Sleepy Slurrings

I've always thought sleeping is fun. It is one of my favorite things in the world and I look forward to it every night and nap time I get. But it wasn't until I married Sean that I realized just how funny it can be. Here are some gems from the past few months.

Example #1:

It's a Saturday morning, and surprisingly I am awake before Sean. I'm not ready to get up though, so I'm laying there thinking about what I'm going to do that day when I hear Sean giggling to himself.

Me (not sure if he's awake or not): "...Sean? What's so funny?!"

(pause...)

Sean: "Oh...I just thought of the funniest joke in my dream!..."

(pause...)

Me: "Ok... what was it?"

(pause...)

Sean: "I was just thinking how funny it would be if we gave one of our kids the middle name of "And"!!! Hahahaha...."

(His eyes are still closed--I am now sure he's not totally awake.)

Me: "Huh?... so like 'Sean AND Greene'?"

Sean: "Ya!" (He laughs again, then slowly, his smile turns into a confused look as he reaches full consciousness and opens his eyes)-- "Oh.... ya, that's not funny..."


Example #2:

I've already been up for a while, but I need to wake Sean up to drive me to work. I've barely nudged him when his arms wildly flail at me and he sort of sits up and yells "BLUE!!!", followed by "Free light!! That counts!!!"

"Whaaa?!" I say, completely freaked out by this sudden outburst and how close he was to smacking my face.

"No, no, not 'counts', like numbers", he explains (his eyes are still closed), "COUNTS, like vampires, like Dracula."

"OOOH..." I say, "right, of course."

"Ya... we were playing a game with lights. And whoever turned the most on won..." He trails off... opens his eyes...

"Oh, wow. I must have been dreaming."

Um, yes. I gathered that.

----

That's it for now, but I'm sure there will be much more sleepy entertainment in the future. I, for one, am excited. As far as sleeping companions go, I think I definitely lucked out.

This is Halloween, This is Halloween! Halloween, Halloween...

That song has been stuck in my head all weekend, and I don't even know how the rest of it goes! I just keep singing the chorus over and over. Oh, that, and then Sean and I decided the next part is "in this town, we call home, everyone gets a Halloween bone!" Not sure what a Halloween bone is, but that is what they get. It sounds Halloweeny, right? Like, I picture everyone in the town getting a bone that is a piece of a skeleton and they have to put it together like a puzzle. Ooh, and then it comes to life when you put a hat on it! Frosty the Skeleton. And he dances around all claymation-like, all through the night and until the sun begins to come up, and then he collapses to the ground until next Halloween. Halloween bone. It's a good idea.

Well let's get started, shall we? I've just added a few photo highlights from this past week of Halloween celebrations. There are more on facebook, but let's be honest.. I'm super tired. So this is all I'm doin for now. So...

Halloween Event Number 1: "Murder Among the Mateys"


This last weekend my friend Michelle and I hosted a Pirate Murder Mystery party and it was pretty legit. Everyone looked awesome, and if I do say so myself, our apartment looked spectacular. There were candles everywhere, skulls, old silver dishes, cobwebs, a really old accordion, lace, a pirate flag, mugs, bottles, a wooden steering wheel, a sign for the tavern, pictures from the time period all burned and old looking...



I totally got these pictures off of Ancestry.com-- they're from the National Archives (in DC) so you know they're authentic.

Anyway, here we are as Commodore Clearing and Thumbless Jackie:



(Except in this photo I have thumbs... I was wearing gloves for some of the night with the thumb part of the glove tucked in so I would appear thumbless but... it was pretty frustrating so I took them off quite frequently.)

And here is everybody!


It was a great night. Now, on to last Friday at work-- first of all, I've worked at Ancestry.com for four Halloweens now. It was a pretty big deal the first year (each department decorates their area for the little trick or treaters), but it keeps getting bigger each year. It is so fun, I love it. Anyway, our department did UP and it was super cute!

Here I am, as a Wilderness Explorer, with my good friend Kevin.



And here we are with the floating house and Doug, while doing the Wilderness Explorer motto: "The Wilderness must be explored! Caw-Caw! Roar!" They don't announce the winner of the department decorating contest til Monday, but I think ours should definitely win the cutest category...


Alright, and finally Saturday night-- pumpkin carving! My family gets WAY into pumpkin carving. Simple jack-o-lanterns are unacceptable. Unfortunately Sean and I got there a little later than we wanted so we had to improvise, but I like what we came up with. He made this way cute owl, and I made.... drumroll please... a goblin from Troll 2!!! I love it so much!! For those of you who have never seen it, PLEASE do! It's been voted the best worst movie of all time. Last I checked it's free on Hulu, so you have no excuse. Really, you can thank me later.

