Merry Christmas

I guess my last post wasn't very Christmas Eve-ee so I'll try and redeem myself.  My parents came up for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and my Mom already blogged all about it on her blog so I feel like I should be done with this part already. 

5:00 p.m. Christmas Eve- My parents arrive with an entire cooler and several bags of food.  Never mind the fact they were only going to be in town for 24 hours.  Adam cleaned out the fridge the day before and we had plenty of space but 20 min. after my parents arrival things were falling out every time we opened the fridge. (If you are on of my siblings you will probably be chuckling to yourself.  At least we knew none of it had been there since Thanksgiving) After the traditional dinner ( I say traditional but unless you grew up with us it is actually quite non-traditional) of Reuben sandwiches, potato salad, shrimp dip with crackers, potato chips and wassail, the kids were ready to open their Christmas Eve present.

 It's pajamas. Surprise!! Bet you didn't see that one coming.

The girls got their dolls last Christmas but were delighted to get matching pajamas this year. We had a little too much fun teasing Britton about being sorry we didn't have matching pajamas for his doll.  He made it very clear that he will NEVER have a doll, thank you very much.

Adam surprised me by getting me a pair of pajamas, too.

My Mom read some Christmas stories.

She only cried twice.

We read the Bible account of the nativity and turned out all of the lights except the Christmas tree and sang Christmas carols and then got the kids ready for bed.  I knew it would take them awhile to fall asleep but wasn't too worried about it.  In hindsight I should have been.  Britton outdid himself this year and didn't fall asleep until 2 a.m! Worse than that was the fact that he kept coming downstairs just to let us know he wasn't asleep yet.  Yeah, thanks for that, now stay in your room!

My brother Taylor and his wife Jen and their son Will arrived at about 10:30 p.m.

 Our neighbors Josh and Carrie came over about 11:30 p.m. Carrie was excited to try on the jeans Taylor brought from China and Josh knew there was a party going on and wasn't far behind.  None of this was  helpful in Britton's quest to try and fall asleep but it sure was fun.  Britton only got 4 hours of sleep on Christmas Eve and never did take a nap or go to bed early another night.  I got the same amount of sleep on Christmas Eve and was still recovering after multiple (and lengthy) naps for the next 3 days.  Next year we've got to come up with a plan for that kid!!

Britton was the first one ready in the morning (surprise surprise) but we were able to hold him off until 7:15 a.m.  With 3 families together it looked like a paper store exploded in our family room.

We did not have a white Christmas this year, which was really quite shocking considering where we live. We decided to take advantage of the weather and had a BBQ. The ribs were soooo good.

Adam and my Mom made the awesome Christmas feast. Yes, I helped.  I made the 7 layer dip and spent the day cleaning up the paper explosion.

Unfortunately we've already eaten all of the leftovers which means I'm going to have to start cooking again.  We had so much food I was sure it was going to last a little longer.

As I write this there is a blizzard going on.  I'm really glad Adam is working from home and we are all here and don't have to go anywhere.  It took me until about 1 p.m. to get the kids to change out of their pajamas and they still don't have their hair done (it is now past 4 p.m.) but sometimes Christmas vacation is all about chillin' in the pj's.  For us it was the year of the board game which is mostly what the kids got for Christmas. There has been a lot of game playing and general merriment.  Well, except for Adam who has had to deal with a lot of super crappy loans-- but really every loan is super crappy these days.  (I shouldn't use such harsh language, but it's true.)  Thank you government for rewarding the mediocre, punishing the good guys, creating so much red tape that common sense has gone out the window and making millions of lives miserable. Well done. Way to fix those problems! (Sorry, I'm having a Kristen K. moment)

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Customer Service Success Story

Isn't that becoming an oxy moron? Seems like it doesn't happen much anymore.  In my experience warranties only cover things that don't happen and never cover things that do happen. 

