The First Day of Our Christmas

A new and different . . . and rather quiet Christmas has come and gone from our house. Brennan called Christmas morning and we got to talk for an HOUR instead of the usual 45 minutes. He sounds just like our Brennan right down to his dorky laugh and was finally ready to talk about coming home. That will be the end of January, probably the 28th, and will be here, like, tomorrow. Our Christmas will continue through the week as the kids arrive, but here are two of my favorite gifts of Christmas so far.

This Sentsy candle and some wonderful smelling candle bars - thanks Dalen and Tiffany. I have one Senstsy candle in my kitchen. This one found a perfect home in a small cubby in our entertainment center in the family room. I have a sticky cinnamon bun scent melting away in this new burner and a mulberry apple masala scent in the kitchen burner and two scents are colliding into the most amazing smell. I love it when someone else picks out my Sentsy bar scents. The pressure to choose my own is too much for me. Good job guys!

And then there's this new addition to my nativity collection courtesy of my good and long time friend, Rachel. Isn't it beautiful, all in one piece and each piece a part of the whole? Many of the pieces in my collection have come from Rachel. She says she thinks of me whenever she sees a nativity. I think of her whenever I get my nativity sets out each year. It was a very simple and wonderful Christmas yesterday and we're excited for it to continue as our kids - and our grandkids - try to get here through the snow.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and all the bustle and hurry to get things done, wrapped and delivered are either over or being shrugged off as not going to get done this Christmas. This has always been my favorite time of Christmas. When things finally slow down and I'm able to focus on the true reason we celebrate. I've just spent a few quiet hours finishing my 49th book, and I am so looking forward to a 45 minute long Christmas present at 8:00 tomorrow morning when Brennan calls from France. Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you are out there having the best parts of your Christmas.

Moab is Fun!!

(Notice I am ignoring the "how did your song go today" issue. We're not going to talk about it.)

When I was younger people visiting here used to ask me, "So, what do you do here for fun?" That was always a hard question to answer, because we really did have a lot of fun - just different kinds of fun than people in the city who hang out at the mall or go to one of 100 different movies every night. And if we tried to tell these people what it was we did for fun, they would look at us with a kind of puzzled expression and say, "Huh. . " And walk off. A few of those people actually were stuck in Moab for the summer and they got to experience our kind of fun. And when they left, they always acknowledged that they did, indeed, have fun.


As I was looking through my photo files today I found these - pictures of Drew and his friends - sixteen and seventeen year olds - demonstrating what we do here for fun. And they made me laugh, which was important after the day I've had. . . but we're not talking about it.

This is Drew and the boys this last summer at Left Hand - having fun. Now, you have to know there are girls taking these pictures. They couldn't have hammed it up as well without the girls to show off for.

To steal a line from the play, The Song Inside of Me, "Oh, what a happy time that was."

Slooowww Doowwnnnn

I took a track class when I was in college - just to stay in shape - and at the beginning of every class we had to run two miles. My theory on running those two miles was, if I ran as fast as I could, I would get to stop running sooner. So that's what I would do, run two miles as fast as I could. For our final we had to run for 23 minutes. (Why not 20 minutes, why not 25? I don't know.) We had to run the whole 23 minutes without stopping to rest or walk, and if we did that, we passed the class. Easy enough unless you have spent the whole semester running the first two miles of class as fast as you could so you could stop sooner. That didn't immediately translate over to the 23 minute run for me. When the coach said go, I took off like a shot and left my track classmates in the dust, focusing on speed and getting to stop soon. It wasn't until I ran once around the track, past the coach, and heard her yelling, "Carri, your run is going to last for 23 minutes no matter how fast you run!" that I realized I'd better slow down and pace myself.


