Sweet Sixteen

 Try as they might, Golda and Ruby could not get a good picture of their aging parents on their 16th wedding anniversary.  Ruby smirked when she saw how I attempted to curl my hair.  She wouldn't have been able to contain her mirth had she seen the multiple burn marks on my fingers and the blister on my thumb from the straightening iron.  Man, that thing is hot!  Ruby tried to mitigate the damage by arranging bobby pins in the mass of curls, but Scott decided that just made it worse.  After a brief debate between Ruby and Scott about whether Mom was "just going to keep tucking it behind her ears anyway," we set out for our lunch at The Copper Onion with my cascading locks billowing in the wind.

As we were waiting to be seated, we could overhear a young man in a parka talking on his phone a few feet from us, his forehead beaded with sweat.  He was saying, "She still has RSV and I have to get some formula...My brother was supposed to wire me some money...I don't know anyone in Salt Lake City...My wife and six-month-old baby are going to be sleeping in the motel parking lot unless I can come up with thirty or 45 dollars...I hope she makes it through the night..."

Scott and I looked at each other in horror.  Just as the hostess came to seat us, Scott did what I knew he would do.  I went with the hostess to our table and Scott went with the young man, talked to him and gave him some money.  When he came back, he reported that the man was really nice and said, "Even if that was a scam, he still needed the money more than we do."  I said, "Well, we just bought either baby formula or crack.  If it was a scam, I liked it.  He did a good job."  On some level, we probably hoped it was a scam because, if there was a sick baby in a motel parking lot, shouldn't we be doing more?  We watched out the window in case he came back, but he didn't.  At any rate, Scott concluded, "It's not for us to judge whether he was legit or not."

So true of the man on the phone, and so true in life.  I love that Scott lives that philosophy.  He has a big heart and a forgiving nature, a true Christian at his core.  And I get to be married to him!

To further celebrate our anniversary, we took all the kids to Temple Square.  The kids wanted to hear the story of when we got married, but Scott's version was too short.  "What is there to tell?  We got married in the Salt Lake Temple, kids.  Did it snow?  I think it did.  Someone had an umbrella."

Great story, Scott.  Nobody was impressed, so I told them about the ferret I got for Christmas when I was 12, and how she would hide socks in the couch and wiggle her way out of any cage.  It was far more entertaining than Scott's version of our wedding day and it even had a dramatic ending:  Farrah the ferret's untimely death.

Anyway, we did enjoy a stroll through Temple Square in downright tropical weather.  It was almost 60 degrees, the crowds were light and my secret downtown parking spot was, as always, available.  It was the perfect night.  We even visited the LeConte Stewart exhibit at the Church History Museum.  There were dozens of beautiful works, all of them inspiring, many of familiar local landscapes.  I have fond memories of visiting LeConte's home and once, choosing my own painting from a whole slew of them that he had spread out on the floor.  That painting was love at first sight and I still treasure it.

We ended our anniversary at home with six kids and Panda take-out, and we definitely wouldn't change a thing.

Still trying to get a good shot of Mom.  At least Scott always looks good!  Everyone keep in mind, I AM 30 pounds overweight right now.  I'm delivering a baby in six weeks.  Xanthe asked me today if I'm eighty.  I can't remember.  I don't think so...

 Cutest picture ever.

"Harvey's Pond, Fruit Heights."  Those are our mountains.

Sixteen Years

Here's to 16 years of wedded bliss...

Last year's anniversary

And the year before...bad hair alert.  Yikes!

This year, we'll see what happens.  I'll think of a good story to tell you from our rich and checkered past!  Happy anniversary, Scott!

After-Christmas Shopping!

I just love after-Christmas bargains!  Some years I don't have the wherewithal to go out the day after Christmas, but this year, Ari and I ventured out to find neighbor gifts for next year.  My system this year did not work.  I have to have it done ahead of time.  Right away, we found wrapping paper 50% off and bought two unopened 60-roll cases.  The guy at the store loaded them into my car, they will be easy to store, neighbor gifts are done for 2012 and...that's a wrap!

Ari and I hit Target at just the right time for 50% off stuff for friends and teachers.  Cards, ornaments, gift tags, stockings, etc.  I knew exactly the kinds of things I was looking for and I think we're set for gift wrapping and all those little gifts you have to come up with.  You know, 20 teachers, a dozen friends per kid, hostess gifts, etc.  Plus all the fancy garnishes to make the gifts look pretty.  It's all labeled and put away.

Scott and again, Ari, were at the right place at the right time today and got two hundred dollars' worth of chocolate candy for...wait for it...ten dollars!!  Ari must be a good luck charm for deals!  Harmon's was just bringing out cartloads of the good stuff and marking it $5.00 for as much as you could fit in a bag.  Look at the haul!  I took most of it and separated it into "Valentine-worthy" and not Valentine-worthy.  We'll have to eat all the green-packaged chocolate, but the red, purple and white is going in the hundred or so Valentine bags we always put together for the kids' friends and classmates.  As soon as valentine cards hit the stores, those bags will be tied and ready to go before Tziporah gets here!

