Merry Christmas!

Well, it is the end of our lovely Christmas Day. Ben, Emma, and I have been visiting the family in Utah for the past week and our stay has been very enjoyable. Tomorrow we will sadly be needing to return to Arizona, so I thought I would blog this evening before driving back in the morning. I thought the easiest thing to do was to post all of the Christmas pictures we took onto Slide. I also took a couple of short videos of some memorable moments. The first video was of us sledding at a nearby park. There has been a ton of snow up here! Awesome! I do love the snow, especially at Christmas time. Emma just loved sledding... I thought she would, but I was also worried it would be scary to her... however, she is our brave little Emma and she just giggled like crazy every time she went zipping down the hill. Emma took turns sledding with Daddy, Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Aaron. I didn't go, of course, because of my big belly. I obviously wouldn't want any harm to come to the little one. So, I just stayed up at the top of the hill and took pictures and cheered Emma on. It was wonderful.



This second video is from this morning as we opened gifts. Emma received the infamous TMX Elmo. She has been very spoiled this year for Christmas! Anyway, I took a short video of Emma experiencing her new toy for the first time. This Elmo really just wants to be left alone to do its thing once the button is pressed and Emma, of course, wanted to hold it while it tried to giggle and flail about. It was pretty funny. I think she'll soon get the hang of it and learn to appreciate its silly actions. It's an amusing toy.



Well, Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you had a memorable one. Even though I have always been poking fun at boring old January, I am actually looking forward to the New Year and setting some new goals. It's fun to have a new start and fresh look at things you'd like to change and improve in your life.... so, a Happy New Year to you all as well. :)

Toys, Santa, and The Office

We've had Christmas parties that we've been attending the past couple of nights. Last night we spent the evening at Ryan and Taya's enjoying an adult only Christmas gathering. Taya set up some young women babysitters to watch the kids at another house while we were all able to have fun without them. ;) It is a great relief to spend some time without Emma, although we sure do love having her around... it's just so nice to get a reprieve and be able to talk and eat without keeping a third eye and hand on the little one. Anyway, we ate good food and chatted and had a gift exchange. I ended up with a Nerf blaster gun of sorts, which I thought Emma would really like, but it turned out to be a gift that Ben has been particularly enjoying. He would have really liked it if I would have let him bring it along on our errands this morning... he could have shot at unsuspecting Costco shoppers. Ben's gift was a movie night package, including popcorn, popcorn bowl, hot chocolate, and a Blockbuster gift card.

So, tonight we went to our Ward Christmas Party. It was hectic, but fun. The cultural center was small with a lot of people crammed in there, but there was plenty of food, which is always wonderful! The dinner consisted of salad, funeral potatoes (LOTS of funeral potatoes!), corn, green beans, rolls, and ham. Plus, plenty of desserts. After eating, there were several singing and skit performances by various groups within the ward, and ending with Santa making an appearance. We really tried to get Emma to join in the fun by sitting on Santa's lap, but in the end she wouldn't ... even after waiting in a long line. However, she did get a candy cane, so all was well for her.

On another note, Ben and I recently enjoyed the Christmas episode of The Office. We both agreed that this may have been the funniest Office of them all. Here is a great clip, in honor of Christmas and The Office. Merry Christmas!

Random Thoughts

I was very productive today! It was great because I've been less than productive the past few days since Emma got sick. She was doing better today (but is still ill; we plan on taking her to the pediatrician tomorrow), so I was able to get a lot done. There's a lot to do after not being very with it keeping the house together for a few days. I had a lot of bill paying to do and account reconciling for one thing. Doing the finances while your husband is in medical school is always a frightening activity. It usually results in me realizing we have even less money than we thought (is that even possible!), but feeling better that I at least got it all straightened out. The good news, however, was that our electric bill was 40 dollars cheaper than it was last month because it's been so much cooler. For those in the rest of the country, 70 degrees would not be considered winter weather, but that's what its been the past few weeks. That means we rarely need to turn on the air conditioner or the heater. It's awesome! The electric bill is the most annoying of all the bills; it's like a fixed bill that's never fixed. In the summer we pay as much as 3 times the amount we pay in the winter, and there's no guessing how much we will need to pay for each month until the bill comes... I'm either pleasantly surprised or overwhelmingly bummed.

Anyway, on a much more amusing note and a random change in topic, I found this funny, yet strange video podcast that started today. It's Frosty the Snowman's 12 Days of Christmas podcast. In this episode, Frosty interviews Dasher the reindeer. I thought it was quite clever. I located it on revver.com.