Our snowblower broke down just before Thanksgiving.   Before leaving town for the Thanksgiving festivities we ran it down to the Sears store where we purchased it just under 2 years before.  We knew there was a 2 year warranty, but we had no idea if it would be covered and to be honest I didn't have a lot of hope.  In my mind warranties were only if the sticker decals fell off and never covered anything beyond that.  We waited weeks for a diagnosis.  I was sure that as soon as they figured out what was wrong they were going to tell us it was several hundred dollars to fix, but the diagnosis phone call never came.  Instead we got a message on our voice mail, "Hi, we're waiting for the new engine to come so the pick up date is going to have to be pushed back until Dec 23rd"  When I heard the message I called Adam, "Did you give them the go ahead to get an engine? How much is this going to cost?" He said he hadn't even talked to anyone and it was news to him.  A few days later we got another phone call, "Yeah, we weren't able to get the parts in to fix it so you can just come in and get a new snowblower."  Really? That's it? Just come in and get a new one? No hassling, no probing questions? Adam went down to the Sears store and because the model we had previously was discontinued they gave us a bigger, nicer one.  We were both kind of in shock.  Adam said he saw the price on the snowblower we got--$999.00.  Wow.  Our old one was a really nice one, but it wasn't a thousand bucks.  Once the new snowblower was in the garage I immediately went to my computer and updated my facebook status (something I never do) to read, "A big shout-out to Sears!" explaining the story.  Any company that stands behind their warranties like that deserves some positive press!  Thank you Sears.  You just got my business for years to come.

How did Adam survive the month without our snowblower?

Yes, he is in shorts.  In his defense he had just gotten back from morning basketball, but still, shorts?!?  Fortunately we didn't have too many big snowstorms this last month so it wasn't too bad.

Joy to the World

This video is for the grandparents.  Britton had his first piano recital last night.  His teacher made it a pretty casual one so the kids wouldn't get too nervous, but even so Britton was a ball of nervous energy on our way to the recital.  She didn't have a set order so when she asked who wanted to be first Britton's hand shot up in the air and he marched right up to the piano.  He played 2 songs: "Mr. McGill" and "Joy to the World".  I was only able to film the 2nd song, but he did a great job on both of them.

Last night we went Christmas Caroling to widows (and some others) with several other families in our ward and then had hot chocolate at one of their homes afterward.  Anytime there is service, hot chocolate and a push up contest with all of the guys in attendance you know you are in for a good time.  The guys were throwing around the idea of doing a "Biggest Loser" type contest for all of the guys in the ward who wanted to participate.  One thing lead to another and before we knew it they were all on the ground doing push-ups.  It was hilarious. I just really love where we live, we have some great friends here.

Today Korinne, my assistant chef, went to the grocery store with me.  Whenever we go to the store together we are both prepared with a grocery list.  She enjoys writing her own list, which is a combination of real words and gibberish. Every time I put something in the cart she likes she'll say, "That was on my list, Mom!".  If I put something in she doesn't like she says, "Um, that wasn't on my list."  Today we were almost done when she told me that she had one more thing on her list.  I asked her what it was and she replied with, "I'll know it when I see it."  Last week she told me that a treat for Korinne was definitely on her list.  She cracks me up.

Korinne enjoys cooking with me but understands that she isn't old enough to use real knives yet.  She noticed that I let her use a plastic knife once so now whenever I start chopping things up she runs for her black Halloween plastic knife and dives right in.  Tonight she helped me chop up a green pepper.  Shockingly the black plastic knife is quite adept at chopping.  Last night she helped me cut up tomatoes and did half of them by herself.   Here she is cutting up the pepper.

Tonight Korinne and I made Pepper Shrimp Alfredo over bow tie pasta.  It was awesome and tasted like something I would get at a restaurant.  Britton only ate the sauce and refused to eat the pasta, Jenna only ate the pasta and refused to eat the sauce and Korinne at least tried the sauce but mostly ate the pasta.  All 3 of them filled up on the cut up oranges I put out.  It's frustrating that my kids still prefer bread and water to restaurant quality meals.  They never ask to eat out because they don't like anything.  Fast food does not temp them and anytime Adam and I get take-out and bring it home they aren't the slightest bit upset that we didn't get any for them.  Britton is happy eating toast and Jenna is happy with mac and cheese.

The other night I made 7 layer tortilla pie. It was super yummy.

15 minutes into the meal I took pictures.  Jenna had only eaten the fresh cut-up pineapple.

Britton did what he always does--tells me over and over how good it is but then doesn't eat any of it.  When he saw I was taking pictures he tried to hide his plate so you couldn't see that he didn't have anything on it.

Korinne is my most adventurous eater but even so she sometimes pulls things out of Jenna's playbook.  For example, this week she declared that she no longer likes chicken.  What?! Totally random.