But yes, back to the picture, this is us and our pumpkins. Oh, and wearing our dinosaur costumes. (We are dinosaurs dressed up like humans.)



And just for your viewing pleasure, here is a closeup of my masterpiece, complete with hair and a goblin's favorite food-- part plant, part human!


So in closing, even though Utah Halloween was last night, since there's still technically 10 minutes left... Happy Halloween!

Passive Aggressive

I don't like confrontation. I genuinely try to like everyone, and I don't have many enemies... I like to think... maybe I do but they themselves are so passive aggressive that I would never know it?!? But anyway, despite my attempt to love everyone... I'm only human. And people are insanely frustrating sometimes!!

Anyway, because of my peace-loving, confrontation-less ideals... every now and again I might do something a little passive agressive. Today would be one of those days.


I'm not going to go into details or anything, (because I might've done it to YOU! Hahaha! But no, just kidding, it wasn't to anyone who reads this...) but in light of these recent events, I thought I would share a video. Enjoy.

Important Things with Demetri Martin
Games - Passive Aggressive Race
www.comedycentral.com
Nick Swardson's Pretend Time Big Lake Ugly Americans New Episodes

Primary Lessons

Kids are the greatest.

I have now been in primary for about 6 weeks and I have loved every minute of it. I don't know why, but I definitely underestimated how strong the spirit would be with those little tykes. Oh my goodness, every time they sing they sound like little angels. And holy cow, they are sooo smart! Just such good kids.

The first month I was just helping out with the little three-year-old sunbeams. So adorable. And so loving. The first day they were already giving me hugs and wanting to sit on my lap and the little girls were telling me they liked my hair and my necklace. Sure, they were wiggly, but ALL of them wanted to say the prayer, or hold up the picture, or talk about Jesus. Just really good kids. The other teachers, quite older than me, would reprimand them quite often for not being reverent, (Tyson, the youngest, had THE hardest time staying in his chair... and keeping his pants pulled up...) but I wasn't very good at that. I even kind of got one of the little girls in trouble once because she was telling me about playing at her cousins house during the lesson. Woops...

Then I got my official calling as a co-teacher for the 8-9 year olds a couple weeks ago, and these kids... wow, I have just been nothing but impressed. So smart! And just such good kids. They actually want to participate, and we've had some really good discussions. Today I taught for the first time and was a little nervous about how it would go and... I really shouldn't have been. It went so smoothly. It was a really great Sunday.

Sean theorizes that I got put in this calling so that we would want to have kids asap, and I can't say that it isn't working...

Ok, I shouldn't tease my family like that. It'll still be just a little bit til we get to that stage. But all I'm saying is-- I'm dang excited for when we get to that point.

A Blog from Memory Lane

So, remember that thing called myspace?? Ya know, used to be big like six years ago? Then facebook came along and punched it in the face? And then the only way it could fight back was to become super trashy? Which only attracted maybe 2% of the population, and then encouraged the rest of us to get off of there and away from those people as fast as we could?

Maybe that's just my experience.

Well the other day I was remembering that I blogged all about this funny beauty pageant in Washington on my myspace blog, and I was like, "shoot! I wonder if I can even still log onto there?"

So today, I finally remembered to look into it, and four password attempts later, I made it in. Looks like I still have a myspace account! And more importantly, looks like I still have my myspace blog!

Reading it was such a huge blast from the past, and I have to give myself credit-- it's way funny! And even a little deep at times... Well, that could just be my biased opinion, but if you'd like to judge for yourself:

http://www.myspace.com/tishybelle/blog

Please especially read "Carbonation is bad for you" (which seems to be a recurring lesson in my life). It is me, late at night, wide awake due to a Red Bull intoxication. Hillarity ensues.


Well, in the words of my 2006 self,

"Give my regards to Broadway,
Tiff"



p.s. And no comments about my chubby face please! Some of those pictures are from the post-Disneyworld/Freshman 15 phase of my life which luckily only lasted about six months, and that was long enough... you might even be able to notice that a few of my friends were slightly suffering from it as well... haha, at least we could all commiserate.


