Christmas Let-Down - Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh.....

I am sitting in my living room - on which I really worked all month to keep clean and dusted and it is now truly in the shambles. There is tissue strewn all over. The kids are sniffling, BB is sniffling, I'm sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching... - you get the idea. And it's all ok. We made it through Christmas. We hit the neighborhood parties, the ward parties (including Liberty Ward's 100th b-day), the family parties, we hosted Christmas Eve, soup and salad at one of the afore-mentioned neighborhood parties and one very lively group of Young Women during a progressive dinner party. We burned a boatload of CDs for our extended family stocking stuffers. We spoke in church on Sunday. And we even managed to read Luke 2 on Christmas morning. Whew...

The kids had a ball, got more than they needed (I realize I am not really in favor of starting shopping too early - I just forgot some of the earlier things I got).

BB had the month off and I think he's looking forward to the break of going back to work.

Here are some December highlights:

All of the second cousins got snazzy gloves and slippers at LB's family party.

Anushka and Diggity did a great job of helping us get the tree up and, after a few initial mishaps, we didn't lose many ornaments this year.

Anushka's most oft-requested activity was iceskating. So, one night we packed them up and headed downtown for iceskating and temple square lights. She did pretty well for her first time and didn't even have to hold onto the wall for a few minutes here and there.

Temple Square - actually the Main Street Plaza attached to Temple Square.

So, we wish you all a happy, HEALTHY 2008. I'm going to take some NyQuil...

Happy Birthday Daph the Duck

My Top Ten Favorite Things About Daph (in no particular order)

1- She's the only person with whom I've paid for an entire meal in change (mostly pennies) - Taco Bell - the day before pay day.

2- She is fabulously forgiving - we went to elementary school together AND were roommates and she still likes me.

3- Daph is a great sport at games - especially Phase Ten :)

4- I don't think I'd be part of the teriyaki (or blogging) community without her.

5- She never forgets robin eggs for blue tongues.
6- Birthday breakfast every year...

7- 99 nights of the X-Files baby... (remember the fat sucker???)

8- One of the greatest nights of my life would never occured without her being on the run from the law or her dad or whomever. All I know is that night was one of the nights I truly felt like I was on a tv show!

9- I'm pretty sure there were some classes I never would have survived (or gone to) without her (especially that Shakespeare class in college).

10- She's my oldest friend...

White Sands, Arches, Monument Valley...

BB is off for the month of December - yeah. How can you take a month off of work and not go anywhere?? He recently got me a new camera for my birthday so we wanted to test it out.
Here are some hilights:

Diggity at White Sands, NM - seriously one of the coolest placest we've seen. Snow white sand dunes in every direction.



A view of Monument Valley on the way out. A storm was coming in. Monument Valley is located in Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. It is on Navajo land and is considered sacred. Outsiders are allowed off of the main roads only with a Navajo guide. Some of the most famous Westerns with John Wayne were filmed in this valley.

Anushka at Mesa Verde in Colorado.

The kids hiked all the way to Delicate Arch - not the easiest for those little legs - but well worth it.

In addition, we headed down to El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. It was a lot of driving (again) in five days but a lot of fun. It was fabulous to get out of the 20 degree cold for a few days - 70 degrees in White Sands...