Othello Christmases

My family lived in Othello, Washington, from the time I was 2 or 3 until I was 10. Those young years of Christmas are so magical. Unfortunately, my memory is not as magical, and I have a hard time remembering a lot of details about those Christmases. But here's what I do remember:

Cutting a tree. Several of the years we lived in Othello we would go to the woods and cut down our own Christmas tree. I've never done it since, but I remember the excitement of hunting around for just the right tree and drinking hot chocolate out of the back of our van. It seems like our trees were sometimes bigger inside than they seemed outside.

Christmas Cantata. My parents sang in the community (4500 people) Christmas Cantata several times, and I remember going to hear them perform and thinking it was so cool that my parents were real performers!

The Christmas I peeked. Every child has to do it at least once, right? I was either 6 or 8 the year I woke up very early Christmas morning and began to scheme about how I could sneak a peek at the presents without anyone knowing. I quickly came up with a brilliant plan - I would go into my parents bedroom, wake them up, and ask them if I could go to the family room to see what time is was on the tv clock. In order to get to the family room you had to go through either the kitchen or....the Living Room, where the tree and all the toys were. DUN, DUN, DUN!!!! This was pure genius! At once I leapt into action. Just as planned, my parents (who I'm sure saw right through my plan the second I opened my mouth) gave me permission to go to the family room to see what time it was. "But," they warned, "be sure to go through the kitchen and not the living room." Oh, I went through the kitchen to get there all right. But I went through the Living Room on the way BACK! Ha! And there, standing on it's own beautiful kickstand, was a yellow banana seat bicycle just for me. But that wasn't all - next to my stocking on the couch was the Pound Puppy Travel Carrier. I was floored. Santa was AWESOME!!! I went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. Quickly and forcefully a new realization dawned on me - in a few hours when everyone else woke up, and we all trooped out to the living room to see our presents, I would be the only one not seeing it for the first time, not feeling the adrenaline of anticipation. I'd squandered my moment in the dark all by myself, and there was no getting it back. And what was worse, I would have to pretend I was surprised in order to conceal my early morning deception. It was one of the more disappointing moments of my early childhood, and I vowed never to let it happen again. I never have. :)

Christmas Pictures

I have very few pictures of Christmases from years past, but I scavenged around and came up with these for your viewing pleasure:

The Christmas is all began. My dad and mom in Seattle the Christmas they got engaged - 1974. Love my mom's dress. :)



Christmas 1984 in Provo, Utah. We drove to Utah and all met for Christmas at my mom's youngest sister's BYU student apartment. I had just turned 7, and yes that is me looking off to the side. What strikes me about this picture is that we're all dressed! I don't remember the particulars, but most Christmases we are still in our pajamas. This Christmas we got a wooden train set, as you can see in the next picture. My favorite part of that picture is that my youngest brother Bryan is wearing his cowboy boots. He ALWAYS wore his cowboy boots.





This picture from 1986 shows one of my Aunt JoLynn's beautiful gingerbread houses (she's on the far right holding it) like I described in an earlier post, except this one doesn't light up like the one she gave us a few years later.



Christmas 1998 - just one week before I left for my mission to Frankfurt, Germany. At our house in Missouri.




My second married Christmas, 2007, at our home here in Provo.

Arizona Christmases

We lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for Christmas when I was 11 and 12. I've always thought it was funny how our house there had a fireplace but no pool. We never once used the fireplace, but I can tell you that if we'd had a pool, it would have gotten plenty of use. Anyway, I remember how astounded I was our first Christmas there that you could put Christmas lights on a cactus. The thought had never occurred to me. I just figured people would stay as far away from their cacti as possible. But it was so fun to see how creative the Arizonans were, and it dawned on me that it could be Christmas even without cold and snow and pine trees. My Aunt Kelley and Uncle Craig lived in Phoenix at the time, too, and it was so fun to spend time with them and their little girl(now on a mission!).

For one of those Arizona Christmases we were joined by my Uncle Rod and Aunt JoLynn's family who drove down from Utah. JoLynn is one of those people who has more creative talent in her little finger than I do in my entire body, and she shares her talents so freely with others and is incredibly generous. That Christmas she brought us a gingerbread house she'd made. The gingerbread houses I make are the kind you pick at through the season and then throw away right after the holidays. JoLynn's gingerbread house held a place of honor in our home for months and months. It plugged in, lighted up, and had stained glass windows! It was the Taj Mahal of gingerbread houses. It was beautiful. Just now I wondered how in the world she transported it from Utah to Arizona in a car with 2 small children and all their stuff. WOW!!!! Thanks for making Christmas special for us, JoLynn!

