Dr. Boo Who

I like Dr. Who. It's a British scifi series. Very weird for me. Try as I might I was never able to get into Battlestar Galactica - which would have made Adrian quite happy. I have not been able to get into Fringe. Star Trek and Stargate. Lame. (I know I'm offending masses, especially my husband, sorry.) I can list the scifi series I like on 1 hand: X Files, Red Dwarf, and Dr. Who. X Files ended so long ago, Red Dwarf is never on PBS anymore, so that leaves Dr. Who and Adrian and I have been watching this series on BBC America for about 5 years now, but guess what?? They've gone and screwed it up for me! Mostly I've enjoyed the series for 1 reason and that is David Tennant (aka Barty Crouch Jr. from Harry Potter 4) as The Doctor. I love that guy! He is so funny and quirky and I have a thing for funny and quirky actors/dancers/whatever. He is also a Royal Shakespeare Company actor and plays The Doctor SO well. He pulls the funniest facial expressions and made the writing seem even more witty because of his delivery. Well over Christmas they killed off David Tennant as The Doctor and replaced him with a 20-something year old named Matt Smith. I have nothing against Matt Smith, but I think they are trying to hit the wrong audience with a floppy haired actor that looks like he should still be in high school. So anywho, I'm sad. I so wish they could have kept David Tennant for a while longer. I know Doctors change (they "regenerate" in order to facilitate actor changes to make the series stretch out forever), but Tom Baker was The Doctor for years and years. I'm bummed out. I'll give Matt Smith a chance, but David will always be the real Doctor to me.

2009 Holidays Catch Up

Wow, I have so much to catch up on. But first, I can't believe its January 2010. Crazy! It really does seem like a couple of years ago we were all worried about Y2K and all that and it is 10 years later. I guess Sophie is 10 years old rather than a little baby like she was in Jan of 2000 so it should've sunk in already, but you know. And as far as resolutions are concerned - well I have a few in mind that I'll be working on during the year - getting finances on track, being healthy (taking my Vitamin D and fish oil capsules daily, being conscious of what I'm eating, and doing yoga in the evenings), and remembering my priorities when making time-commitment choices so that I put the most important things first. As far as resolutions for the decade, well that's bit too heavy for me, and as my favorite quote by John Lennon says, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." The last 10 years have definitely been quite a ride and I'm sure the next 10 will be too.

Here's the run down of what we've been up to over the last 2 weeks:

Christmas
On Christmas Eve we made Finnish ribbon cookies and had a big dinner with 2 pies for dessert (thanks Nicole for the walnut pie recipe - it was fab!). After dinner we read Luke 2 and the kids opened their Christmas pjs. Once the kids were all nestled in bed Adrian and I watched A Wonderful Life whilst making preparations and also the "Winter" episode of Vicar of Dibley - -oh how I love that show. It's becoming a tradition to watch the Christmas episodes of Vicar of Dibley on Christmas Eve and I love it.On Christmas morning the kids woke us up at 7am on the dot (they had been up for a while, but knew they could not wake us up until 7). I made the rest of the family wait for about 5 minutes while I laid in bed willing myself without success to wake up. 7am is a hard for me. But I sucked it up and we all went down stairs to see the bounty under tree. Of course the Wii that Santa brought was by far the favorite gift, but I think my favorite part is unloading the stockings and seeing the kids get all excited by the little trinkets and treats in them. The kids pretty much had candy for breakfast followed by a little scrambled eggs and bacon. After the clean-up and while Adrian and the kids were happily playing the Wii, I took a nap. Nice. In the afternoon we had our traditional picnic of crackers, cheese, Hickory Farms Summer Sausage, and oranges on a blanket by the tree. The kids say this is their favorite Christmas tradition and I totally agree. The rest of the day was spent munching on treats and playing Wii. I actually am quite a fan of the Mario Winter Olympics game - the ultimate snow board race is super fun. We did interrupt the Wii playing for Nina to watch Snow White (the DVD she got in her stocking). We ended the day with calls to family in Utah and Idaho and once the kids were in bed Adrian and I watched the Vicar of Dibley "Christmas Lunch Incident". Ha!


Day After Christmas
Adrian and I went on a date. Sushi and Sherlock Holmes! It was awesome. I do not like raw fish, but veggie rolls are DElicious. Adrian is very happy that I have found a love for veggie rolls because now we can go out for sushi and we are both happy (Adrian is quite the raw fish fan). Sherlock Holmes was great! I'm excited for the next one with Holmes' traditional nemesis Moriarty. Why didn't they start out with Moriarty as the villain? That was a little strange, but Jude Law is so cool as Watson!

Ben's Party
Ben turned 6 over Christmas break! A few days after his birthday we had his first friends birthday party and Ben says it was the best party ever. What would make Ben say that? Star Wars. It was a Jedi Knight training party and we had him and 6 of his cute little friends train to be Jedi. They did a Jedi training obstacle course that we set up in our basement and it was so cute watching the kids running around completely into it! We also played pin the light-saber on the Jedi, watched a 20 min episode of Star Wars Clone Wars, had pizza, soda, cupcakes, and ice cream and made space ships out of Legos. At the end we passed out certificates of Jedi Knighthood with their goodie bags - that was Adrian's cute idea. Adrian and I thought it was going to be CRAZY to keep that many little boys entertained, but they were all so sweet and so well behaved. It was a miracle!

