Cool Thing #37 About Living in a Tiny Town

This is kind of our weekend in review. We got to go to a nice party at our neighbor's house on Friday night, then had a brunch here on Saturday morning, then the Melin Agency Dinner Party at Fiesta en Jalisco Saturday evening and we even went and FINALLY saw Narnia after dinner while Nicole babysat (she's 16 now, so we almost never get her to babysit anymore--SCORE!). We looooved the movie so much! I thought they chose a darling Lucy and an excellent White Witch (she looked perfectly like some Norse villain, but I kept thinking, "Get that woman some moisturizer!"). Narnia was beautiful as was the cinematography (except the cheezy green screen on the water parts), and I loved how the movie started with the Blitzkrieg. I haven't read the books since I was 11, and it made me want to read them again and look for all the gospel themes and symbols. The music was nice, too. YAY! I give it 2 thumbs up and a "9."

I also watched "Pay It Forward" on TBS or something like that on Friday, recommended by my mom. I liked it more than I thought I would. It made me cry at the end because the soundtrack is a song near and dear to my heart: "Calling All Angels" by Jane Siberry. I listened to that song constantly right before my mission and I used to sing it to myself when I felt lonely or daunted as a missionary. It became very personal for me and I don't' think I have heard it since, so it caught me off guard. Then today (Sunday) someone sang it on "Prairie Home Companion"...can you believe that? I haven't heard it in about 13 years, then I hear it twice in one weekend. That's weird, but a pleasant surprise. The movie was a reminder that little things matter and we all have a mission in life.

Okay, so thing #37 that is so cool about living in a small town is that Santa does actually come to your house unannounced:

At about 4:30pm on Saturday evening, Rich was taking the girls to go pick up their babysitter when he saw Santa driving a fire truck down our street. The girls ran down the driveway with him to see what was going on (you should hear Heidi say Santa--it's "TANTA, HO-HO-HO!").
Santa and his helpers brought gift bags for the girls (Addie's giving Heidi one in this picture). Yes, it's as cold as it looks in these photos--it was about 5 degrees, and yes, you see my kids outside with no coats...But they were too excited for coats!

Santa waiting for his "fireman elves" to bring gift bags for Addie & Heidi...
...which they LOVED! They got little books and stuffed animals and candies in the bags, but they were most amazed by Santa himself, just standing there in our yard. Heidi loved that she had something all her own, direct from Father Christmas, so she kept carrying around her new teddy bear saying, "Mine? Mine!" It was really cool of the firemen to do that.

There's me and our brunch spread Saturday Morning.
On Friday, Addie and I finished 6 dozen cookies for the cookie exchange at our neighbor Maria's house. Addie was in charge of sprinkles adn the cookies looked beautiful.
Grandma holds Addie and Addie holds Rosalie at our Christmas Brunch Saturday morning.

A Day in the Life

Oh, my. It has been a day!

6:32am: Arise with Addie & Heidi
6:40-7:30am: Snuggle, feed, dress girls
7:30-8am: Shower and dress mommy
8:00am: Realize we're out of milk; check WIC checks and realize today is the first day of a new WIC month and we can get a zillion gallons of milk, some cereal, bread, cheese, eggs, and juice, too. We send daddy off to work and get ready to go to the store.
9:30am; Arrive at Albertsons after getting gas and re-buckling seatbelts twice.
9:30am-10am: Endure tantrums and fighting while running into friends with their nice children and while old people stare at my screeching daughters as if to say, "Why dont' you shoot them?"
10:00-10:40am: Head to the consignment store to check for cute new toddler things and drop off tons of toys we don't need-- the charming behavior continues, but not as screechy. I circle the downtown block three times looking for parking I can fit into with the Caravan. Little Buckaroos doesn't have anything for us today, but we donate some old decorations next door at the Senior Center and find a nice pair of sneakers for Heidi for 25 cents. While I look at them, Heidi runs away up the stairs, and 15 seconds later someone is on the intercom (in a building the size of my house) saying, "We have a lost child up here...lost child...do not let your child play on the stairs." That's the last straw. Mortified, I pay my quarter, grab the girls, and head out while Heidi waves and blows kisses to all the grandmas who think she's just darling in her "Bib Overhauls." She looks like an angel and I feel like a devil cuz I want to beat her bum!
11:00am-ish: Arrive home safe in the garage; unbuckle girls and send them in to house while I grab groceries. I have 2 gallons of milk in each hand (=4 gallons of milk) and a 12-pack of CF Diet Coke in my arms and I step in the door and trip over both girls, falling on my face and sending a gallon of milk bouncing down the stairs. I end up with about 1/2 gallon of milk seeping into my carpet in the basement and I am somewhat banged up. The girls aren't hurt, just scared and crying and I am upset, so I send them into Heidi's room so I can clean up the mess.
11:11am: Addie peeps out the door of Heidi's room and says, "Mom, are you happy now? Can we come out yet?" Awww, I let them out and tell them I love them but the y need to come watch a movie because mommy is going to have to shampoo the carpet today. I make arrangements for Addie to spend the afternoon with a friend and put Heidi down for a nap.
12:30-5:30: I wash any and all rugs in the house; I move all furniture and sweep and mop all wood and tile floors, vacuum and shampoo all carpets (except bedrooms); I dust; I cook a taco dinner for our family plus the missionaries; I clean out fridge and do all the dishes; Set the table; roll my hair and put on a skirt and sweater.
5:45-6:30 Dinner with family and Elders; Rich shampoos the stairs, Elders read to girls; I head out to Young Women in Excellence.
6:30-8:30: YW/ visit with friends at church
8:40-10:o0pm: Arrive home; say prayers with girls and tuck them in; Rich goes to work on log beds and shovel a lady's driveway; I bake 4 dozen more cookies for Friday's cookie exchange and tomorrow's playgroup, which is here at 10am. I wash remaining dishes, put cookies in freezer with the other 6 dozen, then wash face, brush teeth, take Tylenol (for aches resulting from earlier fall when I tripped over my children), take vitamins, blog--and then I will watch the Daily Show, read Helaman, and hit the hay.

