It was a life-changing experience for both of us and I feel so blessed to have been able to be a part of it.  This past week, one of my Thailand "kids"  had a mission farewell that I was thrilled to be able to attend (one of the perks of living in Utah now).   His decision to serve a mission was solidified while he was in Thailand and I felt like we had a small glimpse into him opening his heart to the idea while we were on the trip. 

Elder C is on his way to Florida now and we loved being able to hear him share his testimony with us...

As part of this mini-reunion for the farewell, we hosted a few people at our house for a couple nights.  Somehow the hair bleaching went down at our house when we were out of the house for all of 45 minutes.  😑

It was great to see them again and remember what a special time that was for us...

Last but not least, after spending 3 weeks in a row with Lucie, I was feeling very deprived in those couple weeks leading up to Christmas.  I missed my "Cici" (her self-picked nickname) snuggles, the storytimes, the silly singalongs, and just feeling like I was making a small difference again.   I clung to every picture Cami sent me and delighted anytime they had a chance to Facetime...especially when Lucie asked me to read her a book over the phone or to sing her a song.  I really do love being a Gigi and can't wait for a new little one to join the mix soon. 

Hope all you, dear readers, had wonderful holiday filled with many happy memories.   Stay tuned for a post on the actual Christmas holiday coming soon...

Thirty Years of Us!

 On a cold, but sunny day in Denver, on December 18, 1993, a couple of young kids got married.

 

Here are a few random facts about our early relationship and wedding:

-We met at BYU.

-I was officially introduced to Glen when I was going on a double date and the other guy canceled super last minute.  My brother offered to find a replacement date for my friend and came back with Glen.   He dated my friend for a while, then she went on a mission and the rest is history.  Haha! 

-Both of our birthdays are on the 25th of the month (me in April, him in June), so he asked me to marry him on September 25th.  We likely would have married on the 25th as well, except the 25th doesn't really work in December. 

-My aunt made my wedding dress and it cost right about $100 total.

-I truly didn't care about my wedding colors.   I originally picked peach and green (it was the early 90's, so don't judge!) and happily changed it to burgundy and green after my Mom informed me that those colors were hard to find in the wintertime.

-Actually, I really didn't care about many of the details of my wedding and I went along with whatever my Mom and Glen's Mom told me would be easiest.   We even had a potato bar for the luncheon, despite me not liking potatoes back then. 

-We jumped in the car the day after we got married and drove to Minnesota with my family for the reception and to spend Christmas with them.   I feel bad for my younger siblings in the back of the car with us. 

-It was bitterly cold in Minnesota the week we were there (like -40* with windchill type of cold) and Glen very quickly redacted every naive statement he'd ever made about how growing up in Colorado meant he knew all about cold. 

-The first place we lived together after we got married, in South Orem, was the sketchiest neighborhood we lived in in our whole married life. Police were in our little culdesac on a semi-regular basis. 

-Glen's first job out of college was in Baltimore, Maryland...thus beginning our 25 years of living on the East Coast. 

-Our first three kids were born in three different states.  Spence in Utah, Cami in Maryland, then Emma, Adam, and Ellie were all born in Virginia.

  We were certainly pretty clueless about life when we got married, but we were filled with a deep love and naive hope for the future.   It's probably a good thing we couldn't really glimpse the future at that point, though, because I think we would have been pretty petrified at some of the things we'd be facing together.   It turns out though, that we make a pretty good team and while our family is far from perfect, it's perfect for us.  

Our official 30th anniversary celebration was the trip in October/November that I have yet to blog about (but will eventually), but we enjoyed celebrating today in our own low-key kind of way.  

We started off with a long walk (6-1/2 miles),

Then stopped for a delicious  brunch at a place called Communal,

 

 

 Then, just as we've done every anniversary for the last 30 years (except when it falls on a Sunday), we went Christmas shopping.    We also found a Giving Machine at the mall we were at and took a little stop there. 

Weirdly, I'm not sure we'd ever been up close and personal with a Giving Machine before and we were impressed with how it works.  Can you guess what I picked to give?   

After a few pitstops, we headed home where we had a boat load of Christmas cards waiting for us in our mailbox!     Any of you who's been following along with this blog for long, knows that I am quite a Christmas card aficionado and it made me smile!   

And with that, Glen had to skedaddle down to the Outpost.  😐

The trip was a grand way to celebrate, but today was a perfect low-key way to commemorate the beginnings of our family.  I'm grateful to have this man by my side through life and into the eternities.  

Being Real

 I had grand expectations of coming home from our trip in November and getting right back "into the swing of things" with life.   I'd quickly reestablish my exercise and scripture study routine.  I'd get the house all decked out for Christmas.  I'd jump right on Christmas shopping and getting our cards designed and out the door. I'd leave my vacation eating habits in the dust and happily start cooking well-rounded meals again.  Heck, I'd probably even get a few books read, some neighbor gifts made, and some blogging done too.  😂

Lucie reacts to my grand dreams of productivity...

  I'm not quite sure why I thought that coming straight off a trip and directly into the holidays would be conducive to getting back to it,  but fast forward a month and I'm here to say that I am nowhere near the swing of things.  In fact, I am pretty sure my brain might still be in the middle of the Sahara desert somewhere.  Probably being chewed on by a camel, based on how I'm functioning currently.  

Not only do I keep catching random bugs (3 in 6 weeks, 2 of them directly from Lucie) keeping me on the tired and rundown side,

but our dishwasher is broken (dishes by hand are not my favorite chore), our car is unreliable (see this post for the story), my phone had to be repaired, I missed my flight home from Alabama (thanks to super long security lines), my house still hasn't recovered from  our weeks away, the Christmas decorations look like I had 4 people randomly throw them up onto the shelves (probably because that's exactly what I did),   I am stress eating like I haven't done in years, I'm still not exercising regularly, and I've barely even made a dent on Christmas shopping.   

On the bright side, though, I did finally start getting our Christmas cards out the door today.  #priorities

Oh, and we  hosted the missionaries (who still wanted to come despite Glen and I both being sick),

rented a car and picked up Ellie from Rexburg who is off-track for winter semester...

and sent off Adam's Christmas package (it was due on the 15th, so this was verrrrrrrry last minute)... 

-- all that within 24 hours of me returning home from Alabama a day later than expected and still being sick.  So, yay me. 

I think I've gotten to the point now that  I just have to accept that this will be a Christmas where I just need to prioritize sleep ( so I can stop getting sick) and taking care my mental health (which always suffers during the wintertime).  The state of the house will be what it will be and everyone will have Christmas presents of some sort or another.   It will be far from perfect, but we will have 3 of our 5 kids here,  and it will  all be good!  

Speaking of mental health, every time I start to get a little discouraged about yet another load of dishes to do by hand or by the number of things on my to-do list, I look back at these photos from my week plus an extra day in Alabama (December 2-10) and it's hard not to smile.    Lucie may have given me her cold, but it was worth it for the snuggles, storytimes, giggles, and time with her Mommy and Daddy too. 

 

I LOVE being a Gigi!

Next time I see them, they'll have a new little one to snuggle too.   I can't wait. 

Merry Christmas! 
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