Christmas 2012

This Christmas we finally(!) made it back to Utah to spend the holiday with our families. We decided to keep it a secret and surprise both of our families. I thought it was going to be super hard but it didn't turn out to be that bad, except for hearing the disappointment in people's voices when we said, "It doesn't look like we'll be able to make it."

We flew out without any troubles, rented a car and stayed overnight with our good friends Dan and Carrie. We were reintroduced to Dominion, which we now love (thanks, guys!). The next morning we drove up through the snowy canyon to surprise everyone. We first stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Briscoe's to drop our stuff off and borrow a car so we could return our rental. After that we went to the Briscoe household with a plan for how to best surprise them. When we got there no one was home so we called Mom and found out they were all out shopping. We didn't let on where we were but let ourselves in and tried to decide what to do. We started dishing up some soup for lunch when we saw the van pull in. We ran into the living room and waited. Jessica and Alyna, my sisters came in carrying shopping bags and a sleeping nephew. They were suprised when they saw us but we said Shhhh so they wandered around in circles waiting for whatever was going to happen. Then Mom came in, which we knew would be the funnest surprise. She came around the corner and saw us and put her hands over her mouth, screaming internally, I believe, so as to not wake aforementioned baby. Then she cried (a given) and everyone was all surprised and happy and confused and "don't ever do that again"-ing. A pretty good reaction.

We later went to Stratfords. We had been trying to figure out their plans all day but it was difficult to pin it down without being obvious so we just drove up and walked inside. We encountered family members one by one: again confusion, happiness and hugs, etc.

Anyways, we had a nice Christmas and New Years. I think Jeran shoveled driveways 15 times. We got to see all our grandparents and a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins and other family. We had previously met one of our nephews but we got to meet the other four nephews and one neice. Hooray! Unfortunately I was sick about the entire time and Jeran got sick near the end so we weren't always having the greatest time possible or being the best company, but that's how it happens sometimes. Here are some fun pictures from the trip:

 My brother Andrew and his wife Lindsay and little Riley.

 My sister Alyna.

 Silly Benjamin ready to run through the wrapping paper over the door.

Mom, Jessica, and Dad on Christmas morning. 

 My sister Lisa and her husband Cameron and Benjamin. Little Caleb was sitting in a seat just out of this picture.

 Dad, Andrew, Lindsay and Riley checking out gifts.

Jeran and me on Christmas morning at the Briscoe's.

Jacie and Amanda

Rylen

Kaydee

Isaac, Jacob, and Jaleece

Raymond (yes, this was the best shot of him)

Jacie with Amanda, Jeran, Isaac and Molly

Denae ready to go snowboarding.

Jeran: "This is very sturdy construction."

Denae, Desi, Rylen, Jeran, Mindy, Kenny at Beaver Mountain!!! Raymond took the picture.

Fitbit sleep tracker

Some of you already heard this, but Jeran gave me an early Christmas present. Sort of. A few weeks ago he was in bed sleeping or about to be asleep and I came in to go to bed (a.k.a. read a book). When I sat down on the bed he told me I should go get the pink wrapped present from under the tree and open it. "Now???" I asked him. "I think it would be a good opportunity for this one." he said. I got up, shuffled some stuff around and asked, "Really, I should open it now?" "It would be more conducive to opening early," he said, or something like that but he definitely said conducive. So I went and got it and brought it into our room and opened it up. Yay! Just what I've always wanted! A fitbit activity and sleep tracker. Jeran went to sleep and I got my fitbit all set up and read how to use it.  

The next morning, Jeran came into the office where I was working and asked if I had opened a Christmas present. Apparently he had seen the wrapping paper in the garbage can, looked under the tree for the present of the appropriate size and wrapping to match the stuff in the trash, and not finding it, came to ask me if I'd been opening presents without him. He was pretty confused when I told him what happened. Oh well. Give me presents in your sleep all you want, Jeran, I won't complain.

Anyways, that was just the lead-in to what I really wanted to show you and talk about and that is the awesomeness of the fitbit's sleep tracker. It's interesting and useful (I guess) to see your steps taken each day but what I love looking at more is the sleep tracking. When you are ready to go to sleep you hold down the button to start the timer and until you push the button again in the morning, it records that time as sleeping and records the movement in a different way to show you how much you stirred/moved, indicating your waking up patterns through the night.

So without further ado, here is an example. Namely, my own sleep tracking for last week. Super awesome, huh?! I would have no idea about my sleep patterns (or lack thereof) without the fitbit because I'm  unconscious for most of it.

Anyways, I like it a lot and am glad I got to open it before Christmas. If anyone else has a fitbit and wants to be fitbit buddies, let me know or add me as a friend on fitbit.com

O Christmas Tree!

Our Christmas decorations are pretty simple this year. We have three very diverse trees and our stockings hanging from the mantle and that's it. Actually, the stockings are still on the ground waiting to be hung from the mantle...