Gastroenteritis and peeler accidents

Emma's had the stomach flu for the past couple of days. Poor thing. Ben says she has Gastroenteritis, more commonly called stomach flu. How fun it is to have a medical student for a husband (and it will be much more fun when he's no longer a student, eh?) Anyway, it is so sad to watch a little kid be sick... they are so particularly helpless and forlorn. Thankfully, she slept well last night and we didn't have any middle of the night incidents. She's been watching a lot of movies lately since she got sick. There's not much else she can do. To add to the fun, I had an incident with the peeler last night as I was peeling potatoes and peeled the tip of my middle finger. Poor me! It's a new peeler and particularly sharp, so it got me really good. My misfortune has been rather laughable, though, because I keep finding myself quite disabled at times when it comes to accomplishing certain tasks. I can't seem to keep a bandaid on it for long and every once and a while the cut breaks open and springs quite a leak. This morning, Ben had to tie my shoe for me because I was holding tissue on my mangled finger and needed assistance. And Ben had to pretty much finish making dinner last night after my peeler accident because my finger was stinging so badly. Anyway, Ben thinks we should go over to the DMV and get myself a handicap permit. Ha, ha Ben... that's so funny. ;) So, I guess it sounds like our family is quite pathetic right now with our maladies and bleeding appendages. But I'm sure these small misfortunes will quickly pass. :) At least, I plan on being more careful with my peeler next time.

3D!

Yesterday, Emma and I met up with Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield and Aunt Emily, Uncle Ben, and Cousin Adam. Those would be how Emma would reference them, so you are not confused. :) Anyway, we all went to see The Polar Express on IMAX 3D! Wooeee! 3D! I think everyone in the theater wore the 3D glasses, except for Emma. She outright refused. She is so stubborn, but she absolutely loved the movie, despite the fact that it was all blurry for her. I wonder if she even realized it was all out of focus. I never know what she is thinking... she's so crazy. ;) Emma's favorite part was the train (after getting past the initial shock of how loud and big it was), the reindeer, and the snow. I really loved the movie as well. I've seen Polar Express at least a dozen times, but it was just great all big and popping out. It was very well done. The animation seemed particularly impressive. Oh, and sadly Ben couldn't join us in our frolicking because he was busy being a good little medical student and studying very hard for the good of the family. .... hmmm... That was well put, I say.

So, of course, we went to church this morning. We are on the 11:00 block. It turns out we will continue to go at the 11:00 time next year as well. We only have 2 wards in our building, at 9:00 and 11:00. Ben says that the Bishop wanted to keep the 11:00 time and I guess the other ward wanted to keep 9, and logistically it makes more sense with sharing classrooms or something, since our ward is bigger to be the last ward out. Consequently, we will not be getting the earlier block. I think we are one of the only families that seemed bummed out about this. We were really looking forward to switching to 9:00. We are up anyway with Emma's schedule and all and the 11:00 time is right during lunch and naps, so Sunday's are always a little off. Oh well... it is nice to have a few hours in the morning to take our time and get lessons finished and whatnot. In fact, we had plenty of time to have German Pancakes for breakfast this morning, so we did. The German Pancakes we make is Ben's mom's recipe, which is wonderful. I love family recipes. Anyway, we hadn't had german pancakes in months, so I figure, it's December, let's eat something full of calories! :) And to add to the calorie-fest, I also made pumpkin bread pudding this evening for our Advent dessert. It tastes like regular bread pudding and pumpkin pie all mixed together. It was pleasing to eat, I must say, especially with whipped cream on top. Yum! I love Christmas time and how we can get away with eating all sorts of delectable desserts and candies. This is another reason why January can be so drab, because we all feel guilty and feel as if we need to eat extra healthy to make up for our bad eating the month before. Oh bother! ;)

Scriptures and Presents

My last post was on Christmas traditions and it got me thinking... none of our holiday traditions are unique to us. So, I set out to find a new tradition that I didn't steal from Ben's or my family. My answer came in the December Ensign! Speaking of the Ensign (and because I like to get sidetracked), I have really been enjoying reading the Ensign and the Church News lately. I finished the Ensign for this month and now I've been reading the Church News for this week. It's nice to read wholesome, uplifting things, eh? Anyway, this Christmas tradition is to be done the 12 days before Christmas. You just need to get 12 small gifts or treats that can be shared among the family. I only spent 12 dollars (1 dollar per gift); it should be inexpensive I say. Wrap up each gift and on the outside include a gift tag with a scripture on each. Each scripture discusses a gift from our Heavenly Father, such as scriptures, prayer, the Creation, etc. So each night on the 12 days before Christmas, you look up and read the scripture, talk about the blessing/gift mentioned, and then open up the present and share what's inside. Since we will traveling to Utah on the 19th, we are doing the 12 Days Before Going Out of Town. This meant that we started last night. Emma liked it because it involved picking out a present from under the tree and getting to tear it up and eat the candy inside. Yum! This is good practice for Emma too, I figure. She needs to warm up those present unwrapping muscles. ;)

Ooo! Ben recently found me a fun blog addition. To the right is my very own radio station, which you can play while you read. You just have to select the station, "susan's music" and it will play through my playlist that we selected. It's pretty fun. To add Blog Tunes to your own blog, click here.