New Years Eve
We gave into the kids requests and went to the Chipmunks movie. It gave me a headache. It gave Adrian a headache. The kids loved it. I loved that the kids loved it, but will not be buying that DVD (can you just imagine listening to that in the car?? yikes). After the movie we went home, ate dinner (take-out sushi for Adrian and I - you see how much I love veggie rolls?! and McDonalds for the kids), and munched on all sorts of treats whilst watching Harry Potter 6. Ben and Nina only made it through the first half hour before heading off to bed, but Sophie stayed up till about 10:45. Once Sophie was in bed Adrian and I watched some Dr. Who until just before midnight and then we watched the Ball drop at Time Square. We totally forgot the Martinelli's sparkling cider we bought to toast the new year and I was a little sad to see it sitting in the fridge the next day. A tradition broken. But we'll pick it up next year. Maybe if we bought Coke to toast with instead we wouldn't forget! Can you toast with Coke? I say yes.

New Years Day
We spent the day sleeping in (me), napping (Adrian and Nina), putting away Christmas decorations (Adrian and I), playing Wii (Sophie and Ben) and watching the Dr. Who marathon on BBC America (Adrian and I).

So I thought earlier on in December that I was going to be all stressed out during Christmas break and really I wasn't at all. I think once the kids were home and all the parties and other pre-Christmas events ended it all felt lovely and relaxing. I felt Christmasy and happy to have my family around me. The snow helped with the insular happy feeling I think and also the many days staying in jammies and hanging out with Adrian and the kids. We had a wonderful Christmas break!

Christmas Meme

I was tagged by Jenny for this fun Christmas meme. If you'd like to do it too consider yourself tagged!:)

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate?
hot chocolate with whipped cream (not marshmallows)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Mrs. Claus tries to wrap all the presents, but sometimes they are too weirdly shaped, so those go under as is.

3. Colored lights on the tree/house or white?
Well we have a fake pre-lit tree and it has white lights though I think I'd prefer colored.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
I don't, but my parents do and Adrian and my first kiss was under their mistletoe.:)

5. When do you put your Christmas decorations up?
Oh hopefully the Monday after Thanksgiving - we try to do it as a Family Home Evening activity each year.

6. Favorite holiday dish?
Finnish Ribbon Cookies and my brother-in-law, David's, 7 layer dip (SO good)

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
Park City Christmases when I was young (my family had a time share there once upon a time). And especially decorating a Christmas tree in our Park City condo with makeshift ornaments and popcorn strings. One year the popcorn was cheddar flavored! And if I remember right that was also the year that my sisters had a huge argument whilst string popcorn and my sister Lori stabbed my sister Julie in the wrist with her popcorn stringing needle. Oh the memories.

8. When did you learn the truth about Santa?
I can't remember what age I was exactly (probably 8 or 9), but when I figured him out I figured out everyone (Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy...) it was a bad day.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes, one, and its usually pajamas.

10. How do you decorate a tree?
We have an assortment of hand-made by kids ornaments, bear ornaments (as you are aware, I have a bear thing), and a white star on top of the tree. I love our hodge-podge tree.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?
Okay, so I love to look at it and if I have no where to go I love the quiet stillness that goes along with a good snow storm. BUT I hate driving in it.

12. Can you ice skate?
Nope. Well I can, but not very well.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I was pretty darn excited about that Cabbage Patch Kid when I was 7.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you?
Celebrating the birth of our Savior and spending time with family.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Love doing puzzles during Christmas time with the kids, making Finnish Ribbon Cookies, and watching Christmas movies.

17. What tops your tree?
A white star

18. Which do you prefer-Giving or Receiving?
giving (I don't mean to sound goody-goody, but I really don't even think about gifts for me or even Adrian - sorry honey - to me it's all about the kids at Christmas.)

19. Favorite Christmas song?
O Holy Night, What Child is This, The Wexford Carol

20. Candy Canes-Yuck or Yum?
Yuck to the peppermint ones, yum to the tuity-fruity :)

21. Favorite Christmas show?

A Christmas Story (a favorite from my childhood and "fra-geee-lay" still makes me laugh so hard, oh and the Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant!)

Elf (HA!)

Nightmare Before Christmas (yes, it's a double holiday fave in our house)

A Christmas Carol (I like the one with Patrick Stewart and Scrooged with Bill Murray)

A Year Without Santa ("I'm Mr. Heat Miser, I'm Mr. Sun. I'm Mr. Green Christmas, I'm Mr. 101"!!)