BUSY ENOUGH FOR YA?...How was your day?

Love One Another

I just remembered this Charlie Rose interview I watched one night while up late being crafty-- Anne Rice was being interviewed about her new book. It's about Jesus and everybody was all freaking out that this crazy lady who writes about vampires and maybe IS a vampire was writing about Our Lord (I have never read her books or seen her movies so all I know is hearsay so I reserve my opinion until I am better informed). I was so impressed, though, when Charlie Rose asked her, "What is the most important message Jesus taught?" She answered, "Love. Love one another. Love everyone as I love them." She went on to explain that if we really tried to live that commandment, it would take up all of our time and energy (as it should) and we'd have no time for all the pettiness and evil we are prone to. Quite the profound statement coming from the Queen of the Damned. I agree with her wholeheartedly, as do the scriptures, time and again.

So it reminded me of my favorite Christmas song: "Truly he taught us to love one another; His law is love and his gospel is peace; Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother and in His name all oppression shall cease." Ugh. That brings tears to my eyes right now because I just imagine (a) what it would be like if we all accepted and lived the gospel of Jesus Christ--all oppression WOULD cease and it would be beautiful, and (b) how sad it must be sometimes to see what Christ's message had been twisted into. I think, like Anne Rice and the apostle Paul, without charity, we are nothing.

On another note, I have a deep and abiding love for the song, "The Heart of the Matter," by Don Henley. It is so beautiful and when I hear it, I kind of feel like I got punched in the gut a little bit, like maybe I'll cry. Anyway, today they played it on the radio and then the DJ said, "That 's a great song for the season--it's about forgiveness." Hmmm...Interesting thing for the DJ to say about Christmas...truer than he knows. "These times are so uncertain/ There's a yearning undefined/ And people filled with rage/ We all need a little tenderness/ How can love survive in such a graceless age?/ The trust and self-assurance that lead to happiness/ They're the very things - we kill I guess/...I think it's about forgiveness/ forgiveness/ even if/ even if you don't love me anymore." Lovely.

Addie loves the snowman party favor she got at the Breakfast.
Our porch Me (jamie/Mommy), Addie, & Heidi getting ready to go deliver gifts to our neighbors Sunday night.

O Tannenbaum

From outside, the tree looks like this...

Saturday night we decorated the tree and only used about half our ornaments
The girls did pretty well at decorating and so far, are leaving the tree alone.

Fetching the Tree

This year, having a zillion feet of snow and freezing temperatures already, we decided to forego the traditional cutting fo the tree and just buy one from the Boy Scouts. Here is Addie at their lot Saturday about noon, immitating the plastic Santa.
Here are the girls posing with the tree and whining about being cold and hungry.

Church Christmas Breakfast

On Saturday, 12/10, we started off the day with the annual ward Christmas Breakfast. This year, each family made their own gingerbread houses and the Young Women put on a skit of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and the Grinch handed out gift bags at the end to all the little kids. Dad & Addie build a candy house that resembles our own...
...complete with "log" porch...
...while mom & Heidi get down to business and eat breakfast.

The New Camera

Daddy's digital Canon Rebel came this week and this is the first picture he took.(There are supposed to be blankets in there, silly girls!)

But I'm not THIS conservative...

..or crazy, or whatever you call it. We moved here aroudn the time of the first anniversary of 9/11 and this truck, however crass and redneck, made me laugh so hard. I kept meaning to take a picture of it but hadn't seen it for a long time. Then lo and behold, at the gas station on our way to get our Christmas Tree, I saw it again. It's a Festivus Miracle! And YOU, dear reader, get the benefit.

(more festivus)