Christmas 2008

Another year has flipped by like a page in a book. We really had a great year. I love family traditions and we are still figuring out what ours are. I come from a family that really had no regular traditions. So, I've brought none to our relationship. The ones I suggest come mostly from things I've seen on TV. My husband comes from a family that loves traditions, so he doesn't have to worry about me fighting him on any suggestions. His mother loves traditions, and we (his parents, and bother and sister's families) all live within a few blocks from each other. So she suggests things for the whole family and we all do it together. That makes 2 grandparents, 5 couples, and 11 grandchildren, soon to be 14.

One of our regular traditons is the Christmas Tree Hunt. The friday after Thanksgiving is for shopping and the saturday after is for tree hunts. Jake and I actually have decided to do fake, pre-lit, but we still love to tree hunt for grandma's tree. We play in snow if there is some and we take a lunch, hot cocoa, some ATV's, a chainsaw, and of course an arsenal of guns(not for shooting the tree). Then we help grandma string popcorn and cranberries while watching it's a wonderful life or whatever other Chrismas show. She loves any and all of them, even the one's starring Steve Gutenberg.

This year we added some new traditions. First we always deliver treats to neighbors, but this year we decided to do it while caroling and on a hay ride. It snowed on us and we knew very few of the lyrics to entire songs. Also, we changed our annual Christmas eve party from great grampas house to grandmas house, so we had more control over the party activities. We had a nice dinner, the extended family exchanged gifts between cousins, kids, and granparents, we had the annual homemade pinata, and this year we added a live nativity play with the grandchildren (super cute). Also many of us (Jake and I included) decided to start a chrismas eve Pajama tradition.

Christmas Day was for the kids to open the gifts from us and from Santa. Jake gave me a gift that he kept at his mom's in order to completely surprise me (which he did.) He gave me a Vita mix blender which I have been talking about ever since the kids and I spent about a half an hour standing at the demonstration at Sam's Club. The demonstrator made smoothies, and soups, and ice cream and we just kept on eating. Seeing my kids slurp down a smoothie made with fruit, carrots, and cabbage and ask for more, sold me. Now I just have to buy some fruit and carrots and cabbage.

The holidays seem over now but we are still partying. Caleb was born on new year's eve, so I still have to decide how I want to do his birthday party and bring in the new year. Then in mid January we are doing a week long So. Cal. theme park tour with the whole family, the same 23 people minus his siter and brother in-law who do not have children yet. I don't think this will become an annual tradition, but it should be a lot of fun and offer a lot of memories. Or at least a lot of pictures and stories for posting.

Facebook Frenzie

After much coersion, Amy and Jeff Gabbitas finally convinced me to join facebook. I must also credit Amy with convincing me to make a blog. I should definitely thank her, because it's all been great fun. Even though I really didn't need any help to clean my house less. For those of you who have not yet joined, you definitely should. It's fun, like a blog but a little more interactive. It doesn't require as much creativity, but for me that's a good thing. It doesn't require constant updating, so it should take up less time. But I spend more time viewing, since I have access to the pages of more people. I have discovered that adding to your friends list is similar to collecting trading cards. It's kind of addicting and there is a tendency to compare one's list size to others.

One interesting phenomenon is that almost my entire list consists of people whom I've met in Bakersfield. I have been reflecting today on the implications of that fact. There are several possibilities. One might be that I was a very likeable person back when I lived in Bakersfield and since then not so much. That is possible. Another is that Bakersfield people are very into joining facebook, and people I know from other places aren't participating. A third option is that Bakersfield is populated by very friendly, social, and fun people. That one is very possible. I'm sure there are other possible reasons, but the fact remains that I really like people from Bakersfield.

Utah is a lot more family oriented. Especially my rural neighborhood. Everyone in my ward has extended family in the ward, usually several generations. We spend all our time and do all our activities with my husband's family. It seems that is the way it should be, but I do miss having close friends to do things with. But I'm glad for my kids that they will be tight with their cousins. I used to not feel like I fit in with my in-laws but it's getting a lot better with time. They are getting used to my quirky ways and I am finding joy in having some family traditions. In Bakersfield people seemed to have a way of treating friends and even strangers as family. I know this for a fact because I was often the stranger. I haven't found the same to be true around here, but perhaps that's because I now belong to such a close family and so does everyone I now. We don't have many strangers, I can count the non-members that live in my ward boundary on one hand. So of course we know those few and they get a lot of attention.

Today is my birthday by the way. I've gotten really bad at celebrating my birthday. I'm in such a hectic, frenzied state of life, that I actually forgot it was today until Amy reminded me. I was going to plan something special for myself to give my husband a break from trying to please me. (I'm not good with surprises which has scared him away from trying.) I had a few ideas, but then a Work Christmas party and a school dance recital were both scheduled for today. I may still plan something for myself for friday, but it sounds like a lot of effort and makes me tired thinking about it. The holidays are kind of a lousy time to have a birthday. Unfortunately all of my kids were born during the holidays. I do work really hard to make birthdays special for them anyway. And that is one more reason that I forgot mine was today.