Christmas in Style

Here is our house all lit up and spreading that Christmas Cheer. Kirk put these up while I was slaving away at work on Monday. I was so happy!

Monday night we went to Amy and Collin's house for dinner with some of the fam. While we were there Mark (my bro) was telling us about Disney's The Christmas Carol movie. We've wanted to see it and so when we left Amy's for home we decided to be spontaneous and see the movie that very night. We were in luck since Santa Fe is right by Amy's house and the next showing was in about 25 minutes by the time we got there. As I was buying the tickets I struck up a conversation with the kid behind the cash register. He had two textbooks open in front of him and was fervently studying away when I interrupted him. Turns out he was studying Anthropology and...Latin. What? Who chooses to study Latin? I can't imagine it's an easy subject so he definitely gained a little of my respect for whatever it's worth. As I was engaged in this riveting conversation with the young man he printed my tickets and to my surprise handed me two pair of 3-D glasses. Um...

I thought $23 was a little pricey for a week night movie. So we watched the movie in 3-D which was quite an experience. I've never seen a movie in 3-D before. It made me a little sick with the eye strain it requires but it was awesome to have the snow falling in your lap and the hand of the ghost of 'Christmases yet to be' reaching for your face. Great movie!

Here we are in our ever-so-stylish glasses.

Our First Christmas Present of the Year From Across the World.

This is the first Christmas present that Kirk and I received this year. Awesome huh? It came all the way from Switzerland. When Kirk was younger his family had a foreign exchange student from Switzerland and his uncle Rene Kaspar sent this to us. It's a wind harp and he made it himself. You put it on a door and the motion of the door closing and opening causes the balls to hit the strings thus ensuing a wind chime type harmony. It's very beautiful! He even engraved our initials on it. Awesome.

NFR Baby!

One of the greatest perks about working for a construction company is the gifts received from our subcontractors and suppliers. This is a time I'm all for commercializing the holidays. =) Subcontractors and suppliers will often times give General Contractors (like us) gifts and free lunches in order to get more business. Dishonest? Not really. Smart? Yes. Awesome for me? Totally. This year we got 12 (I think) free tickets from a supplier. We had such a great time.

While getting free tickets to one of the greatest shows of the year is awesome, the tickets did leave us a little wanting. This was our view from our seats.

And this view shows all the action happening behind us. That's right! The Very Last Row! It was pretty funny. Also, all the 12 seats were in pairs but other than that they were all in separate sections of the arena. However, right after the rodeo started Emily and Noah told us the seats next to them were open so we moved over there and sat with them for most of the night. But do not misunderstand, the night was amazing and I'm so grateful that we got to go. We had such an awesome time. Who wouldn't on the final night of the NFR?!

Christmas tree hunt

On Saturday Kirk and I went up near Panaca to find our christmas tree. Pioche, in fact. As it is our first Christmas together you can imagine our excitement. We were commissioned by my parents, Mark, Ben and Kirk's friend Brady to also bring a Christmas tree to them.

The snow was so fun.

Kirk cut down all the trees with a hand saw instead of carrying a heavy chainsaw around. My oh so important job was to tag the trees so they knew we cut them down while obeying the laws of the land.

And here's our loot.

After defacing the planet with a total of 5 trees we stopped by Panaca to see Grandma and Aunt Judy's graves. Grandma's doesn't have a headstone yet.

This is the coolest house in Panaca. We took a picture of it so we'll remember it when we grow up and have our own house. Isn't so awesome?! I have admired this house my whole life while visiting Panaca.

After leaving Panaca while we headed home we noticed that one of the tie down straps had come unhooked. Kirk pulled over to fix it while I stayed in the truck on my nice and cozy seat warmers. Quite a bit of time had gone by and I started to wonder what was taking Kirky so long. I rolled down my window still not willing to get out of the truck but my curiousity won in the end. Then I hear Kirk say "we cut down five trees right?". Of course we did was my reply. Then he exclaimed that if that were the case then we lost a tree. I retorted that there was no chance. It must just be hidden underneath the other trees. But to our chagrin and Kirk's small victory, he was right. We lost a tree. Our name and address were attached to the escapee fern due to my tagging dedication so we had to go back and find the dang thing. We found it a few miles up the road but it's suicidal jump from the truck resulted in a broken point off the top. We couldn't very well go home with only four trees with five awaiting families so we drove back to the forestry office, got a new tag for a sixth tree and searched for our sixth and final victim. Don't tell your tree hugging pals. It was an accident! =) But made for a fun adventure.

But it is the same with any life, imagine one selected day struck out of it and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers that would never have bound you but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

The start of the Holidays

Yesterday, December 5, Kirky and I had the real start of our Christmas holiday. We slept in until around 7:30. (When you wake up at 4:30am every day of the week it's hard to stay in bed even on a Saturday.) I stayed in my jams until 1pm when I decided that was just a little too lazy. To my credit however, I wasn't completely unproductive during this lounge-fest. I made this little gem.

Cute huh?

While I was playing Martha Stewart Kirky was diligently studying and preparing for his finals next week. In the afternoon I went to the mall with my Mom to do a little shopping. I didn't buy anything but my Mom got Christmas dresses for Janie and Yi-ya (my nieces). They're adorably nauseating. Next Mark and Melissa were having a little Christmas party at their house. We ate potato cheese soup and decorated sugar cookies. It was so fun.

Mersey and I

The before ( I decided to take a before picture after I got started but it's cool.) And here's my after. They're super delicious too. Mark has a brilliant idea to stack snowflake cookies to make a christmas tree. Here are all the decorating fools. =)

Then the kiddies sang us a song they made up. The 12 days of Gym. It was super cute and very creative. The first day of Gym the gym teacher gave them a baseball bat. Now if you'll think back to the original 12 days of Christmas the first day gift of a partridge in a pear tree has quite a few more syllables than a baseball bat. But don't worry, add a few syllables in baseball bat and you're golden.

The star of the night and most shocking show of hidden talent was my man Kirk. He made his own snowflake christmas tree.

And here's the finished product.

That isn't lava coming from the top of the tree. Apparently they're streamers or more commonly known, tinsel. Good job Kirky.

God save the queen!

My cousin Cami came home from her mission on Wednesday Nov 25. It was so fun to go to the airport to be with the family to pick her up. She went to the Birmingham, England mission and had an amazing time. She came back so mature and well-spoken. She's such a polished woman now. We're so proud of you Cam.

Amy, Cami and Janie. Janie is such a little chubster. She's so cute.

The girl cousins at the airport.

Welcome Home Sister Russell.