Christmas traditions

I love family traditions! Maybe this is why Christmas is my favorite holiday; there are so many fun traditions associated with it. Ben and I have already started a couple of our traditions to start out the holiday celebration. Both are related to counting down to Christmas and both are traditions that Ben's family has done for many moons. Anyway, we've incorporated them within our own little family and it's really fun. Emma is enjoying all the celebrations as well.

First, is our cute little advent calendar. I think every family does something of this nature to countdown the days of December until Christmas. Well, we love our fun calendar... Emily, my very talented sister-in-law, labored many many hours to make this for us as a previous Christmas gift. We are most grateful because we just love it. Ben and I have always fought over who gets to put up the next piece. ;) Now we have an Emma to share with too... oh bother. he, he. So, each day there is a decorated felt piece of something Christmas related that is to be pinned to the tree. How cute.

Another tradition is more obscurely known as "Preparing Your Heart for Christmas", but is most commonly called "Advent". Every Sunday between Thanksgiving and Christmas, in addition to Christmas Eve (which happens to fall on a Sunday as well this year) we have a simple celebration involving lighting a candle on the "advent wreath", reading some pre-assigned scriptures that focus on a different theme each Sunday, singing Christmas hymns and then eating yummy desserts. So, yesterday was the second Advent. We did this with Ben's family over at their house. My favorite part is the singing and the eating. ;)

When we got home from our Thanksgiving vacation, we decorated the apartment for Christmas. One reason why January can be so sad for me is because we have to put all these lovely decorations away. The apartment then looks so barren. So, in the meantime I will just enjoy the colors and the lights. Emma's figured out how to turn the Christmas tree lights on by herself. She likes to do this first thing when she wakes up. She turns on the tree and then claps, "yay!!". If I wasn't so old and mature, I would do the same every time the Christmas tree lights came on. "Yay!!"


What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

Road Trip!

Once again it's been quite a hiatus between posts. Holidays and vacations tend to do that... any break in the routine and I abandon my blog. Well, I'm back with lots of pictures and fun things to write about. Ben, Emma, and I drove to Utah to stay with my family for a week during the Thanksgiving Break. We stopped at Zions National Park for a night to break up the drive, as well as give us a nice little trip with just the three of us. We had a lovely time. Our hotel was nice (we even watched the second Pirates movie on pay-per-view after Emma fell asleep... Ben hadn't seen it yet), we ate at a nice restaurant for dinner, and we had a lovely morning strolling through the trails in Zions and getting some great pictures along the way. Obviously, above is a slide show of all the pictures we took on our little excursion. The weather was cold, but the fall colors were absolutely amazing! In fact, some of the pictures even look like we were photo shopped in after the fact, because the backgrounds and views were so unbelievable. Anyway, it was a quick, but great and much needed little getaway for us.

The time we spent with my family was really fun. One thing I particularly enjoyed was spending a morning at the new children's museum at the Gateway in downtown SLC. We had a good time, especially Emma. Ben had a particularly good time playing as well. He really enjoyed this animation station where you could create you're own little movie with Mr. Potato Head and other assorted plastic creatures. It was funny.

At the end of the week we drove to St. George and spent the weekend with Ben's family. They were spending Thanksgiving with Ben's aunt and uncle who live in St. George. We went to the temple in the morning, which was great. Ben and I also had the opportunity to the temple when were in Sandy as well. It's always a good week when you go the temple twice, eh? Anyway, that evening we drove to Las Vegas and went to the Beetles Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage. It was awesome! You can view a little trailer for the show here, but it doesn't nearly do it justice. It was just amazing. So, that was a late night. The show didn't even start until 10:30, and earlier in the day were on Utah time, which is an hour later. So, it was really 11:30 for us. Good grief. I am usually very much asleep for the night by that time. However, it was worth staying up for. We put Adam and Emma to sleep in our hotel room before we left and one of the cousins stayed with them while we partied all night. ;) It's always a rare moment when we get to play late while having a babysitter. How lovely it is when the opportunity comes around.