Ten ways to loose all your Christmas spirit in one outing...

1. Choose to see the lights on Temple Square during the last family home evening before Christmas (not an original idea!)
2. Ride the Trax downtown on the same evening as a sold out concert/sing-along at the Energy Solutions Arena.
3. Bounce a screaming baby for an hour and a half in a loud, tightly packed train car while your toddler climbs all over you and everyone else.
4. Have your baby go poo and explode out of her diaper in all directions while riding the aforementioned, over-packed train.
5. Miss your stop and end up having to walk back four blocks to your destination.
6. Receive lots of dirty looks as you cut ahead of all the ladies waiting in line outside the bathroom so you can get to the changing table to clean your still disgruntled baby. (For an even better evening be sure to forget a change of clothes so that your little girl has to remain in her yellowed clothes for the remainder of the night.)
7. Don't bring a stroller and have your toddler continually escape you, running through people's legs and across the fenced-off lawn.
8. Get everyone together and smiling for a picture then have your camera batteries die right as you snap the picture.
9. Instead of enjoying the lights, be sure that your son becomes fixated on the one light he finds that does not work.
10. Make sure your toddler cries about having to get back on the train because the horrific memory of the train ride downtown is still fresh on his mind.

On our way home, after about the six or seventh stop, enough people got off the train that we could actually sit down. As I sat there I thought and laughed about our horrible night. Really, I don't think that things could have gotten any worse. All we wanted was a fun, family activity for Christmas, but it more closely resembled a nightmare.

Our experience tonight helped me to remember that Christmas is not about the lights or the presents, or the yummy treats. It is about celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I would just like to testify here that I know he lives and I love Him.

Merry CHRISTmas.

Our little Linus

They say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and I am a believer. When I was little I was attached to a silky pink blanket; I dragged it everywhere with me until the fated day that my mom accidentally melted it in the dryer. I was crushed until I discovered that rubbing my mom's slip between my fingers provided the same sensory satisfaction. It was not uncommon for me to stick my hand up my mother's skirt at church to get a feel of her slip. On weekdays, her slip became my favorite companion as I ventured out to play.

I am now getting my comeuppance as Oliver is hopelessly attached to his blue blanket. He won't go to sleep without it and it is the ultimate comfort when he falls down or gets and "ouchy." Sometimes (as you can see from the picture) it even doubles as a scarf (I figure that is better than letting him drag it around on the ground).

I have never made the mistake of melting it in the dryer, but I did notice a while back that it was beginning to wear a bit thin. Terrified of what might happen when the blanket turned to shreds I began searching for a replacement. I searched all of the stores and scoured the Internet in search of the exact same blanket, but was not successful. I bought him a blanket made from the same kind of material, but he turned up his nose at it. I had pretty much given up when I happened upon the exact same blanket still in its brand new packaging at a garage sale over the summer. I happily paid the one dollar they were asking (without ever mentioning that I would have happily paid fifty.) I decided to hold off making the switch until it became absolutely necessary. I suppose that in Ollie's case my slips and underwear were never in any real danger, but it sure is a comfort to know that I have a backup! In my mind, that blanket remains my best garage sale purchase ever (and I have done a whole lot of garage-saling during our sojourn in graduate school.)

He did it!!

Sam graduated with his Masters degree from the Colorado School of Mines on Friday. We are so proud of him, he has worked long and hard to get to this point. I am so grateful for a husband who has been willing to sacrifice so much and work so hard to become a better provider for our family. He is the BEST!!

Ruby and I were able to attend the graduation while Oliver stayed in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa Ross. The graduation was by far the best I have ever attended, the speaker was quick and funny (just as all graduation speakers should be). And the procession was flawless and totally professional - no flip-flops or decorated graduation caps here (the last graduation we attended was at the University of Hawaii).

Sam was totally elated and informed me that we can now all begin calling him "Master Sam", yeah right. For me it was somewhat bittersweet. I am very excited to move on to our next adventure, but at the same time I have really enjoyed the past five years (a.k.a. our entire marriage) that we have spent in school. We have gotten to know some incredible people and learned a lot about ourselves and our place in the world. So, while we say goodbye to formal education for now, I hope that we will keep on learning and growing (maybe I should have spoken at the graduation, tee, hee).

Way to go Sammy!!!

Why I hate laundry...

I have decided that when you procrastinate blogging it becomes a lot like laundry; overwhelming. I am sure you all know that good feeling that comes when you remember to do a load every day or so and your laundry basket never spills over onto the floor and you don't have to punch down the clothes to fool everyone into thinking you've really got it all together. And I am quite certain that you can also relate to the massive pile of folding that accumulates when you put off doing laundry until there is nothing left to wear and you are forced to make yourself a slave to the 60 minute cycle on your dryer for an entire day. I really hate folding the clothes at the end of a day like that. The pile seems absolutely insurmountable.