I admit there are times when I feel like Rodney Dangerfield (I get no respect), like last night when I made chicken parmigiana from scratch with homemade marinara sauce.  It was so good but my kids filled up on the plain spaghetti and carrot sticks.  I've learned to just cook for Adam and myself but worry that it may never click for my kids. At our house if they don't eat dinner they can't have anything else to eat for the night, but apparently they don't mind going to bed hungry. I know I said this about 4 years ago, but enough already!!

Ok, I'm done venting.  I know I've blogged about this before but it is something I deal with every single day so it is bound to pop up periodically.

Mr. Kramer goes swimming

Yesterday Mrs. Romrell's 3rd grade class put on 3 mini-plays for a large contingent of parents and grandparents.  Watching 3rd graders try to act is entertaining in and of itself.  It was good experience for the kids to memorize parts and put on a small production for an audience.  Britton was Mr. Kramer in a skit entitled, "The Mystery of the Missing Munchies."  He did a great job.

For the last 2 years Britton has had a friend named Bronson in his class.  Bronson's Dad not only went to Elementary, Jr. High and High School with Adam, but they were really good friends the entire time.  That might not be so unusual if you stayed in the same town you grew up in, but Adam and Bronson's Dad, Chris, grew up in a small town over 4 hours away!  It truly is a small world.

There is a story I like to tell about Adam when he was sitting in Calculus class his senior year of High School.  He had a friend behind him that kept poking him with a pencil.  Finally Adam turned around and told him to knock it off at the very moment that his teacher was trying to get everyone's attention.  "Adam! You need to turn around and be quiet!"  The entire class erupted.  You see, this was the first (and only) time Adam ever got in trouble in school.  Ever.  Everyone in the class just looked at each other and said, "Adam? Adam just got in trouble??" Needless to say it took another 5 minutes for the class to calm down, the shock was just too great.  While I find this story very entertaining I had never told the kids about it. One day Britton came home from school and said, "Bronson told me that his Dad poked Dad with a pencil in class one day and Dad got in trouble."  I started laughing out loud.  I had no idea that this "friend" was actually Chris, but apparently Chris never forgot about it and told his son who then told Adam's son at school.  Wow. It is a small world indeed.

After school yesterday I took the kids swimming.  Yes, swimming.  Some friends of ours had a hotel room at the local Marriott and invited us to come and use the pool.  You should have seen the shocked look on my kids' faces when I said, "Go get your swimming suits, we are going swimming." Never mind that it was snowing and it felt like it was 9 degrees outside. ( I don't know what the temperature really was, but it was cold)

It was a nice break from all things winter.

At the Office

Korinne still likes to work at the office.  "Office" being a corner of Adam's home office, of course, where she has arranged a desk with plenty of shelf and desk space for her phone and computer.

When Adam is working she also works, although I have yet to figure out what she does for such long stretches of time.  Every time I go in there she is very busy doing. . .something.  One day Adam left to go into his real office and it took me over an hour to realize he wasn't there because Korinne was quietly playing in his office anyway.  I walked in to check on her and realized Adam wasn't even there!  Seriously, I have no idea what she does while she is "working" but she loves it.

Her preschool in on a 5 week break for the holidays.  I know, 5 whole weeks?!  That is what you get when you have to work around college student schedules.  (Free labor comes at a price)  She and her BFF, Cara, could play all day every day. . .and they do when they are both on the same 5 week break from school. I really need to get a picture of the two of them together.  They truly are partners in crime.

A Tale of Two Sleepers

My brain never stops. When I lay down to sleep at night I can't stop thinking.  I try but I just can't do it so I end up thinking about silly things simply because my brain doesn't know how to stop.  This is really annoying when I'm tired at night and I don't fall asleep right away.  Adam is and has always been a gifted sleeper.  He comes from an entire family of gifted sleepers.  They can sleep at any time and in any place. In the middle of the day on a bus to Kansas? No problem. On a plane?  Ha! They can be asleep before the plane backs out of the gate even if they are in a middle seat! No reclined seat required.  I, on the other hand, can't even sleep on an overnight flight to Europe sitting in business class fully reclined with a soft blanket and pillow and sleep mask with a full dose of Tylenol PM in my system.  I blame my family--we are a bunch of non-gifted sleepers.  We like sleep.  We need a lot of it and we'd like to have even more, but you will not find any of us fast asleep on an airplane, in a car, and especially not on a bus.  It just isn't going to happen.

