Christmas Traditions and Interruptions

Jason loves to work on a puzzle in December with a Christmas movie playing in the background. (Which, this year, turned out to be "Elf" about 1,001 times, but whatever makes him happy.) We started on a Rudolph puzzle, but switched mid-December to this Charlie Brown puzzle because I saw it online and just had to have it for my sister.

Thanks to some extra effort by our entire team, we were able to finish the puzzle by Christmas Eve. We were aided in this quest by the fact that our fearless leader, Jason, was stricken with 9 kidney stones and unable to go to work for several days. We would GLADLY have taken a little extra time to finish the puzzle had it meant fewer stones for Jason. But unfortunately, no one offered us such a trade. Sometimes you have to play the cards you're dealt. And I think Charlie Brown would agree with me on that.

We also have a tradition of going to see a Christmas play as a family. This year's play was "Juanito Bandito's Christmas Carol." I missed the Christmas play last year due to some health problems, and Jason wasn't able to go this year because of kidney stones. So maybe next year we can have a December that is free of ER visits and where we are all actually able to go to the Christmas play. Or... maybe not. But an ER-free December is definitely a tradition I'd like to shoot for going forward.

With Dahlia's favorite character, Grizelda, after the show. 

Christmas Party - With More Visitors!

Grandma Torgerson's Christmas Party is known to be pretty epic. This year was no exception. We hosted the party at our house and were so excited to welcome the Pennsylvania cousins, Caprie and Sadey, this year. What's cuter than cousins in matching Christmas jammies? Nothing.

Our other exciting guest was Theo, who was able to meet his cousins for the first time. Dahlia got to hold Theo for the cousin picture, so I negotiated a quick photo opp for Mickey with Theo (to avoid days, weeks, months and potentially years of upset that Dahlia got to hold Theo and Mickey didn't). Kaylene was pretty excited to have a picture of both of her handsome grandsons.

So.... most of Jason's siblings have caught the photography bug - and one of the night's many activities centered around who could take the most artistic picture of Rooney in his Santa suit. (Yes, I have a dog, who sits on my furniture, sleeps in my bed, gets his own stocking on Christmas morning, and has a Santa suit to wear at family parties. I'm that girl now. Although I'm not quite sure how this happened to a nice girl like me.) This was my favorite entry in the Rooney Claus photo contest, because he looks content and lazy and like "You want me in a Santa suit, fine. I'll just be here on the couch by Jason looking festive then."

The party was fun, we had way too much food and way too many fun activities planned. But the highlight was the ugly ornament exchange (Mick ended up with a fashionista fox with furry tail that certainly qualifies as an ugly ornament and now hangs proudly on our tree) and the minute-to-win-it games. Merry Christmas to all ... and to all a good, LOUD, fun, LOUD night.

Family Fun - With Visitors!

Some of my most favorites came to town for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert in mid-December. Including MY SISTER!!!

I love the Christmas concert for the music, the dancing, the decor, and the overall splendour. This year I especially loved guest artists Sutton Foster and Hugh Bonneville.

And my special guests - Tricia and Aunt Jilene. Jilene and my Aunt Laree had always talked about coming to the Christmas Concert together. After Laree passed away, Jilene decided to make the trip in her honor. Tricia played her cards well by wearing a scarf Aunt Laree had given her. We were all surprised when Sutton Foster sang "Sunshine on my Shoulder," which was one of Laree's favorites and which Tricia and I sang at her memorial service in Seattle. Not a dry eye for any of us. Because we certainly didn't come to the concert expecting Sutton Foster to sing John Denver. But she did and she did it so well.

Tricia and Grandpa went with Carly to her Gingerbread House Day at Kindergarten. And can I just say how much I love Carly's pink glasses?

Biz and I took Christmas flowers to the cemetery for Mom and Annie. And can I just say how much I love my cute sister?

Super Saturdays

December gets so busy! I very much enjoyed Livi and Marissa in their ballet performance of Snow White. Their clever dance studio marketing person has flowers to buy at the ticket table, so you're almost obligated to pick some up. Brilliant fundraising idea there.