This is where I've spent every spare minute this past week. That piano, by the way, was my grandmother's. It's a Remington. Yes, like the gun. It was built in 1912, and when Grandma gave it to me, I gave piano lessons for two years to earn the money to have it refinished. That oval stained glass insert that you can't really see? I designed it and Dave and I made it. I love my piano, but I really have been spending too much time with it and not making any progress it seemed on the song I am playing tomorrow in church. Until today, when I thought to pull out the metronome and see if I was playing the song at the right tempo.
The seminary kids love to have me to play the piano in seminary because I play fast! Because playing in front of people is much like running to me. I play as fast as I can so I can stop sooner. That, I found out, was my problem with the song I have been trying desperately to learn. WAAYYY TOO FAST! When I slowed down to the speed the metronome was beating out, and I even set the metronome a little fast, I could play the song. YEAH!! I just might get through this. O.K., there is hope again in the world

Hey, Who Pushed Me?

I'm going to start a bucket list of things I never intended to do in my life, but ended up doing anyway. And at the top of the list will be "play a piano solo in Church." I have a friend who reminds me constantly, "Carri, you always jump into things with both feet, and then, when you realize you're in over your head, you look around and ask, 'Hey, who pushed me?'" That, I guess, is how I got myself into the present situation of . . . you guessed it. I am playing a piano solo in our ward's Christmas program next Sunday. A piano solo. Me. I am not a piano solo person. I am an "accompany other people so the focus is not on me" kind of pianist. Most of the time I play while other people sing. I have played with no one singing before, but only as background music while, for instance, the Seminary graduates received their diplomas. But never have I played a solo where I am the main part of the talent, so everyone is looking at me and will notice every mistake I will make, which at this point in my practicing will be an awfully lot. So, next Sunday while you all are sitting all relaxed and easy in your own ward Sacrament Meetings listening to the great Christmas program with talks and musical numbers from people who really are talented at whatever they are performing - think of me. Because depending on how things go, I may just be moving to where you are.

On another note, just a reminder that while we are together as families this holiday season, Jayson is serving in Iraq this Christmas. Remember him as you celebrate and send a few prayers his way. And I know he'd appreciate a Christmas card or package or anything that will let him know we are thinking about him, especially at this time of year. Here is his address:

PV2 Jayson Johnson
Task Force 115 Medical
328th CSH DET 40
APO AE 09344

Merry Christmas :)

Sometimes You Just Get A Bonus

A few months ago we remodeled the "kids" bathroom - now the guest bathroom, since the only kid we have left in our house sleeps upstairs. It's a tiny little bathroom, so I went for a much smaller vanity and a vessel sink. A copper vessel sink because Dave loves copper. He wanted to outfit our house with a copper roof, but I compromised and let him have a copper sink. And in researching how to care for and clean my copper sink, do you know what I found out? Copper naturally kills 98% of bacteria within a few hours. Naturally. No harsh cleaners or disinfectants needed, I just have to wipe the cute little sink down and rub it with lemon oil to make it sparkle. I love it! And I'm wondering - do they make toilets out of copper? By the way, if you're wondering why the faucet is on the SIDE instead of BEHIND the sink - you're going to have to ask Dave. It's a sore subject, so ask nicely.

An Anomaly and An Obsession

So, I took Dave to see Twilight last night. It was the third Twilight viewing for me, which is almost an anomaly. I just don't see movies in the theater that often. Most of the time I practice patience and wait until a movie comes out on DVD so I can watch it in my PJ's in the comfort of my own home without the distraction of a glowing cell phone from the apparently bored young girl sitting in front of me texting every one of her contacts throughout the entire movie. Yes, that has happened to me. M.o.r.e. t.h.a.n. o.n.c.e. But not since I was a teen aged girl myself and the only thing to do in Moab was go to the Drive-In and the only movie playing for three weeks straight was American Graffiti have I seen a movie IN THE THEATER three times. And I still liked it, in fact, Dave got bored in the middle (before the vampire fights) and started talking to me and I had to shush him so I didn't miss anything. I'm not obsessed with Twilight - believe me, I know. I have a couple of friends who are. But the reason for my lack of boredom with this not greatly epic movie eludes me. I thought it might be the novelty of the thing - vampires fitting into the human world, but I didn't care for the Harry Potter movies and the same kind of novelty exists there. We ran into some friends at the movie who said they were just there to see what all the hoopla was about. They hadn't read the book, didn't know anything about the movie, just wanted to see what everyone was making such a fuss over. I wish I could tell them, but I don't know. I just know I like it. But I do know this . . . .

