December Festivities

This post will show why I didn't get any blogging done in December. There's just too much going on. I didn't even get to go to the Beehive Classic this year and watch a kind of bad BYU trounce a really bad Utah.  But it doesn't look like I was overly missed.

We did go to the drive-thru lights show in South Jordan, where we piled in the back of a pickup truck and watched awesome lights to fun music and sang Christmas carols at the top of our lungs.

And Dahlia and I went to see Livi and Marissa perform at their Wizard of Oz Christmas ballet.

And then there was the Christmas Party.  Mickey and Dally really wanted us to have matching jammies for the breakfast-themed party.  You can see who ended up wearing them - me, that's who.  The girl who spent the early part of December at three different Targets - including the one I sent my sister to!- and anxiously waiting for deliveries from Target.com to get these jammies in the right sizes by party time. But I'd do it again. When you're blessed to have growing up step-kids who beg for matching family jammies, you go with it.

(Even if they prefer the Snoopy jammies their aunts surprised them with.)

Then there was the Christmas Concert with Kristen Chenoweth and the Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. The concert I didn't think I'd be able to go to since I left my job with the General Authorities and lost the perk of automatic tickets to every Temple Square event. But I forgot that I still have friends in high places!  And a friend invited us to the concert, where Jason and I got to fulfill a life-long dream I didn't know I had of watching Kristen Chenoweth perform "O Holy Night" with the Choir and Orchestra.  It was spectacular and one might almost say life-changing.  So next year I'll start my tradition of NOT going to the Christmas concert - unless they get Josh Groban to come.  In which case, I'm going.  No matter what.

And, finally, we also spent plenty of December nights at home watching Christmas movies and working on the Rudolph puzzle that I think has become Jason's favorite already. 

The Downstairs Tree

In another example of my laziness (of which there are many) I had nothing to do with decorating "the downstairs tree" either.  I did supervise the selection of the tree at the Christmas tree lot, to be sure we didn't come home with one that was 15 feet tall and worth more than my car. But once we got home, the little cousins were so excited to decorate the tree for the Torgerson Family Christmas Party that weekend, that I purposefully decided to disappear and let them have at it.

They had a blast.  And luckily we had Mick and Dally to make sure that ALL the ornaments weren't hung on the bottom six inches of the tree.

Decorating Wicked Stepmother Style

This year, I found a great new way to decorate.  Lounge on the couch watching Christmas movies while the holiday junkies in your life decorate the tree for you.  It works great.

I was going to "fix" the tree later if I needed to. But I didn't end up moving anything.

And no, I wasn't sick or anything.  It just seemed like more fun for everyone to do it this way.

I know I've been posting lots of pictures of Rooney.  But I do like his little Santa suit.

And the decorating clearly wore him out.  He crashed on that rug while the rest of us (all of us, not just me this time) watched a movie.

Back to Bizness

Biz had a birthday! She and Liz and Cassi went to a Harry Potter escape room to celebrate - and nailed it, of course.  These three were born to do a Harry Potter themed escape room.

Dad and I made a quick overnight trip to Idaho to see Biz perform (a solo) at her Christmas concert.  She did wonderful.  

I don't like my bad hair in this picture. But I do like the idea of this picture. So I'm posting it anyway.

This picture I like much better.

And this one too.  Gotta love a happy birthday cheesecake!

Happy Family-Versary

I laugh every time I see this picture from my work party.  Happily married for three fantastic years -  and I'm still not smart enough to tilt my head towards Jason instead of away from him when we're taking a picture.  We really just need to always make sure he stands to my right.

Actually, I guess I can tilt my head in the other direction....  Mickey is taking a photography class and asked the two most attractive (and agreeable) people he knows to do a photo shoot.  So we spent a sunny Sunday afternoon taking pictures at Daybreak.  I wish we had the whole experience on video, because Mick was NOT impressed with our wardrobe choices, Rooney really wanted to jump in the lake, and Dahlia had to go to the bathroom BAD.  I kept wishing there was some cute, young couple there taking engagement pics so they could see what their lives were really going to be like in a few years.  I sincerely hope they'd still go through with the wedding, but I KNOW they'd think twice about getting a naughty wiener dog and trying to take pictures with him off-leash at a reservoir.  Note to self: next time we do a photo shoot, Rooney is staying home. 

We celebrated our anniversary with the Christmas show at Desert Star.  The first night I bought the tickets for turned out to be the BYU/Utah football game.  When I rescheduled, I moved them to the night of the PAC-12 championship.  So after moving the tickets three times, we were really just happy to be there.  Good thing the show was fun or I can guarantee it would have been our last adventure at Desert Star!  They do not love me at the ticket office there.

Tidy Turns Twelve

It literally seems like yesterday I was flying to Iowa to meet my very first nephew for the very first time.  And now he's tall, and twelve years old, and has read a million young adult fantasy books that I have never read and will never read. 

I'm so proud of his decision to receive the Aaronic priesthood.  He also went on his first temple trip to do baptisms at the Twin Falls temple with a member of the bishopric who also happens to be my brother. WOW. I'm old.

Catch Up Post #2

After November 1st hits, it's time to start decorating for Christmas, according to these holiday nuts.  I try my best to hold them back from decorating before Thanksgiving.  But they did enjoy the chance to LOOK at the decorations at Lowe's early in November.

Catch Up Post #1

As much as I would like to pretend that I took President Nelson's "social media fast" challenge so seriously that I determined to never blog again... that would be a lie. I just have been woefully neglecting my blog. But I'm really going to try to catch up on everything you've missed the last couple of months.  So here we go.

Kami Kate had a birthday.  Not just any birthday.  A trolls birthday. She even inspired me to watch the Trolls movie, which I admit I hadn't done before.  And I really liked it.

Jason and I went to my first Utah game.  I decided that since he has been to countless musicals with me, and since this "Utah thing" doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, it was my turn to go to a game with him. Utah beat USC and we had a great time.

Some really cute kids I know celebrated Halloween in style.

And I caught Rooney on Jason's side of the bed enjoying the fan he pretends not to like. But clearly he does enjoy it on the rare occasion that he gets the bed to himself.

October Conference 2018

Every Conference, there's a rumor that church is going to be cut down from 3 hours to 2 hours. Every Conference, millions of members worldwide are disappointed when that's just a rumor. But October 2018 was when our dreams became a reality. 

In between flag football and rice krispy pumpkins, we also watched Conference. Sort of. 

Tyler was the first one to realize that dumping a bowl full of chocolate chips on top of his rice krispy pumpkin was a lot faster, and ultimately a lot tastier, than taking the time to decorate a jack o'lantern face.

 Bryce quickly followed suit.

 Luckily, the younger kids still indulge their Aunt Traci.