Jason, Tay, my Dad and I enjoyed the inaugural Beehive Classic basketball games - although I did NOT enjoy the ticket purchasing experience which I believe took up 2 months and 37 hours of my life that I will not get back. You can see the arena was packed - which I blame on how difficult it was to actually get tickets.

Dear NCAA, 

If people want to come to your events, you should sell them tickets. It's not a difficult concept. Sincerely, 

Frustrated. 

We also enjoyed Dahlia's dance performance - although I never did figure out the Happy Ninja Christmas connection. But she's a cute ninja, who certainly loves Christmas. So there is that.

A Picture Easily Worth a Thousand Words

I have nothing to add to this. I think it speaks for itself.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 2nd Anniversary (what?!?) to the ones who make it all worthwhile.

Giving Thanks 2017

Jason and I took advantage of a transition in his family's "every other year" Thanksgiving plan and spent the weekend celebrating our anniversary early in Park City. The kids stayed at our house the Wednesday night before, so we got most of our Christmas decorating done and were up semi-early Thanksgiving morning to watch the parade together. 

We had our turkey dinner at Cracker Barrel, where a mystery stranger was kind enough to pay for our dinner. We were probably supposed to "pay it forward" and set off a chain reaction of kindness that went viral and put the West Valley City Cracker Barrel on the map. But we didn't. I scribbled a little thank you note to the mystery stranger and asked the manager to deliver the note after we left.

It's been uncharacteristically warm in Salt Lake City this fall, so the mild temperatures in Park City were fantastic for some pre-Black-Friday shopping at the outlet mall on Thursday night. We spent Friday window-shopping on Main Street in Park City and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants (Main Street Pizza & Noodle). Then we went to see "Wonder," - a movie that was so fantastic it made me want to rush out and buy a THIRD copy of this awesome book. We went back home on Saturday to transition (slowly) back into work-mode by Monday morning. It was a very relaxing and fun getaway. I wouldn't want to skip the traditional family Thanksgiving dinner all the time - but it sure was nice to get some extra time for Just Us this year.

Blue Skies in November

I'm not sure if I've ever seen blue skies and the Nativities on Temple Square at the same time. It's a beautiful sight. If the weather wants to stay this nice through Christmas, it's ok with me.

Also a fun sight - the varied expressions from a rather animated game of Spot It at Dad's house on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch

Jason's uncle owns a large cabin outside of Nephi where the Torgerson's have had a lot of family gatherings over the years. We were able to spend last weekend at The Ranch with some of Jason's siblings. We love the huge griddle where we can make pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage and then eat until we are absolutely stuffed silly. I taught a couple of the older girls how to crack eggs on this trip (much to their mother's dismay - Aunt Traci strikes again!!!). They were quite delighted with their newly learned skill - and I was quite delighted that they cracked a dozen eggs without dropping a single shell in the bowl.

At the ranch, the best seat in the house is actually outside the house. There are two large porch swings on the front deck where I could sit and swing for hours.

On Saturday, I took some of the kids on a "nature walk" where we found most of a goat skeleton scattered in pieces along the trail. My guess is that the goat had been attacked by a coyote. A little too much "nature" for me. But the kids thought we'd made a super cool discovery.

These two blondies (known to some as Big Head and Small Head) kept us all on our toes the whole weekend. The goal was to not let them eat any Box Elder bugs. I think we accomplished our mission. But these girls are also a lot sneakier than they look, so I'm not 100% confident that they didn't eat any bugs. We did try.

We played a lot of Uno and Sorry this weekend, watched a couple movies and (of course) the Utah game. However, I think the favorite activity for the kids was riding in the back of Taylor's truck on the loop around the cabin. Ironically, the favorite activity for the adults was sitting on the porch swings and talking quietly while the kids were off riding in the back of the truck. So that was a win-win for everyone.

Birthday Bookworms

It makes me happy that my nieces and nephews always have books on their birthday lists. Yay for birthday books!

Happy Halloweeners and Other Happenings

Apparently black is the new black when it comes to Halloween costumes. Noted.

Lauren loves Halloween decor and activities, so she was excited to go mini golfing with her family at Scary Hill Park (aka Cherry Hill). She was cracking me up by refering to a giant blow-up Frankenstein decoration as Franklin DeFrankenstein, like that was his full name.