*** Update: Sorry, I didn't realize that link wasn't working... it should work now. I think.

Anaheim Livin’

So about a month and a half ago, my family was getting ready to take a vacation in sunny California. Only… we hadn’t exactly figured out what it was we were going to do while we were there.  Being the planning-oriented person that I am (I can’t help it!), I called a family meeting where we discussed possible options (complete with a full presentation via a laptop hooked up to our tv) and then each person wrote down a list of what they were wanting to do.

This, of course, brought out the comedians in my brothers and sisters. And Sean. Sean, in lieu of writing a list, drew pictures of what he wanted to do. If I remember right, he only drew a picture of a sandwich (for Earl of Sandwich), him at the beach, and then a picture of a piece of  pizza. Have I mentioned that Sean loves pizza? A quote from last night, as he was taking a pizza out of the oven, “I love pizza!! I could eat pizza every day. Seriously. As long as it was a different pizza, I really could.”

One of my favorite responses though came from my 21 year old brother Adam. His number one thing he wanted to do? “Anaheim Livin’”.  He is such a dork. But you know what? We did it. We Anaheim-Lived-it-up. To see what other items made it to the list, continue on.

 

EARL OF SANDWICH!!! I can not explain to you how much I love this place. If I could get the funding, I would open a franchise here in Utah and become a billionaire.

My family’s first experience with Earl. (Sorry Emily, guess you didn’t quite make the cut for this photo.)

 

I’m sorry for including this Amy… but I love this picture.  

The Griffith Observatory! Highlights include: the Aurora Borealis show in their really nice planetarium, looking at real-time solar flares through a special lens, seeing and touching real meteorites, and then looking at Venus through their huge telescope (behind us in this picture).

Waiting in line there was a worker answering questions. Sean asked a question about why the moon doesn’t rotate and we always see the same side of it (a fact I did not previously know). After the worker explained it (I don’t really remember what he said), Sean said, “Huh… weird.” To which the worker replied, with a very smug smile, “It’s not weird, it’s physics.” It quickly became evident that this guy had a catch phrase, and we had stumbled right into it.  We heard him say it probably four more times to other questioners (“huh, that’s crazy..” “It’s not crazy, it’s physics”), and he got more and more smug each time he said it. Psh, scientists. Here is Sean looking at Venus through the telescope.

 

Balboa Island for frozen bananas. Yes, inspired by Arrested Development. Huge hit, and soooo good. Ten cents gets ya nuts!

 

Hanging out at Laguna Beach!

The Siblings.

Six Flags! Okay, they have seriously upped their game since the last time I was here. Tatsu? Possibly my new favorite non-Disney rollercoaster. (Disney rides get their own category.) You are on your stomach! And it feels like you’re flying!

This is me doing a classic jazz hands pose, paying homage to dance tours growing up. This is where we would always do our shows at Six Flags. On this burning black top.  Man… it was hot.

We went on an adventure to find the infamous Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake. After a two hour drive to Pasadena and back, we were the proud owners of a slightly-melted Fudgie of our own. He was delicious.

 

But, probably the best part of the vacation were the pool parties!

 

The end of our synchronized swimming routine.

 

Um, do you see what I am doing here? I am jumping into the DEEP end. 

 

Face-down floating made it on the list of things to do. This is a long story.

 

And here we are face-up floating.

 

Night swimming was delightful.

 

All in all, it was a beautiful and very relaxing vacation. The house we rented was awesome, and having our own pool in the backyard was awesome. And the biggest news? I can swim! I got over my fear of swimming!  Anyone who knows me knows how pathetic I am, scratch that, how pathetic I was, when I was trying to swim. Sean describes me as looking like a drowning cat.  Really, such a huge phobia.

But now? I can swim! Well, not amazingly or anything, but enough that I can not die!  Such a huge development.

Another new development? I tried ketchup again for the first time in probably ten years and… I didn’t hate it. I still hate the smell (it reminds me of, well, a down syndrome girl that I went to school with who would dip her hamburgers into huge piles of ketchup.. is that mean?), but it actually really helps out french fries when they’re a little bit dry.  Who knew.

So I can swim, and I can eat ketchup- who am I?!?

 

Well, there you have it, our vacation in a not-so-small nutshell. Nothing but us just, you know, Anaheim Livin’. That’s just how we do.

A Pretty Picture

See? I told you it was pretty. I tried to tell you, but you didn’t believe me.

I’m mostly just trying out this new Windows Live Writer I was tipped off about (thanks Jeni!) and these are the only pictures I have on this computer at the moment.

So, here are some more pretty pictures. Did you know you can make a photo album? Well, neither did I. But it looks like you can. Let’s check it out.

