Twas the Week After Christmas

I thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas. Not that I don't enjoy every Christmas, but this one seemed to be better than normal. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't have to hassle with the stresses of decorating my mom's house, or if it was because we had Christmas at my mom's house for once, or maybe it's cuz I got the best Christmas gift ever, whatever it was, the holiday was wonderful!

On Christmas Eve, we had my aunt Dede, her fiance Steve, and his son Stevie, and my Nana and her bf Garry over for dinner. Lauren, Mason, and Hailey also came. So, there were 10 of us eating at my mom's house (and for those of you who haven't been to my mom's house, it was a TIGHT squeeze). It was really nice though. I baked 2 homemade pumpkin pies and 1 homemade dutch apple pie. Lauren and Nathan both said that the pies were probably the best that they've ever had, which is a really big compliment, because they're kind of picky about their pies. We opened my Nana and Dede's presents, which was kind of different. I don't think that I've ever opened anymore than one present before on Christmas, and that's usually my new pajamas. lol. My aunt Dede gave me 2 of my favorite gifts, she gave me a BEAUTIFUL topaz ring and she also gave me the Mamma Mia DVD. My Dede and I have gotten really close over the past couple of years, and the ring means a lot to me. After we were done opening all of our presents (for the night) Lauren, Dede, and I went over to Lauren's apt so that Dede could see it. When we got back, Nathan, Stevie, and I played some rock band. Then, Nathan and I went to my dad's house and spent the night.

Me and Hailey on Christmas Eve
Christmas morning was fun... NOT! Ok, no, it was. But, it was very hard getting up at 8 AM, when I hadn't been getting up that early all week. I told Nathan the night before, to wake me up at 8 AM, no matter what, because that was what time Lauren, Mason, and Hailey were coming over to open presents. Boy do I regret that now. He woke me up, but I did not want to get up! Well, I got up, we opened presents with my dad. I got a really cool pyrex measuring cup (I know, most of you wouldn't be too excited about that, but for me, it was AWESOME!) It comes with a cool lid that has different spouts and a silicone bottom so that it won't fall off the counter or something. After opening presents, we had breakfast burritos and played dominoes. After all of that, we went back to mom's house and opened presents there. Mom got me and Nathan both new phones (which is good because we have been wanting them!) At around 4:15 though, I got the best Christmas gift EVER though. I got to talk to Brandon. I'm not sure how, or why I got to talk to him, but I did! We talked for 20 minutes, when I finally told him that I had to go (because Lauren, Mason, and Hailey had just got to the house). We talked about EVERYTHING. It was a really good talk, and I wish it could have gone longer. We talked about future plans, and we talked about things that are going on now. I told him that I want him to stay obedient on his mission but that I will continue to wait for him. It was an AMAZING talk, and seriously the best Christmas present ever. After not talking to him for 19 months, it was so good to get to talk to him. We opened up presents with Lauren and Mason, then had dinner. During dinner, I got this HUGE headache, and went and slept for an hour.

Me, Nathan, Mom, Lauren, and Hailey

Me, Mom, and HaileyMe and HaileyMe, Hailey, and Lauren
On Friday, I went with my dad, Laurie, and Nathan to go and see my Granny Jane. We took her out to lunch. It was really good to see her, and she was really grateful that we came to see her. The past few days have been nice and relaxing. I have been playing the phone call over and over in my head. I'm still on cloud nine from it!

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday, and I wish you all a Happy and Safe New Year!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Every year when I was little, on Christmas night, my Papa would have my sister and I (and once my brother came along) sit on his lap, and he would read us "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore. It is one of my favorite memories, from Christmases when I was little. I miss my Papa tremendously. The funny thing is, he continued this tradition even when we were older and were squishing him. Once we were older, it was usually only Nathan who would sit on his lap, but I used to love reading that with him. Because of him, I have pretty much memorized that poem/story. I figured I would share this tradition with you all. Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap.

When out on the roof there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
tore open the shutter, and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
gave the lustre of midday to objects below,
when, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles, his coursers they came,
and he whistled and shouted and called them by name:

"Now Dasher! Now Dancer!
Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid!
On, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch!
To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away!
Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky
so up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
with the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
the prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes--how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
and filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
and giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

2x2

Here's the thing... go to your photos and take the 2nd picture from the 2nd album, and blog about it.












This is a picture of Brandon and I, from his 19th Birthday. It was our very first picture together.