I think I am obsessed over these. My collection of many nativity's, from tiny to bigger . . .
And larger . . . .

And cuter - See the little Drummer Boy in the background? Oh, you can't see him very well in this picture. He's standing to the left of the angel. I like him. He's my favorite.


And my tree is up, it's pretty and it's real. So come on Christmas, we're ready here. And just a little obsessed.

Jam Packed

Jill has been harassing me about my lack of posting. I did vow at one point to post every day, and I've taken a short pause whilst being sick for a week, but today we packed in a week's worth of fun stuff. The only cure for three little grandboy withdrawals is to have one return to visit the very next weekend. Aiden came back, and while his Dad was out NOT winning the weekend coyote shooting contest, Papa was training Aiden in the art of falconing. Here they are exercising the new rehab owl Dave has. Owl was on a long rope so he could fly, and then Papa and Aiden would have to go out in the hills, get him, and bring him back. It was a lot of falconing fun.

And here they are training Jake, Dave's little kestrel, to fly to their hand for food. See, you make a fist, pump it up and down to get Jake's attention, and then open and close your first finger and thumb to indicate you've got some sort of dead rodent in your hand for the little guy to eat. Incidentally, Porter has learned to do this, too. These little boys are good at it! Minus the dead rodent. We don't let them go that far.

Then there was Pooh sticks at the park so we could enjoy more of the beautiful December weather we are having, which is making it very hard to get into the Christmas spirit around here.
But this helped some. The Moab Christmas Electric Lights parade - which may seem a little hokey to the big world out there, but for us here in Moab, this was a great parade. Here are a few of our favorites.


I'm not sure what a volcano and dinosaur have to do with Christmas, but it was pretty . . . and it roared ! ! ! so Aiden thought it was great. We're all about having a Jurassic Holiday here.


And this was the cutest little gingerbread house decked with presents tumbling out of the mailbox and an American flag(that you can't see in this picture). I loved the details.

And I thought this was adorable. This is a group of little dancers, and see the cute little girl in pink? Sound asleep. Right in the middle of being in a parade, she laid back her head, closed her eyes and fell sound asleep. They were cute, though, those little Studio Elite girls.
So now I have a window of opportunity while Aiden - and Jill and Kenny - are at their other Gramma's to get a Relief Society lesson together. The day is Jam Packed!

Traditions Old and New

We've never been consistent enough for traditions at our house. Just when we think we've got one going, somehow, through no fault of our own, it comes to an end. But this is one that I plan, by treachery or trickery, to keep going. The after Thanksgiving washing of the dishes.


I know it was because my birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, but seeing these three - one man and two little boys - doing the Thanksgiving dishes together is a sight I plan on seeing again. And not just because that means I have less work to do. Look at the bonding going on here. The "are you sure this is how you do it Papa?" teaching moments. Porter carrying on as if he does the dishes every day, both boys soaked from head to toe, the floor a virtual pool of water. Yes, a tradition worth keeping, I think.

And by next year we'll be adding little Chase, who was a little too young to stand on a chair this year, but just old enough to enjoy pajama tramping.


The old traditions? Hunting Christmas trees. We have been going to Huntington for our trees for a few years now, and even though the rest of the family petered out on us this year, we sojourned to Huntington and the fam. that was there watched us get OUR trees. No pics of this excursion, though, because I was, well, busy hunting my Christmas tree. Just in case you're wondering, we had a fun weekend.