View Full Album

Picture Assault!

So we finally transferred pictures onto the computer so I thought I'd go ahead and smack some onto this here blog. Hold on to your hats and glasses....

Thomas Family Reunion, June 2010. Went real golfing for the second time ever.
Luckily we were playing team golf/using the best ball, so I didn't hinder our team (Me, Sean, and my brothers Adam & Andrew) too much. Andrew and Sean pretty much carried us though.

After that we went to my grandparents property up Nephi Canyon and....


...there were guns.

I'm a regular sharpshooter. No, really. I even impressed my grandpa.

Oh, and I can't forget...

... the duck races. Turns out Sean is a champion duck racer. See? He even has a trophy.

Probably because he is so "full of hot air" (that joke got made a lot.)
Lucky for me, I was also a winner, because I guessed how many tootsie rolls were in the jar.
And yes, that is where the tootsie jar from my previous post came from.


Hiking to Stewart Falls with Sierra & Brett. Sean and Brett decided to try and scale the cliffs above the falls to try and get to the very top, only they took off without telling me or Sierra that that was the plan. An hour after wondering where they were, and shivering like crazy as the sun was going down, they came back to inform us that they were super close to reaching the top, but for fear of dying from unsafe hand and footholds, they gave up. Boys.

Sean working on his jeep, getting it fixed up real nice before selling it. Here he is tightening the tie rod ends and putting on a new control arm... or something like that. He's become quite the mechanic lately. It's pretty attractive.

Fourth of July! Outside the Stadium of Fire to watch the fireworks with my family, a huge bag of popcorn (my sister works at Wynnsong and brought a huge bag of leftovers from the night before) and so many glowsticks.


So many glowsticks, in fact, that Sean made a glowing neon ball. (I told him he looked cool leaning against the car like that, so he needed to make a cool face for this picture.)

It then transformed into this. We decided it looks like a knight's helmet, so I call this photo "Soccer Knight from the Future".


Sean then let me wear it on the drive home. Which went slow, due to the
inevitable Fourth-of-July Traffic. My window happened to be down, and I received many compliments.

Tennis Photo Shoot with Dana. The last time we played before she moved to Maine. She taught me everything I know about tennis.

Probably at some point in every game we played one of us would use our racket and pretend it was a machine gun. Not sure how it started, but it proves to be very intimidating for your opponent. So we had to take a picture in remembrance of this pose.
Sad... I can't believe they're really gone.

Well doggone it, if this hasn't taken an eternity to upload all these darn pictures! (Sorry, not sure why I keep slippin into hick talk...maybe all the gun-shooting rekindled my inner cowgirl?) What's frustrating is I haven't even gotten to our trip to California, which is the whole reason I started this post... but I've got to give it a rest. Got laundry to do, clothes to fold, and even more laundry to do and clothes to fold. (We've been really busy and, um, kind of let things get out of hand.)

So look forward to Picture Assault 2: Cruise Control!

The Owls

Last night, I had a dream about a bunch of porcelain decorative owls in a tree. Really cute, really indie. Then, a real owl came along and started messing with them and breaking them. Shattering their cute little faces. Random.

Then today, I come to work, and I'm working on this Alcatraz project (way cool, by the way), and I was having all of these problems with data matching up. Finally, I came across the name that was causing all the problems. The name? Basil Hugh "The Owl" Banghart, prisoner number 595. Insert Twilight Zone music here.

The really crazy part is that this is not the first time this has happened. The first time I can really remember was when I was 14. I had a dream that I was at Disneyland on dance tour, standing in line for Snow White, and I was looking around at my friends that were with me: Alysse, Jentrie, Kelsey... and then some brunette girl I didn't know. I almost immediately forgot about it.

Flash forward six months, when I'm actually on dance tour in California. I'm at Disneyland, standing in line for Snow White, when I look around and totally start having deja vu, like BAD. There's Alysse and Jentrie leaning against the rail in front of me, Kelsey to my right, and then to my left is the brunette girl. Only now I know who she is: Julianne Burr. I had gotten to know her in the couple of months of rehearsals leading up to tour, but before that? No idea who she was. It's almost as if I dreamed her into existence.

Other instances I can remember: dreaming that my cousin was pregnant three days before I found out that she was, dreaming that I was going to be a bridesmaid in the winter before Dana & Dallan were even engaged, and one of the oddest ones was dreaming about pet turtles and then going to work at Sundance the next day to overhear a couple coworkers talking about pet turtles. I mean, really. Pet turtles. How often does that come up in a conversation?