Some things that crack me up about this picture:
1. The shirt he is wearing. It cracks me up because he knew that I would love it when he would wear button up shirts, so he wore that shirt just for me.
2. The birthday button that he is wearing. I got it for him from Disneyland. He wore it all day at Disneyland, a couple of days before his birthday, and everyone kept telling him Happy Birthday at the park. It was really funny.
3. The lemons. Brandon's family ALWAYS has lemons. Brandon's dad and Brandon, put lemon juice in their water.
4. The cake. I made Brandon the cake. The real cake, just had green frosting, no heart. But then when Brandon uploaded this picture onto his computer, he put it onto PAINT and added the heart. I'm still not too sure why, but I thought it was pretty funny when I first saw it.
5. The pizza box. OK, so the reason that the pizza box cracks me up so much is because, his family didn't even have pizza that night. They had corned beef and cabbage! So, why the pizza box is out, I have no clue. But, it is just really funny to me that it is out.
6. The balloons on the counter. I gave Brandon the balloons, the night before, at midnight. Once it was officially his birthday! The latex balloons are like dead in this picture, but the mylar balloon is still floating. But, the only birthday balloon that they had at the store said: "Happy Birthday Sport!" And, it just cracked me up, because honestly, who calls someone "Sport" nowadays?

I'll Be Home For Christmas, You Can Count on THAT!

In spite of my car dying yesterday, I am still going to be going home for Christmas. I am leaving Provo on Friday, December 19th and driving back to Chino with my friend David. David is seriously a life saver!

I am so excited to go home! My mom saved my ornaments for me to put up, and some decorations too. It has been getting kind of chilly at home, meaning in the 40s, and it's been raining a lot there too. But, I'm happy that it will be a little bit warmer than it is here, and I'm so excited to be home with my family.

Poor Poor Freedom

Dear Reader,

As some of you may know, I drive a '97 Ford Explorer. I got her in October '05, and have been driving her ever since. Well, I was on my way to work yesterday, when my car died. I called AAA, and they came and towed me to the auto shop that is around the corner from my apartment. About 15 minutes after I got home, I got a call from the guy at the auto shop. He told me that my radiator and head gaskets blew. And, that it is going to cost $1719.00. I am honestly freaking out, I have no clue what I am going to do to get the money to fix it. Now, I am stuck, without a car, and it is killing me! I hate not being able to do things. Pray for my car, Freedom. Pray that I can find a way to get her fixed!

Love,
Terri

Merry Christmas Letter

Dear Family, Friends, and Loved Ones,

As we come to the end of yet another year, I am filled with gratitude for all of the love and support that you have given me over the many years of my life, in which you have known me. Some of you may know that I have been living in Provo, Utah for the past 6 months. I love it out here. Yes, it gets a little cold, and a little "white", and I sometimes get a little homesick, but I love it!

Why Provo you may ask? Well, I got a job out here this summer, working at one of my church's camps. It was a youth camp, I was a counselor working with high school aged kids. I LOVED it! I applied to work again this coming summer, we'll see if I get it. While I was working out here, I fell in love with Provo. I loved the atmosphere here. It is a college town. For those of you who don't know, BYU is located here, so there are TONS of people living here that are kind of living the same life I am right now. And, I just love it!

I am living in an apartment with 5 other girls. It is a 3 bedroom apartment, 2 bathrooms. I'm sure you're probably thinking to yourself, "How in the world do 6 girls share 2 bathrooms?" Well, let me tell you, it's tough, but possible. I think that one of the biggest struggles with moving out, and away from home, was realizing what a little amount of stuff I had. I realized that I didn't have anything for cooking, which was very difficult since I LOVE to cook and bake (a trait that I got from my Papa). And, I realized that living on your own was a lot harder than it looked. But, I've been making it.

I work right now as a substitute teacher, in the Provo School District. I love my job. Sometimes I get those classes where they make me want to just pull my hair out (I still don't understand how my mom does it). But, for the most part, I love my job. My mom once told me that if you love your job, you will never have to work a day in your life. And, I agree with that 100%, which is why I have decided to go into teaching. My favorite grades, right now, to teach are 5th and 6th grade. I can't wait until I turn 21, so I can start subbing high school, which is what I really want to teach.

I get the opportunity to go home for Christmas. One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get to have 2 full weeks off of work. While most of my friends around here don't get to go home for Christmas, because they have to work, I get to go home for the whole break! I'm excited to see my family, even though I was just there 2 weeks ago. But, I think that the hardest part about being away from home is missing my family.

