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