You could call it coincidence, and maybe it is, but maybe, just maybe I have a superpower here. Anyone who knows me knows that I've always had crazy dreams, so I'm thinking maybe there's a reason for that? Maybe I need to learn how to tap into my dreaming potential? I'm contemplating starting a dream journal blog. Maybe there's more things like this that have happened without me really noticing?

I know this sounds kind of crazy... but there's crazier things that have happened, right? Right???(please validate my sanity by posting below)

Things I Should Have Learned by Now

1) I can sunburn. I always think it won't happen, and then ya know what? It does. Not a whole lot, and most of the time it's only a day before it turns tan, but sometimes? It hurts. Like, aloe vera/can't-sleep-at-night hurts. Like even just sitting in a chair at a computer, say, typing a blog, it feels as if there's smoldering embers between my shoulder blades. Why do I continue to think I'm invincible?!




2) I can't drink more than four sips of carbonation without getting sick. I've just got to own up to that. No matter how much I like the taste of root beer with pizza, or Vanilla Coke with anything...it's not worth it. In a future book, called "The Science of Sodas", I'm hoping the authors will use my story as a cautionary tale. Do not stop drinking carbonation for more than three years if you truly love it. You will never be able to handle it again.
(Ok, truthfully, I don't miss soda that much and it does feel way better not to drink it, but just every once in a while I get these cravings... and I really shouldn't indulge. At least not more than four sips. Not unless I'm willing to fully accept the consequences that it WILL turn my stomach upside-down.)




3) How to say 'foliage'. It wasn't until just this last weekend that I realized that sometimes I say 'foil-age'. Obviously, in my mind I get the i and the l reversed depending on my mood. Luckily this isn't a word that has come up too often in discussions, and if you say it fast enough no one's the wiser, but nevertheless, this is super embarrassing. Almost as embarrassing as thinking that 'eavesdropping' was 'E's dropping', or that 'soo' (with two o's, as in 'soo much') is a real word. You know who you are.



Anyway, despite these humbling realizations, this last Pioneer Weekend was great. The definite highlight was going boating with Brooke, Preston and Sierra, even if it did result in my uncomfortable state. And, believe it or not, seven years after my last attempt, it turns out-- I can wakeboard! Talk about something I should have learned by now...

Thoughts on Salad, Lakes and Tootsie Rolls

I like tomatoes in salad. I like strawberries in salad. I do not like tomatoes and strawberries in the same salad.


Utah Lake is impossible to find. Sean and I tried to drive to the shore last night (I remembered from high school somewhere by Springville where people would have bon fires...must be gone now?) and about an hour and several scary roads later, we gave up. The night wasn't a complete loss though-- we saw the tiniest baby deer, a baby kitty, and a huge owl. I hadn't ever seen an owl in Utah, so that was neat. I'm a little sad Sean wouldn't let me pet the deer though. He claims it would've just ran away from me when I got out of the car, but obviously he forgets that I used to be a Disney princess.



Oh, and FYI, 'Lake Shore' signs, off of the Springville exit, are not in fact signs directing you to the lake shore. Apparently it's a place. I don't think that's fair.

A few days ago, I suspected someone of stealing tootsie rolls out of my candy jar at work, so I went Harriet the Spy on them and left a hair on top of the lid. That way, I would know if it'd been tampered with. Real slick, I know. The next day, after having eaten a few tootsies, I remembered my plan. The hair, of course, was already gone, moved most likely by me. So the next day I tried it again, leaving a post-it note to remember to check on the tootsie jar. Came to work, and.... five hours and oh, 12 tootsie rolls later, I noticed the post it note. Again, I had spoiled my perfect plan. So at the end of the third day, I counted how many tootsies were left (at this point, only 7) and wrote down that number. Came to work the next day to find.... seven tootsie rolls. Now, you might think this means no one was stealing tootsie rolls. But I think they knew I was getting suspicious.

I need more tootsie rolls.

The First Big Girl Job of the Marriage!

So, a certain Miss Robinson's blog has inspired me to start blogging more frequently. Consequently, to make the task less overwhelming, I'm probably going to go ahead and start writing shorter entries. We'll see if I can actually do that. (Little known fact: In fifth grade we started every class period with 15 minutes of journal-writing. That was never enough time for me, so a lot of times I would have to bring my journal home with me to finish my entries. I think I went through seven journals for the whole year, a record that was still standing 8 years later when my youngest sister Amy was in Miss Burton's class. So I guess you could say I've got quite the reputation at Northridge Elementary.)