And the cutest and most glittery bargain...the pink, green and blue arrangement Golda and I found for 70% off at Ben Franklin.  It was our inspiration for giving Xanthe's room a make-over.  The whole room looks much better now, and I found a bunch of stuff that had gone missing.  I forget Xanthe is a hoarder.  She hides other people's important stuff, like ballet shoes, under her bed.  Anyone want to psychoanalyze that?  Anyway, if you use your imagination, you can find a ton of Christmas items on sale that don't really look Christmas-y once you get them out of the Christmas aisle at the store, like Xanthe's pink sparkly branches.  I also bought a whole sheet set for my bed for $14.00.  It was part of a Christmas line, but it was plain white flannel.  I love new linens this time of year. 

Now I'm trying to stay home and avoid any further opportunities to "save" money.  But I might have to go back and see if they still have any of the fun ice cream cone ornaments that match Xanthe's branches.  They were pretty cute!

Christmas Day

Waiting on the stairs to see what Santa brought.  Even Tziporah was waiting.  She got a little stash of tiny clothing from Santa.

Xanthe loves the girl from Tangled.  Santa knew that, but he forgot that she wanted boots until Christmas Eve when he overheard her telling her mom, "I asked for a DSI and, of course, snow boots!"  There is just no limit to Santa's capabilities.  She got both!  The DSI is an absolute godsend for a kid like Xanthe.  This is a kid whose body vibrates on a high frequency at all times.  It's the kid who, two hours into Christmas, whined, "What can I do?"  She doesn't entertain herself and she can't do anything unless she has someone to tell her how to do it and someone to admire her while she does it.  She would rather pretend she doesn't know how to do something than do it without an audience and a private tutor.  At last, though, the long-awaited DSI was charged and Xanthe was able to blend into her surroundings, her attention on her little screen.  Now she can learn to choose her own games, take pictures, make videos and stay out of my face for an hour here and there!  We're still working on the concept of, "Xanthe, we see you playing your DS.  You don't have to follow me around pointedly and loudly using the stylus."  She is so funny.  Most kids can sit on the couch and play.  Xanthe will get up if I get up and follow me, holding her DS up high and sighing loudly, like she's saying, "Yep, here I am, playing my sophisticated toy like one of the big kids."  I SEE you, kid!  At least she's not demanding that I play cruise director/cocktail waitress/executive chef while she's playing her games.

A Swatch!

Freestone gathered up all the instructions for the video games he got and put them in the garbage.  He declared, "I don't need instructions.  All you need to know is TURN IT ON!"  Probably true for Freestone.  His mind is wired for stuff like this, whereas I occasionally still push on doors that say "Pull."  Freestone immediately caught on to his new game, which he can play with his cousins.  They all have action figures that go along with the video game.  In contrast, my parents got a Blu Ray player for Christmas.  Scott and Trajan hooked it up and spent a good fifteen minutes explaining to Coco and Bill what Blu Ray means.  Scott had to resort to making a copy of their remotes (they didn't know their scanner could make copies!  Bonus!)  and drawing diagrams of which buttons to push in order to get the movie to play.  We were all laughing.  I said, "Now don't go to Cosmos video and try to rent a movie.  (Cosmos still uses 3x5 cards to record your rentals!  Talk about the Dark Ages.)  I said, "Just go to RedBox."  That opened up a whole other discussion, but my parents were able to successfully rent a movie with the help of some nice people in line at the Red Box and somehow managed to watch it with little or no technical intervention.  Someday they might be as tech savvy as Freestone.

Ari loves to ride her bike.  She didn't think Santa would bring her a new one because Daddy told her he would fix up Mama's old bike instead.  She liked Santa's idea much better!  She wanted to ride the new bike to the store immediately and do some shopping.

Santa worked some magic to bring Golda a jacket she saw at Gardner Village two days before Christmas.  And you dared to doubt Santa's magical powers, Golda??  Golda came dangerously close to falling into the unbeliever camp this year and not getting any presents.  It's a good thing she cast aside her cynicism in time for Christmas.  Junior high can be brutal.  :)

Ruby got a beautiful new guitar that is bigger than the one she has been playing on.

The first thing Ptolemy grabbed was Ari's Webkin, a little pink horse.  He fell in love with it and declared it "Mine!"  He also got a box with a picture of some other kid riding a new tricycle.  He didn't like that at all.  It wasn't until the next day that he woke up from his nap and Daddy had transformed the mysterious box into an actual tricycle.  Much better!

200 blocks!  See, there really IS a Santa because Mom would never buy anything that has 200 pieces.  Santa knows his audience, though.  Ptolemy LOVES his blocks.

Everyone agreed that this Christmas has been the best one yet.  It was neat to go to church in the middle of it all, too, and reflect and be edified before rejoining the family festivities.  I hope you had a peaceful, wonderful holiday filled with love.

Christmas Eve