Why am I talking about this?  Well, it was just something I was thinking about last night when I couldn't fall asleep and Adam was sleeping like a baby even though he got to bed a good 20 min. after I did.

Does it matter? Nope.

Is it going to change? Nah.

Have I made peace with it? Mostly.  Every so often I'll wake him up to let him know that I haven't fallen asleep yet.  It's completely silly but somehow it makes me feel a teeny bit better.  He said it doesn't bother him and why should it? He can fall back to sleep instantly.  Never once in our entire married life has Adam been unable to sleep.  Any time I'm upset or excited about something or have a lot on my mind my sleep suffers.  It will be interesting to see what side of the family the kids will take after.  Here is what it is looking like so far:

Britton- My side of the family. His thoughts definitely affect his sleep and he doesn't sleep well in a car.(Sorry Britton!) The older he gets the less sleep he needs so he might take after my mom who I discovered needs hardly any sleep at all! (Of course I need so much sleep myself that I didn't discover that my Mom didn't need any until I was well into my 20's)
Jenna- Night owl and great sleeper -Adam's side of the family.
Korinne- Jury is still out. At this point it could go either way.

This isn't a picture of Adam, but it could be. He really is that gifted.

This "thinking problem" isn't just something that happens at night either, it's happening all day every day.  Every 4th of 5th thought might be something that I want to share with Adam so I'll say something and then I'll quickly be on to something else.  Before too long I can be on a completely different subject and while it is very clear to me how I got from one subject to another when I say something to Adam he sees it as a random shot out of left field.  I know I've really stumped him when he says, "Ummm. . .. (pause) ok.  That was random."   We get a good laugh sometimes when I go back and explain to him how I got from one idea to another. 

I tell him it's all about keeping the mystery alive.

Random Thoughts

Few things compare with having your adorable 5 year old daughter climb into bed with you in the early morning hours and proceed to cough all over your face and pillow for the next 45 min.  Yup, nothings says "good morning" like a nice hacking cough.

Wait, maybe finding this same adorable 5 year old daughter hiding behind the couch eating a cup of PURE SUGAR might compare a little.  Why have candy when you can just help yourself to sugar from the pantry?  Unbelievable.  We all know that I have a thing for sugar myself, but I don't ever remember sneaking a cup of sugar from the pantry and then eating it. I've already put the brown sugar in an unreachable location, now it is time to lock up the white stuff.

In past years I have dabbled in online Christmas shopping.  This year I went exclusive.  I'm pretty much done and I haven't even left my house.  Awesome.

I'm cold.  I'm not complaining, I'm just stating a fact. It's cold outside.

I'm a history buff.  I can't get enough.  I've always loved documentaries and biographies and now that I've gotten into putting together the life stories or biographies of my own ancestors I can't get enough.  I've become a little history detective which is super fun, but very time consuming. I've discovered that a lot of "my people" were pretty colorful characters.  I wonder if they really knew how the decisions they made during their lifetimes would affect the hundreds of descendants that followed.  We are all more connected than we think.  What we decide to do with our lives now does matter and will affect those that follow.  I've decided to not be the weak link in my family chain.

It's getting late so I'm off to bed.  I would hate to shock my neighbors by having our house lights on past 10:30 p.m. They mock me openly for going to bed so early all of the time but then again, that has been the story of my life.

Down and Out

Wednesday was the day our incredibly healthy family ran into a brick wall.  Not literally, just figuratively.  Jenna is the only one who managed to get through the week without picking up what the rest of us had.  Korinne and Britton each missed 2 days of school and Adam and I did our best to keep up with our daily duties with only marginal success.  I'm grateful it wasn't a throw-up bug, but it was an energy zapper/ fever/ body aches/ terrible cold bug.  We're still recovering.  The ironic thing was that just the day before I was on the phone with the friend literally bragging about how we've made it this far without so much as a cold. Perhaps I forgot to knock on wood.

Wednesday was also the 11th anniversary of Adam and mine's first date.  Yes, we celebrate it every year along with the day we first met, and the day we got engaged.  We were going to go out, but we ended up huddled in front of a space heater trying to get warm. Adam had chills and was feverish and I was achy and not feeling well at all. Between sniffles and coughs and shivering I thanked him for asking me out 11 years ago.  It was super romantic.