So a quick posting about my Big Girl job. I'm gonna make it bullet points even, cut out any unnecessary fluff: (plus I'm at work right now so I should get back to work in a minute here..)

• I have been working at Ancestry.com since October 09, right when we got back from our Honeymoon.
• It was/is a huge blessing. I had been looking for a different job (no offense Tucanos... actually yes, you can take offense) since May of 2008, when I graduated from BYU. A year and a half later this worked out, and right when we needed things like benefits. Ancestry.com has awesome benefits.
• I started as a Content Editor, and two promotions later I am now a Project Lead. It's hard to describe what I do, especially cuz every project is different, but pretty much I work with databases/use sql/write configs/normalize data/oversee editing/check images... and anything else that needs to happen before projects go live on the website.
• It sounds super nerdy, and it kind of is. I never thought I would in anyway resemble a computer programmer (what my dad does) but it's not too bad. And I actually really really like it. I actually have to use my brain and problem solve, it makes me feel smart.
• I work with really fun people. Everyday during lunch we play games like Werewolf, Killer Bunnies, Guillotine or Family Business. Or we watch Wipeout. And Fridays are Wii days. Well, we play everyday unless we're too busy with project deadlines coming up.
• I have a nice big cubicle. I love it. Also, two big monitors. Having two monitors has completely spoiled me, and now one feels like way too small of a space.

Shoot, this is too long already. Ok, I'm shutting up now and heading back to work.

THE END

**Possibly what my workplace would be like if it were 70 years ago. (Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com of course)

The First Christmas of the Marriage!

Ok, yes, I'm fully aware that it is four months after Christmas, but seeing how it was our first Christmas together, I thought it should be at least somewhat documented via blog.

So... Christmastime of 2009... it was so fun. Magical even. One definite highlight was putting up our own Christmas decorations and Christmas tree! (Thanks to Mother Greene for spotting a sweet tree for us at D.I.! Way nicer than what we were planning on.) Our place looked so cute all Christmas-ed out, we didn't want to take down the decorations! So... we kind of didn't. Until we moved. In April. It wasn't planned that way, but that's just how it happened. I don't regret it. It was cute.

Then Christmas Day? It was so awesome to have Sean there with me for all of the Thomas family traditions... the little girls waking us up way too early, the kids waiting in my parents' room for them to groggily wake up while sword fighting with empty wrapping paper rolls, looking for our hidden stockings in the basement, heading upstairs to see what Santa brought, opening presents, eating muffins and ham and eggs, playing games...

Then that night we headed over to David (Sean's older brother) and Tami's house and got to hang out with the Greene side and eat Christmas dinner. It's always fun, and the nieces and nephews were especially high on Christmas cheer. So cute. Little kids definitely make Christmas great. Oh, and I learned little kids have bigger heads than you would think! I crocheted the little guys beanies and the little girls flower headbands, but um, yeah... I think like half of them were too small. Like, just barely. The best was little Davin (three) who squeezed his on anyway but couldn't get it over his ears, so they were just poking out. But he didn't seem to mind. So anyway, I learned my lesson, and I now own a measuring tape just for such occasions.

Probably what made this Christmas so great though was that Sean and I decided not to worry about getting presents for each other. Due to unforeseen circumstances money was a little tight right at that moment, so instead we started a Christmas Box, and wrote each other a letter to put inside. Kind of a tradition we're starting. Maybe you think that's cheezy, and maybe it is, but it was awesome. Cuz, well... not going to lie, I love getting presents. But I've realized it's not really because of the actual present I'm getting, but the thought that went into it. So Sean was awesome and wrote all of the things he would get me if he could and ya- he nailed it. I pretty much have the greatest husband. So anyway, it turned out to be the most stress-free Christmas ever, and it was a lot easier to focus on what Christmas is really about.

Ok, this is way longer than I'd anticipated, so I'm going to post some pictures and call it good.

Our Christmas Decor. We have an owl motif going on in our Christmas Tree and Sean repainted some old bulbs that look awesome. Oh, and I modpodged/stained those wooden stars so they are just, like, adorable. It turned out awesome.

My improv-ed last-minute craft idea-- fabric hot-glued onto cardboard.

Turned out kinda cute for a $3 and 20 minute craft project.

Christmas morning! My family all chipped in to get us an Xbox, which was awesome, we were totally not expecting it at all.

Another great part of Christmas-- seeing the lights at Temple Square

with Dana and Dallan.