Christmas, Our Way

My family has a strange tradition to do every Christmas differently. It's not that we don't celebrate Christmas or lack the spirit of Christmas; it's just that every year seems to combine different challenges and/or opportunities. I don't remember a Christmas where someone wasn't sick, moving, visiting Canada or Mexico, or going through trials. We have had everything from turkey dinner to pizza (which is personally my favorite....what a better way to have a holiday than not having to cook or do dishes!) We have therefore learned to improvise.
For one thing, presents on Dec. 23 isn't too bad. The anticipation is over, presents can be enjoyed longer before the arduous trek back to school and work, and we can concentrate on the real important aspects of Christmas on Christmas Day. That will be good. Christmas really has become truly commercial. I mean, I physically bought every gift this year. Or rather, I clicked on the items I wanted shipped to my house for the most part without even stepping into a store. Crazy.
Christmas isn't Christmas, however, without a few important things.

• First, we have to have caroling. Lucky for me, Nate Gross was kind enough to host a caroling party yesterday and I was more than happy to attend.
  
• Second, the Christmas story must be read. I read it at church last Sunday, we heard it at church (family ward) today, and by golly, we're definitely going to read it tomorrow for Christmas eve!
  
• Third. Family is important. My oldest sister, Kelli, is coming with her kids and possibly several of her soon-to-be step children (this is one of the reasons for the early Christmas). We are also visiting my grandparents.
• Fourth. Muppet Christmas Carol. Need I say more?
  

So, there you have it. Four important things to celebrate the holiday. I would like to start some new traditions, especially when I have a family of my own. But until then, we shall carry on the tradition of spontaneous Christmases. Who knows, maybe next year we'll decide to go to Hawaii for Christmas. Who knows? Crazier things have happened.

Sacre Chat! (That's French for Holy Cats!)

To preface, we have three white cats. My sister got the first while I was in Brazil on my mission despite many years of objections about having pets professed by my father. No sooner had I returned home then my father proceeded to bring home another white cat to watch for my uncle while he was in between apartments. Needless to say, shortly after returning said cat, we were "blessed" with four more cats. We gave one away, let two go to a farm, and kept one. What was our surprise when we discovered that a cat can get its own mother pregnant at a month in a half old!!! Eight kittens later, we now had three cats(one from each litter). We now have cats underfoot, jumping at the door (to get in or out) whenever we near one, and caterwauling at night, not to mention the fact that not a single article of clothing does not contain cat hair. Needless to say, cats have become a part of our home and have even entered into our family folk art, as noted in the stained glass art produced by my father in the picture.

This morning, my mother woke up to noises in the kitchen. She thought to herself that no one was up, so why would there be noises? She got up and proceeded to check the kitchen. After letting Lucky outside, she turned on the light and caught Winter on the stove. She had managed to pull out one of the ranges on the stove and was digging out any crumbs that she could. It was quite the sight at 6:30 in the morning. I guess Winter likes to get herself early morning snacks - even though there was food in the bowl.

In another story, I was on my way to a friends house. Since our road was torn up, I drove fairly slowly down the road and was turning onto the street perpendicular to ours when a car stopped in front of me (in the intersection). The girl in the passenger side signaled me to roll down my window. I did and she proceeded to ask, "Do you know you have a cat on your roof?" Well, obviously I didn't. You'd think that the cat would be smart enough to jump off the car when it's starting or before it leaves the driveway at least!

At least with cats, it's never a dull moment.

Hallowe'en

Hallowe'en is a time when people are supposed to get together, have parties, bob for apples, and get sick from eating way too much candy. Unfortunately, my teacher missed that memo and scheduled a 2 hour mandatory online chat for my masters degree on Hallowe'en!!! Being the keen library science students we claim to be, Ben and I (with the suggestion of Samantha) decided that it would be great to plan a partaaaay!!! We invited all future information professionals (aka. librarians) in the area in our program to come to BYU for a Hallowe'en chat-party. Being guys, we planned the event far in advance, finally getting the invitation sent out by e-mail at 11:30 PM on the 30th and not actually booking a room (at all). To top it all off, Ben got sick and everyone cancelled....except me (who drove out from Orem), Samantha and Virginia (who carpooled from Salt Lake). We actually had a pretty good time playing Clue, talking, eating a disgusting amount of junk food, and discussing our mid-term. Oh yeah, and we kind of paid attention to the chat enough to shoot off a comment every now and then. It was quite the night. And to think we all currently have A's in the class. Go figure.

Repentence

Well, I must say, I promised that I wouldn't be good at updating my blog and I was correct. At this rate, I'll average approximately 4 posts per year. Not bad odds if I do say so myself. Posts will be coming out more often than general conference!

The Beginning

Well, this is certainly an adventure. I am entering into the internet world and letting others have a glimpse into my meager existence. I hope you're prepared for this.

Sometime - either today or tomorrow-, I will embark on my first road trip with Patrick. We are taking Mom's car (with permission...it actually has a CD player and working air conditioning), and are driving up to Canada to attend the funeral of our friend Skyler Potrie who passed away a couple of days ago. Certainly, not the most happy or healthy terms for our first road trip, but terms good enough to merit a last second trip. We may have left this morning, however, it is now 11:09 am and I didn't have the heart to wake him more than three times. If we leave now, we won't get there until the wee hours of the morning.

So it's set. We leave tonight or tomorrow morning. Ok, so that's not very set, but it works.