New job? What new job?

So after quite a stressful few days, we've decided to return to Walt's old job, Procerus Technologies. This is a good thing. It was our choice. And BOY am I glad that decision is over. MAN am I glad. It was doing unnatural things to my stomach and my sleep patterns. (Did I mention I'm glad the decision is made and done?)

Remembering

One of my friends is posting 12 days of Christmas memories on her blog, and it got me thinking about the Christmas memories I have that are probably not written down anywhere. So I'm going to write out a few of those here so I have a record of them (thanks, Laura! I hope you don't mind me borrowing your idea). It might take me a few days.

Christmases in Missouri:
1. When we lived in Missouri (7th-12th grades for me) there was an amazing family in our ward with many, many children. During my Laurel years in Young Womens they had 4 boys in Young Mens, and those boys were fun, responsible, polite. We love the Howalds. Anyway, one year when I went home for Christmas from college we were enjoying a quiet evening when the doorbell rang. We answered it to find the entire Nativity on our doorstep. The Howalds had come to tell us the Christmas story complete with Mary, Joseph, wise men, shepherds, and angels. Their home was a good half hour drive from ours, and this was no small feat for them. I remember being so touched by it. So if any of the Howalds happen to read this, Thanks for a great memory and a touch of the true Christmas spirit!

2. Our second year in Missouri (I think), we made the drive to Maryland to spend Christmas with my grandparents. My Aunt Kim and Uncle Mark went, too, and we had so much fun together. I remember Kim filling a pair of pantyhose with gifts for Mark since he didn't have a stocking there. That really made an impression on me as a 14 year old. :) We acted out the nativity there, and I was an angel and made my appearance at the top of the stairs leading down to the family room. I also remember getting a BYU sweatshirt that year, which I still have 18 years later (now a BYU alumnus!)

3. In our family the Christmas morning tradition was that we kids (four of us) got up early and played Monopoly until Mom and Dad were ready for us to come open presents. We would hear them start the Anne Murray cassette tape (later CD) upstairs and walk around, and the anticipation would build. Finally they would call us up, and we'd ascend the stairs in giggles. This tradition continued through high school and into college. Until one year....

I went home for Christmas from BYU, and on Christmas morning my younger brothers and I began the traditional game of early morning Monopoly downstairs. Eventually we heard my parents get up, turn on the music, walk around. We waited patiently for them to come get us (yes, we were a little old for this, but it was tradition!!), but the time went on, and no summons was made. Fifteen minutes went by, then 30, then an hour. All walking around upstairs had long since ceased, and we were still waiting, totally puzzled. Finally we three decided to go up and peek into the living room to gauge the situation. I still shake my head in disbelief when I think about what happened next. There were mom and dad sitting on the couch, surrounded by all their opened presents, torn wrapping paper strewn across the floor. They had opened all their presents without us while we waited for them to call us up! When they saw us they said, "We waited and waited for you to come up, and finally we just decided you weren't going to come, so we opened our presents without you." What?! Inconceivable! Had they forgotten that for 20 years the tradition had been for them to call us up?! Yes, they had forgotten. And didn't quite believe us when we told them. But we know; yes, we know. And for all the Christmases since it has made a great story! :)

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Literally! Last night for the first time, Isaac discovered that if he bends just right, the big toe is not only functional for transportation purposes, but also doubles as a teether! Mmmmmm....Delicious!

Does anyone else remember sucking on their big toe? I have a distinct memory of it, which I'm hoping means that I have a great memory and not that I was way too old to be sucking on my big toe.

The other evening as I was getting ready for bed, Walt suddenly remembered something: "Oh, I forgot to tell you that Isaac peed into your contact case from his bath last night, and I forgot to clean it out." Thank you. Apparently a little pee never hurt anybody - in fact, my vision that day was as good as ever. Who do you think won't forget to put the lids on her contact case from now on? Lesson learned. Hee hee. :)

Twin Cousins

We just returned from a delightful trip to Arizona to spend the holiday with Walt's siblings. Walt and his brother went mountain biking and shooting, we all went to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights, the women had a breakfast out while the men watched all the kids, lots of talking and eating was accomplished, and a good time was had by all!

The highlight of our Thanksgiving trip was having Isaac meet his "twin" cousin, Sam. They were born 10 hours apart and turned 5 months old on Thanksgiving Day. We hope they grow up to be great friends!