I was so excited to hold Theo for the second time. He is 6 months old and doing really well. Plus, anyone can see how much he likes me. Shortly after this visit, he was able to go completely off oxygen, which was an awesome step for the little man. This 25 weeker and micropremie continues to amaze us.

So you have to ignore the garish mall lighting of this one, but I was excited to have some visitors from Idaho join me for lunch at City Creek.

And the lighting at Desert Star Playhouse clearly wasn't any better! But the play, the food, and the company were certainly outstanding.

#sisters

Happy Halloween!

I thought Jason was kidding when he said he thought Rooney would enjoy a trip to the pumpkin patch.

He wasn't kidding. But Rooney did really enjoy the outing. He loves to ride in the car, especially when it doesn't end with a trip to the groomer. The kids are already talking about taking Rooney with us to pick out our Christmas tree. Can't wait for him to mark his territory. On every single tree... He was strangely well behaved at the pumpkin patch though. It's like he knew this was a test for him. Can't believe WE were the classy family who brought our dog to the pumpkin patch.

When we got our pumpkins home, I asked Jason if he could help me carve a heart pumpkin. He said, and I quote, "If you can draw it, I can carve it." Which is a very accurate description of both my artistic abilities and his carving abilities.

When You Really Need to Catch Up On Your Blog

It's possible that it's too late on a Friday afternoon for me to care about being clever. I keep meaning to catch up on my blog, so here's a couple of pictures.

Jason and I went to the opening game of the Jazz season at the new and improved VivantSmart Arena. I think that's what we're calling it now. It's not the Delta Center anymore (which is what I like to call it) or Energy Solutions Arena. Apparently, the Salt Palace is a completely different building - but that doesn't stop me from calling it that. The Jazz pulled off a come-from-behind victory against the Denver Nuggets, and we had comfy seats in the recently redone arena. We really enjoyed the game. Jason loves that I sometimes get free tickets to Jazz games through work. Church employment has its perks I guess. If you have something to offer a large group of people who are willing to show up for free events at the last minute - the LDS Church Human Resources Department employee network is for you.

Kami is cute. I don't know what else to say about that.

Dahlia and I went to Witch Fest at Gardner Village so we could really annoy Mickey when he had to go with Jason to watch the Priesthood Session of conference.(Well, maybe that wasn't our actual intent, but it certainly served its purpose. Don't worry. Jason made sure Mickey got to go to Witch Fest the next weekend and we offered Dahlia the opportunity to watch the Priesthood Session. We are an equal opportunity family.) We loved finding all the witches and Dali loved that she got to pick the restaurant for our dinner. We ended up at Golden Corral. We recently introduced the kids to the buffet restaurant concept by accident in St. George and we may never eat at a normal restaurant ever again. They have cotton candy and BBQ chicken wings and pickles there. Why would we ever go anywhere else? 

Tay's kids in a classic "heads together" photo. I love their Christmas jammies.

Carly and Grandpa at Heather's birthday lunch at Red Robin. Luckily, Heather got to pick her own birthday lunch so we didn't end up at McDonald's at Station Park (sorry Lauren) or Golden Corral (sorry, Mick and Dahlia).

The three brothers and their pink princess at Kami's 2nd birthday party. These boys love their sister. It's the cutest thing.

And now - we are more or less caught up.

St. George Wedding Weekend

We made a quick weekend trip to St. George for Kaylene and Scotty's wedding. The weather was nice and around 70-75, which is just right for me. It was a small, simple wedding in a very pretty setting.

Mickey and the Bride

With Megan and Holly

Ty (who needs a haircut in the worst possible way and insisted on baptizing his daughter when he had, and I quote, "Jesus hair") and Jason. Missing Brady, who was home with cute Theo

The group

My group

We introduced the kids to the wonders of Golden Corral on this trip. Apparently they hadn't been to a true buffet before. They loved that you could just load your plate up with whatever you wanted and then go to town. Eat what you liked - grab a new plate - and start the process over again. With desserts. And more desserts. And then maybe some chicken and a roll. And more desserts. 

And a bonus pic of Theo, because he was the reason Brady and Stephanie couldn't make it to the wedding. And because Theo.