I have a boyfriend, named Brandon. He is currently serving his mission, in the Mexico Hermosillo mission. He has been gone for about 19 months, and will be coming home in May. I cannot wait to see him again, especially after this LONG wait. He is doing really well, I get weekly e-mails from him, that let me know how he is doing, and that the work is going well.

I hope that you and your family will remember what this holiday season is really about. Jesus is the reason for the season. I love you, and hope that you have a Merry Christmas!

Love,
Terri

Christmas Traditions

So, this last Friday night, I bought my very own Christmas tree. I am embarrassed to say that it is fake, but there are reasons behind this. Here are the reasons: 1. we went to Target to buy a real one (like I do with Mom at home), and the Target in Orem didn't sell any real ones. 2. I realized that if I bought a fake Christmas tree this year, for $25, than it would be good to use for MANY Christmas's to come. and 3. since I won't be at my apartment for 2 weeks, I didn't want to chance the tree not getting watered. BUT, other than that, I am a REAL tree person. My family has NEVER had a fake tree before, and I'm hoping that this year is not the first year that we do. Just because 2 of the 3 children have moved out, it is not an excuse to get a fake tree! lol.

Well, as I was setting up my new tree, and putting on the ball ornaments that I bought, I was thinking about some of my family traditions that we have. I remember when my sister and I were in high school, we would bug my parents the first day of December, to go and get our Christmas tree from the lot across from school. They wouldn't let us get it then, but the first weekend of December my dad would climb up on to the roof and put up the lights with the help of Lauren and I. And then, my mom, Lauren, and I would go to the lot and pick out the BEST tree. It was usually around 8-10 feet and was nice and full. We didn't want to get those trees with the holes. Then, the guys would deliver the tree to our house, usually the delivery guys were Lauren and my friends, so they always made sure to be EXTRA careful with the tree. As soon as it got to our house, Lauren, my dad, and I would start trimming it to put the stand on, because my dad had a special stand that we ALWAYS used, and he didn't trust the "tree people" with the stand. Then, we would carry the tree into the house, and for those of you who know how much of a clean freak I am, my dad is much worse. Before carrying the tree in, we would have to lay blankets wherever we were going to go with the tree, so that no pine needles would get on the floor. So, the 3 of us would carry it in, then it was time for cleanup, I KNOW! Finally, after we were done cleaning up any pine needles that managed to get on the floor, we were able to start decorating the tree. First went the lights, of course multi-colored lights, they're more fun and festive. Then, the kids would get to put on our ornaments. Each of us had a box of ornaments to put on, of our own ornaments. Every year, each of us would get a brand new ornament for the tree, plus all of our handmade ornaments from elementary school. By the time you were in high school, your box was over flowing. So, we would put up our ornaments, and ONLY our ornaments. It also helped my mom keep track of who was putting the ornaments on the right and wrong way, because YES there is a wrong way to put on ornaments. Then, once we were done putting on our ornaments, my mom and dad would put theirs on, my dad had all of the Lennox ornaments, which were SUPER expensive glass ornaments that only went at the top section of the tree. And, he got to put up the State Mints, and all of his train ornaments. And, my mom had a million and a half teacher ornaments. To this day, I still do not know how we fit all of our ornaments on that tree. We have about 4 big Rubbermaid boxes FULL of ornaments. After we were done decorating the tree, we got to move on to the rest of the house. My mom used to joke that Christmas was the best time to have company over, because it was the only time our house was decorated. And, of course there was a right and wrong way to decorate the house. First we had the train section on one of the tables in the den, then there was the Christmas stuffed animals and books section in one of the inlets in the den. On our old stereo cabinet, my mom had her nutcracker collection. Then, you would move on to the formal dining room and living room. In the dining room, in the buffet, was my mom's music box collection. There is a story behind the music boxes. When my parents were first married, my dad bought my mom a wooden Christmas music box, then the tradition continued every year for the next probably about 15 years or so. And, sometimes she would even get two Christmas boxes in one year. We obviously had to be SUPER careful with these. Now, moving on to the formal living room, on one of the end tables my mom had her Precious Moments nativity scene. My siblings and I used to love this, we would always fight over who got to set it up. On the other end table, my mom had her "children". My mom once all of us were a certain age, would buy a porcelain doll that kind of looked like us, and she would display them ONLY at Christmas. On our china cabinet, we had the snow globe collection. We had so many snow globes, it was crazy! That collection got started once my brother came into the picture, when he was little he LOVED them. Finally, moving into the guest bathroom, you feel like you are stepping into a winter wonderland. The guest bathroom was also known as the snowman bathroom, because the ONLY things in that bathroom during Christmas time were snowmen. We would put garland up the staircase, which I loved to do. It would be strung with lights and have bows, it was always so beautiful, and made our house look so elegant. When we were done, we were allowed to watch Christmas movies and relax, but usually this extravaganza would take no less than 3 hours.