At the moment I am feeling the same way about my blog, I have put it off so long that the list of things I need to blog about has become impossibly long. But, as with laundry, there is nothing to do but settle in and get to it. So here it goes. (I should mention that one of my greatest laundry sins is overloading the washer, it is a fault that may have spilled over into this post so I apologize in advance).
We have had a couple of snowstorms this year and every time we do Oliver insists on going outside to build a "snowman tall, tall tall." Actually, I build the snowman whilst he plants himself face down on the lawn and licks up the snow, he can't seem to get enough of it. When it warmed up again and his snowman got "small, small, small" rather than let it go to waste he came and asked for a spoon so he could go out and eat it. (He does avoid the dirty, yellow stuff - so I guess that is good). Sam took a break from his studies a few weeks ago to go pheasant hunting with his Dad in South Dakota. He had a great time on his well deserved break. He has put in a lot of hard work at school and we are now counting down the days to graduation, there are only six days, two finals, and one massive project lying between him and freedom from formal education. We have had a great time at Mines and are glad we chose to go there. The nation-wide rankings for Operations Research programs came out last week and Sam's program was ranked number one in the country. Go Mines!! I guess that is what you get at a school full of nerds. Seriously it is geekdom over there. On one of our first weeks in Golden we attended the combined Mines' married/singles ward and all I can say is that it made me very glad to be already married. I'm not the first one to say that, the girl:guy ratio at Mines is 1:5 and as far as dating is concerned the saying goes, "the odds are good, but the good are odd" and I'd have to say I agree.

Oliver learned how to use the camera, I just downloaded about a hundred pictures of the carpet and various house plants, all I can say is thank goodness for digital cameras. Ollie seems growing by leaps and bounds these days. He is such a good talker now and will recount things that happened weeks and weeks ago - he never seems to forget anything. He notices everything and I am constantly amazed at what he picks up on. I have been thinking for the past few weeks that I should start to teach him his alphabet - I neglected to do anything about it however, so he seems to have taken things into his own hands. The other day we were video chatting with Sam and I showed him how to type a letter and send it to his daddy. He got so excited and started typing letters and naming them as he went along. I know he likes to sing the ABC song, but I didn't know he could recognize any of the printed letters, I guess I owe Sesame Street for that one.

When we were in Colorado Springs I saw the cutest knit hats called "gnome domes." I told my super-talented sister-in-law about them and this is what she came up with. Aren't they adorable? Thanks again Caci.

Ollie isn't the only one who is growing up. Our little Ruby isn't quite so little anymore either. She smiles and talks and has started grabbing onto things as well. Her cheeks seem to get chubbier every day and she now has a permanent double chin (a feature that she seems to be pulling off a lot better than her equally chubby mother).

This year I decided to learn how to dip chocolates. I would have to say that I am not very good yet. I did however dip a couple perfect looking caramels. I was so proud of this one that I had to take a picture. Just look at it, no feet and the swirl is so pretty!! I was still revelling in the beauty of my one good chocolate when my parents came home with a tin of chocolates dipped by my aunt - every single one of hers was pretty, so I guess I have a ways to go. My one consolation this year has been the fact that chocolates taste good no matter what they look like. May be I will have to ask Aunt Pam for lessons next year.

I took Oliver to see Santa this year, the following is the conversation that transpired:

Santa: Would you like to come sit on Santa's lap?

Ollie: Nope

Santa: Can your mom sit next to me and you can sit on her lap?

Ollie: Nope

Santa: Can you tell me what you would like for Christmas?

Ollie: A candy cane

Santa: Are you sure that is all you want, may be you should come sit next to me and we could talk about that.

Ollie: Nope

Santa: Well is there anything that I can bring for your little sister?

Ollie: A pine cone.

The end. (as you can see Oliver only got close enough to grab hold of the candy cane)

I would just like to announce here that my children are now friends, that is right - they actually seem to like each other. Oliver is so gentle with Ruby, he is always concerned about her and if he is not around when she goes down for a nap he likes to tip-toe into her room to say good night. Sometimes he even climbs into her bed and plays there quietly while she sleeps. The other day we were driving and Oliver wriggled out of the top part of his car seat and leaned over and took hold of Ruby's car seat with both hands shouting, "Hold on Ruby, hold on, the cars are coming." I guess that means he is even willing to sacrifice himself for her. Thanks Ollie.

Of course, Christmas would not be Christmas if we didn't get to make gingerbread houses at Grandma and Grandpa Cornwells' house. I spread frosting all over Oliver's so he could stick candy where ever he wanted, thus he dubbed it "the white house." I am pretty sure he was more into the train under the tree than the candy though.

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Whew, I did it. And the best part is, there are no piles to put away, so I guess blogging isn't as bad a laundry after all.