22. Saddest Christmas song?
Christmas Shoes - HA! Just kidding! Seriously I HATE that song. No really, it's The Little Drummer Boy that always makes me misty (though it's not that sad just touching)

Flashback Friday

I've just spent a long time looking at old pictures on my computer and this one inspired a flashback post. There are lots of things I miss about living on the East coast and this is just one of many.
Squirrel Olympics! That's what we used to call the antics of the squirrels in our backyard. Once the trees lost all their leaves it was so fun to watch the squirrels scurrying all over in the trees, jumping from shaky limb to shaky limb, and even hanging upside down as pictured. The kids especially loved the spectacle and it was fun to see them glued to the windows laughing hysterically. I miss that. Now we have bunnies and prairie dogs, but I think we'll all always have warm feelings for squirrels. Okay, correction, Adrian just informed me he does not actually have warm feelings for squirrels. They always got in our garbage in MD and made a mess for him to clean up. But the other 4 of us in the family still miss squirrels.:)

1 Day. 3 Class Parties. Whew.

Today was the day of class parties and I got to all of them. The best part was seeing my kids smile when I walked into their class. Real heart melting smiles. For me. Ben gave me a big hug and kept saying all day how happy he was that I came to his party. Man, these kids know how to make me feel good! (Moments to remember over the next few weeks when I'm going crazy with them all home!)

First was Ben's party were I got to help him make a ginger-bread house. He was so into it!

Second was Nina's party at preschool and Stacey had the cutest activities and crafts for them. They had a book exchange, decorated ice cream cone Christmas trees, played Christmas themed charades, and put together little baggies of reindeer food to put on the lawn for Christmas Eve. Fun stuff.

Third was Sophie's party in the afternoon so both Ben and Nina came too. It was a very laid-back Christmas party with treats and America's Funniest Home Videos viewing. At the end they played a hilarious game were 2 kids dressed in red, over sized, Santa-ish, long-underwear and a team of kids shoved as many balloons as possible into the long-underwear. The team with the most balloons won and it was a riot watching it all.

I'm so glad I got to go to all their parties. I thought it was going to feel totally overwhelming, but really it was a blast! I'm so glad my kids are blessed with such great teachers and have such a great time at school.

Frazzled and Hopeful

I got my treat plates out! Check! So the only holiday baking I have left to do will be our Finnish ribbon cookies for Santa and pies for our Christmas Eve dinner (I'm pondering about whether or not I should attempt a pecan pie - very intimidating, but if I succeed yumminess would ensue). I swear it is like Christmas just appeared out of no-where this year and I'm trying to play catch up. The day after Thanksgiving we did tons of Christmas shopping because Adrian had the day off, but even then it felt like Christmas was so far away! And it seemed like I was Christmas shopping early (even though I usually start in like October). What is with me this year? When we first started receiving Christmas cards I hurried and did ours in like 1 night. Then I got Christmas presents from the sweet ladies who I serve in the primary presidency with, so I got cracking on my treat plates and got them out on Sunday and Monday. Now tomorrow is the day of school Christmas parties... I'm helping to plan Sophie's and attending Sophie's, Ben's, and Nina's. Thank goodness they are at different times, but tomorrow is going to be super busy. I just wrapped the Christmas presents for teachers and got the treats for Sophie's party today.

Okay, so I'm getting the stuff done, but it just seems like I'm doing every thing last minute and I'm feeling a little frazzled and worried that I'm going to forget something. Which reminds me I need to get Ben's birthday party invites out like today! And I need to start thinking about what I'm going to wear to Adrian's company party. Ugh. I need a versatile black dress, but really don't want to go shopping for one... Or spend the money right now on one. What a crazy time of year this is. I really am trying to feel the Christmas spirit and focus on all the beautiful and positive things of this season so I need to cut down on the frazzledness. How do you do that?? I guess I'll focus on how all of this stuff I'm doing is to help celebrate the Saviors birth. That's why we put together and attend Christmas parties, make treat plates, and buy gifts like the magi did to celebrate His birth and if I keep that in mind hopefully I'll make through all this with the right spirit.

Sophie's Orchestra Concert and Warm Fuzzies

Another catch up post. We went went to Sophie's first viola concert and it was awesome! She was one of only 3 violas and since she was front and center it was easy to hear her. Of course it was very much a beginners sort of concert, but they worked hard and Sophie is progressing well. She said she really liked performing and that made me happy since she is usually very nervous about piano recitals.

After the concert we went to Village Inn for some pie. Oh so good pie! We have been filling up a "warm fuzzies" jar since conference when President Monson mentioned that primary children have been filling up similar jars with pom poms representing acts of service. Once the jar was filled we promised the kids a "warm fuzzies party" with hot chocolate, so we thought the night of Sophie's concert was the perfect night for pie and hot chocolate all around. I gotta say that it was a great experience to fill that warm fuzzies jar. We met together as family before bedtime and talked about acts of service everyone did that day. Sophie mentioned eating lunch or playing at recess with someone who needed a friend. Ben would mention how he shared toys with Nina or let Nina have a first turn with something. Nina's were some of the funniest with mentions of "playing nice", giving hugs, and even pooping on the potty (hey that totally counts!, but sorry for the grossness). Adrian would talk about helping co-workers with programming problems, and I would mention beds made and dinners cooked. We love those good ideas from conference and this one has certainly helped our family to focus on service more.