Oh, the Lights on My Tree, I Wish You Could See...

Putting up our tree this year was a 4-day process:

Day 1 Saturday We went Christmas tree shopping. First stop: Home Depot, second stop: Smith's, third and final stop: Christmas tree lot where we found our perfect tree. We dragged it to the guy, who cut the base and also told us they only accepted cash or check. Nicole didn't have her purse with the checkbook and accompanying wads of cash, and Troy's wallet only contained cards. The guy was really nice, and let us take the tree home with the promise that we would return later and pay for it. We did. We couldn't decorate it that night, because we had tickets to the Glenn Beck Christmas Show. So, we stuck it in the snow in our front yard and left it there.

Day 2 Sunday We rested. So did the tree. It snowed Sunday morning and flocked our tree. It looked like we had a live tree growing in our yard. We thought about leaving it there, but decided against it.

Day 3 Monday For family home evening, we decided to bring in and decorate our tree. Troy pulled his chainsaw and the tree stand out of the shed and made a fresh cut on the tree. He shook off as much snow as he could, but it had frozen to the boughs, so we had to put towels on the floor under the tree to absorb the water as it all melted. Timmy had fun picking clumps of snow from the branches and eating it. We decided to put the lights on Monday night, but to wait until the snow melted to put the ornaments on it.

Day 4 Tuesday Timmy, Spencer and I put the ornaments and candy canes on the tree while Daddy was at work on Tuesday. It took a very long time because Timmy would take an ornament, hand it in one place, then remove it and replace it on a different branch. He repeated this process about 5 times for each ornament until he found exactly the right, perfect spot.

Day 15 Today Our tree it now bare on the bottom third is bare of any decoration other than lights. The candy canes were the first to disappear, then one by one the ornaments showed up in places other than the tree and I put them on the upper half of the tree. So, we have a funny looking tree, but it is still our perfect tree.

We wish you all a merry Christmas!

The Annual Christmas Ball

For the past 3 years, Troy's family has thrown a huge party/dance they call "the Ball". It is a formal dance and a lot of people, me included, look forward to having an excuse to dress up. This year 120 invitations were printed. We had a wonderful time, even though I had a hard time getting my date to dance with me. The food is always delicious, and this year was no exception. The only unfortunate thing of the whole evening was that Troy had to leave early because he had volunteered months ago (before the date for the Ball had been decided) to clean the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir holds their Christmas Concert. So, Troy left the party around 9:30pm and I left shortly after that.

My sister Shannie let me borrow the dress, (Thanks, Shannon!) my mom loaned me the cute beaded purse, Tiffany found the elbow-length gloves, which was the icing on the cake, and Shelley came over to help me with my hair and she watched the boys for us. I am such a luck girl!

However, there were some other perks... Just ask the people who found the mistletoe!

Troy & Nicole, Brad & Melissa (they're thinking about kissing), and Tonya & Doug- they danced until midnight

Duck, Duck, Goose!

After visiting Grandma and Pa G., we went to California. Troy had a business trip and let us tag along with him. Of the whole trip, Timmy had the most fun at the hotel, where there was a huge man-made duck pond. We weren't allowed to feed them, but we interacted in lots of other ways.Tim thought it was fun to sneak up on them and scare them. He also liked chasing them, mimicking them sleeping while standing on one leg, and yelling to them, "DUCK! Come over here! Duck! Come play with me!" If one would venture our way, he would crouch down and repeat over and over and over.... "Hi! Hi, Duck! Hi!" in the same baby-talk way he speaks to Spencer.There were lots of fish in the pond, too. Timmy thought the fish and ducks were playing chase with each other. He would comment to me, "That fish is trying to catch that duck right there" or "Watch out, fish, that duck is coming to get you!" He quickly learned how to distinguish between the mommy ducks and the daddy ducks: "the daddy ducks have a green head!"

Troy was in business meetings during the time we spent at the duck pond. Each time we would come back inside after hours of birdwatching, I was always experienced a feeling of both amusement and slight embarrassment as Timmy would sprint at full speed down the corridors, shouting at the top of his lungs, "DADDY! We saw the geese! We saw the geese, Daddy! Come look, Daddy, there's geese outside."

A Break from the Snow

Pa G. likes to tickle babies.Spencer has some crazy Grandmas!!The last week in November (after our first snowstorm) we took a short trip to visit the in-laws (or are they the out-laws?) down south. We had a fun time. We drove all night, then didn't get to sleep in much the next day.

Shannie came "home" from college on Thursday night with her not-boyfriend, Jacob and visited for a while. They ended up driving back to school early Friday morning because she has class at 9 or 10am and couldn't miss; not even for her big sis and 2 nephews.

Timmy loves jumping on the trampoline and digging in Grandma's big sandbox. He spent hours outside and it was nice to be able to have a fenced-in yard and warm weather- two things we don't have at home right now.

Troy and Tim had a fun time throwing basketballs into the swimming pool. They sat on the edge and dangled their feet in the "exceedingly cold" water. Grandma and Pa have a big rubber duckie that holds the chlorine that Timmy used as a target for the basketballs. They also have a net on a long pole that Troy used to retrieve the balls. For a kid who doesn't like water, the swimming pool was sure a big hit!Troy and Nicole's dad went motorcycle riding early Saturday morning. Spencer, Timmy and Mom also went motorcycling- around the back yard, all on the same tiny 50cc bike. Notice the green grass and blooming flowers!!

We all went and watched Kirby's basketball game, except Troy, because we didn't have enough seats in the car. Troy started putting up their Christmas lights, and after the game, the rest of the family joined him. They still haven't synchronized their timers.On Sunday, we had Great Grams and Gramps over for dinner. Gramps read books to Timmy and Spencer. They both stared at Gramps for a little bit, then sat back and enjoyed the story. After dinner, we made sugar cookies, and Grams helped them roll out the dough and cut them into Christmas shapes. She thought it was funny watching Timmy "share" cookie cutters with Spencer. We all had fun frosting, decorating and especially eating the cookies together. Kirby was sick and missed out on some of the Sunday fun. :-(
We brought some garden fresh tomatoes from Grandpa Gilbert to share with the family down south. We chopped them up to make fresh salsa and Spencer kept a close eye on the tomatoes while Mom and Grandma chopped the other ingredients. It was yummy!

The Weather Outside is Frightful

We finally got our first snow. It wasn't a lot, but enough that we had to shovel our driveway. Timmy has a mini-sized snow shovel and helps Daddy. He loves shoveling. He would stay out and play all day if we'd let him.

We didn't bring in his bike or car, and they got covered. When we looked out the window, he said, "My bike has snow, my car has snow, Where'd my baseball bat go? It's hiding in the snow." (It was buried.)

The next day, it snowed some more and he went to Grandma's house and helped her shovel, and Grandma pulled him around the yard for over an hour on a little sled, and then they shoveled off the trampoline and jumped on it. Timmy loves the snow.

Mom, on the other hand can't hardly stand it. It's the Arizona blood, it's not made for tolerating snow. I do, however like to look at it out the window when I am warm and cozy in front of the fire. I think these photos of the yard and trees in the snow are beautiful.