Last spring, I found a nice Christmas tree at a garage sale around the corner from us for $10. Score! We had thought about getting an artificial tree for the last few years, but they are a pretty expensive storage hog.

We didn't avoid the storage hog problem, but at least we didn't pay much for it!

I decided to make some ornaments for our tree this year. I crocheted some snowflakes and those two red hearts and I made the three white yarn balls. I intended to make more yarn balls but you go through the adhesive for them much quicker than expected.

My favorite part of putting up the Christmas tree is watching Jeran put the lights on each year. :) Actually, I really enjoy hanging the ornaments, but I am grateful every year when Jeran puts the lights on the tree.

This is a Christmas tree that I made in Achievement Days when I was 10 or something. It's made of glass baby food jars hot-glued together and then drill 2-3 holes in each lid (enough total for your strand of lights). Put a sprig of tinsel in each and stick a bulb from your Christmas lights into each hole. I have to reglue some of it each year when I take it out of the box, but I like hot glue so I'm never too sad. It's very cheery!

And Jeran's awesome fiber optic Christmas tree. It changes colors and rotates. Sweet!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas here at home. We got ready, took some pictures, opened presents, played with presents, took naps, talked to family, delivered gifts to friends and played a hilarious game, went to dinner and played Wii and worked on a sink. All in all a very nice Christmas.

Oh Christmas Tree

Toby checks out his new toy.

It's a Christmas miracle! We got lots of snow on Christmas night and it is still around, although I bet it won't last the weekend.

And a Happy New Year

We had a great holiday season this year. Since we did not fly to Utah this year for Christmas, we had plenty of time around the house and decided to put it to good use. We painted our two front rooms over the Christmas week. The front room is green and the dining room attached farther back is blue. I did a most of the priming in the back room myself, much to Jeran's amusement. Suffice it to say after he saw the quality of my painting skills, I learned how to properly shake a paint can and how to blend while you paint.


On Christmas Eve, we went to Jeran's supervisor's house for a nice Christmas dinner. They had fabulous food and it was a lot of fun. I tried prime rib for the first time (at least that I am aware of or remember) and it was amazingly good. I suppose this is not too surprising considering Jen Jen and Billy are excellent cooks. After dinner we went home and moved most of the furniture back into the front room so we could have a nice Christmas day.

On Christmas we opened presents, talked to family on the phone and Skype, and relaxed and took naps. It was wonderfully calm, low-key, and relaxing.

A few days later we drove down to visit Kara and Sam. We had a great time there and got to do some cool things around the city. We stayed up playing dominoes until one in the morning and I went from a great position in first place to the "lead" position after racking up many points in many consecutive rounds. We ate some delicious Thai food and went and saw Marley & Me, which was very sad but very good. Thanks Kara and Sam!


On New Years, we had our good friends over and we played Rock Band and Ticket To Ride and watched Planet Earth and ate yummy food. All in all, I would say it was a great ending to a good year for us. I'm hoping 2009 is even better. After all, it's all what you make of it!

Happy 2009!

I couldn't resist...

I was at Target and they had these silly little pet costumes for really cheap. I got a penguin with a bow tie and a Santa's elf costumes for the cats. The penguin head thing is super smal and won't even fit their heads. I think these were meant for a Chihuahua and cats are a bit bulkier than that.

This one of Toby makes me think of Toby from The Office. I love that.

I think this last one is my favorite. "Bond - James Bond" he says.

Gap Christmas Commercials

Gap has done some great Christmas commercials with celebrities this year. They are so funny! You just have to watch them.

(I had to take out the video that was here because it kept playing on its own.)

Here's a direct link to that video and to another one of my favorites:

Gap's "Baby It's Cold Outside" commercial starring Selma Blair & Rainn Wilson

Gap's "Jingle Bells" commercial starring the Gap Holiday Cast

Christmas Songs

So I have started to have Christmas songs running through my head more frequently than usual the last few weeks so you know what that means.... It not really even close to Christmas yet! Some of them are those Christmas songs that you can only really enjoy or maybe even handle at Christmastime like The Little Drummer Boy and Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree. Other songs are awesome all year round, only even BETTER at Christmastime! Like It Feels Like Christmas or I Saw Three Ships or Marley and Marley or Ding Dong Merrily on High or One More Sleep Til Christmas.

I have decided that I will force myself to wait as long as I can hold out before I watch A Muppet Christmas Carol, which may just be the best movie of all time. Who can get enough of the singing lettuce, the fabulous Gonzo a.k.a. Charles Dickens, the "Mister Scrooooge!"-ing Miss Piggy Cratchit, hula-dancing rats, and ice-skating aristocratic penguins. Ahhhh.

And now, some Favorites on this theme:
Favorite Muppet Movie: A Muppet Christmas Carol
Favorite Muppet Character: Gonzo
Favorite Christmas Song: It Feels Like Christmas, Ding Dong Merrily on High, White Christmas, Let It Snow!