Another Christmas tradition that my siblings and I have happens on Christmas Eve. Until I was 10 years old, Lauren and I shared a room, which made this tradition very easy, but excluded Nathan. Then, when we moved, we all got our own rooms. Well, on Christmas Eve, we would all sleep in Lauren's room. She had a couch in her room, so one of us would sleep on the couch, one on the floor, and Lauren in her bed, or we would all just cram into Lauren's twin bed (which got VERY difficult as we got older). We would all sleep in there, and then at about 4 AM wake up and go scan the presents. Santa LOVED to hide our "big" presents, so we would go down and search for each other's, so we could open them as soon as we were allowed. Then, we would go back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. At around 7:00, we were allowed to go into my parent's room and wake them up. The 3 of us, Nathan, Lauren, and I, would run in and jump on the bed and wake up my parents. My dad would always groan and insist that we go back to sleep, or at least let him sleep (since he usually would work the night shift on Christmas Eve). But, even with his insisting, it would never happen. We would wake him up, and go down and open all of our stocking stuff. He usually would just lay on the couch, and pretend to be enthusiastic about our presents, but really, he just wanted to go back to sleep. My mom would sit on the other couch video taping us open every single present. Then, we would move into the formal living room, where the Christmas tree was, with all of the big presents. My dad usually liked this part, because he had some presents, but also loved to see our reactions to the presents that he had snuck under the tree. One year, I remember he bought us a PlayStation, without mom knowing. She was not very excited about this, but my dad was so excited to get to play with us! lol.

These are some of the traditions that I absolutely LOVED, and also miss terribly. My parents got divorced almost 3 years ago. The Christmas of 2005, was our last Christmas all together as a family. In 2006, Lauren, Nathan, and I tried to continue our tradition, even though we didn't all live together anymore, but that was the last year. Now, we're all grown up, have our own lives, and some of us even our own family's. I'm glad that I will be home this year for Christmas, but also excited to someday start traditions with my own family. And, even teach my future children that there is a RIGHT and WRONG way to put up an ornament. lol.

SNOW!!!

I have really been kind of sad lately. Why you may ask? Because it is December and there is yet to be any snow! I heard all the time, before I moved out here, that it snows starting in October. Well, that didn't happen this year.

But, I am proud to report that I checked weather.com this evening and it is supposed to snow... TOMORROW! I am so excited! It also said that it is supposed to snow on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, AND Tuesday. We'll see if that actually happens or not, but still VERY exciting to have SNOW in the forecast!

Pictures of me in the snow will follow this JOYOUS occasion!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Dear Reader,

As you may have noticed, there have been some changes to my blog. I decided that even though there isn't any snow yet, I would start to make my blog look a little bit more "Christmas-y". I LOVE the holiday season. So, to kick off this month, I would like to share with you all, one of my favorite holiday memories.

It was Christmas day of 2000. For some reason, I was REALLY into Blue's Clues. (There was a stage of my life, that my friends and I really liked it, still not too sure what I was thinking. lol.) I got a new bedding set, that was ALL Blue's Clues, and a GIANT barking Blue. Basically, my Christmas was BLUE. I even remember getting my first CD Walkman that year, and it was even blue. I may remember all of the gifts, but that is not what is so special about this memory. That year, my Nana and Papa stayed the night at our house on Christmas Eve, and we opened up presents with them, had breakfast with them, and then my Papa baked pumpkin pies with my sister and I. It was the first time that we were really able to bake with him. He taught us how to make the crust, make the pies, and everything. I loved spending time with him, he was my hero, and could make any bad situation that we were going through, ok.

During the holidays, it is a time to be with our families and the people that we love. Which makes me realize that I won't get to see my Papa for a VERY long time, since he passed away 5 years ago. And also, that this is my second year without Brandon at the holidays, and hopefully it will be my last. I love my family, and am so glad that I got to go home for Thanksgiving. I look forward to spending more time with them at Christmas.

Also, another thing that I was realizing is, around Christmas, everyone is a little kinder, and a little more generous. Why does this only happen around Christmas time?Remember that Christmas may come only once a year, but the feeling of Christmas can last all year. I love you all!

Love,
Terri Ann