We have a condo up at Midway, UT and decided to get away for a couple of days to spend time together as a family.  We went up Thursday after work and spent two nights there.  We went swimming, watched a movie and totally relaxed.  We had a lazy morning enjoy the fact that we had no schedule and nothing that we HAD to do.  We walked down the road to see the “Ice Castle” at the Zermott Resort, but we could only look from the gate since they didn’t open until after 3 pm.  The Lawsons came up Friday at lunch time.  We tried to go tubing at Soldier Hollow but with 40 degree weather (even though with the wind chill it felt like it was 20) the snow turned slushy and made it hard to slide down.  After 2 attempts we went to the lodge to get a certificate to come back another day.  On our way back to the condo we saw the Soldier Hollow train station with access to the frozen Deek Creek lake.  We were already dressed in our snow gear so we decided to go adventuring.  We crossed the train tracks and treked out into the almost prestine snow.  It was so peaceful and gave a beautiful view of Provo Canyon.  When we came back to the station there was a man there having his break and so we convinced him to take a picture of us laying on the train track.  Spencer wouldn’t do it..”NO WAY!” he said.  Five minutes after we climbed back up onto the train platform the Heber Creeper came rumbling around the corner and blew its whistled and scared the kids half to death!  We spent the afternoon at the pool and then had dinner, After dinner we walked down to the Ice Castle again which was now all lit up with lights.  It was really cool to see and we even had a chance to thank the artist for sculpting this really cool thing out of ice!  Amazing!  We went back and watched movies and played games until the wee hours of the night. (I was 3 for 3!  Poor Greg.)  So glad to have good friends to make memories with and that there are these beautiful places within a short drive from our house.  Thank goodness for rejuvenation!

So at 7:15 am this morning I was sitting in the living room on the love seat reading my scriptures with my book light and all the lights off.  5 minutes later I hear Spencer getting up and sigh because he usually sleeps in until 8 or 8:15 giving me my much needed morning quiet.  I hear him go to the bathroom and hope he will climb back into bed, but a few minutes later I look up and see him sneaking down the stairs quietly.  He gets to the second to last stair and stops.  (Our bottom stair creaks when you step on it.)  He carefully steps over the bottom step and does this spy pose at the bottom.  I am watching all this unfold and trying not to laugh so he wouldn’t know that I am there.  I wait to see what he’s going to do and hear him pull the stool over and he is rummaging around in kitchen.  I say in a rather loud voice, “Spencer!  What are you doing?”  I hear him get startled and he says timidly, “Mom is that you?  Where are you?”  He gets off the stool and comes around the corner and finally notices me sitting on the couch.  We had a good laugh together!

What a funny guy he is and SCARY that he already knows how to skip the creaking step and he is only 5 1/2!!!  We are so in trouble when he is a teenager!

Josey is my little princess!  She loves everything cute, pink and frilly.  She admires pretty things and will say “oh mama, that pretty!”  We had the opportunity to go to a Princess Tea Party and the premiere of Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” with a group of people that have all adopted children of another race.  We dressed up in our princess dresses and had a blast!  We had to drive all the way to Layton (1 hour each way) and had the tea part at this “castle”, but it was so fun to see her be able to interact with other black children and to have the whole theatre to ourselves!  At the tea party they had Princess Tiana come, but Josey wouldn’t go near her!  We had yummy chicken salad croissants and this great green salad.  So good!  I was a little worried about the movie, because Josey is 2 and has a hard time sitting longer than 20 minutes, but she LOVED it!  She danced in front of her chair during all the music in movie and was such a blast to watch…man does she have rhythm!!  She didn’t get that from me!   It just have to say that having a little girl is SO MUCH FUN!!!

So the count down to Christmas has been fun, crazy, busy!  I decided that I wanted to do a more “homemade” Christmas this year, so I started after Thanksgiving working on my many projects and presents which included: 8 pair of jammie pants (plus helping my neighbor make some for her girls), 8 “Sassy Aprons” for my girlfriends, plus one apron for Spencer, 3 fleece blankets, 6 little dollies.  I stayed up many nights until one or two in the morning working on these projects.  Little did I know HOW MUCH WORK a homemade Christmas is…however it will be one to remember!

Chris spoiled me and got me a new Nikon D-5000 DSLR camera…can’t wait to bust into that and start figuring out all that it can do!  Baby steps!  Spencer also got a “kid” digital camera from both sets of grandparents and used it ALL day long today!  He loves it and will hopefully leave my camera alone now.  (Crossing my fingers!)  Chris got a new golf bag along with golf lessons in the Spring and Josey got a little kitchen, that Mrs. Claus put together all my herself, and stuff to go in it and already loves it! 

TRADITIONS that I love:  making Gram’s cookies with my dad and sister before Christmas (marshmallow rolls, snowballs, skillet cookies, pepperkaukers, sugar cookies, birds’ nests, and whoopie pies), BINGO on Christmas EVE along with the yummy dinner, going to see a movie as a family on Christmas day (Princess and the Frog), playing games with my siblings on Christmas day (two new ones that are great: Ticket to Ride Europe and Killer Bunnies), a quarter in the bottom of our stockings, reading Santa Mouse on Christmas Eve.

I LOVE that we spend ALL month focusing on the birth of Jesus Christ.  His humble birth and all that surrounds it!  I love that Josey knows who baby Jesus is and that his mommy was Mary and his daddy was Joseph! I love the music that helps me feel the spirit and draw closer to my Heavenly Father!  MERRY CHRISTMAS all!

Spencer has been saying, “I want…this toy or that toy” for the last several weeks whenever he sees an ad on tv or in the paper.  We finally told him that he had to ask Santa for what he wanted because Christmas was coming and if he didn’t write him a letter he wasn’t going to get anything.  Tonight he made me sit down with him to write his letter and this is what he came up with… (He dictated and I told him how to spell things, he did the rest.)

One of the many things that I LOVE about Christmas is the childlike innocence and belief in Santa Claus.  It is so magical and mysterious and quite touching!  Love my little guy!