"He ate 'em!"

As soon as Kiki remembered about the cookies, she raced into the front room to see what happened. I chased after her and managed to turn the camera on just in time to catch her reaction:

Love it.

Cookies for Santa

Kiki and I made cookies tonight for my dad's birthday. She kept picking at the sugar, the brown sugar, and also the butter. She was especially fond of the sugar, and I told her that she needed to leave the ingredients alone or our cookies would be messed up so she should pick out of the sugar can. I then found her with the 1/4 measuring cup, holding it like a spoon and taking swigs of sugar. Being the reponsible aunt that I am, I dumped out half of the cup and told her she could only eat what was left in it. (Wouldn't want her to ruin her teeth!)


We decided to leave some for Santa. I suggested we leave a note and Kiki draw him a picture. She told me what to write, then drew a marvelous picture of Santa.

Those may look like scribbles on the mouth, but Kiki advises me that it's his "fur."

She was quite particular about how the cookies and the note should be placed. First the cookies went on top of the note, then above them, and then they were switched back and forth. She eventually decided the cookies should go above the note and explained to me that Santa would flip the note over for the picture of the cookies.

An hour or so later, Kiki came to me and insisted that we needed to leave a cookie for Santa's mom. I told her that I didn't think Santa had a mom and she adamantly responded, "Yes, him does! I saw her on TV!" I said, "Ohhh, you mean Santa's wife!" She then grabbed a cookie, explaining to everyone she passed that we had to leave a cookie for Santa's wife.

She then asked me if I wanted to sleep in the living room with her.

It was absolutely adorable. What a treat to experience the magic of Christmas once again with a four-year-old's help.

Now that Kiki is asleep, Santa has come and left her some presents, eaten the cookies, and written her a brief thanks.

May each of you be blessed enough to have little glimpses that knock you out of the hum-drum and help you remember why it is we all love Christmas so much. And not just the Santa part - but especially the real reason for the season.

"Christmas means giving. The Father gave his Son, and the Son gave his life. Without giving there is no true Christmas, and without sacrifice there is no true worship."
Gordon B. Hinckley

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Further evidence as to how I have the best life ever

The past week or so has been full of Christmas parties and little lucky incidents at each - further evidencing that I have the best life ever.

First was the ward Christmas party. We were supposed to either dress nice or wear an ugly sweater. Josh did both. He loves that sweater and does not just wear it to "ugly sweater" parties, but also, ya know... to look nice.


Ohhh, you just made fun of him, eh? Well you should feel bad now because that sweater belonged to his dad. Who is dead.

Guilt trip over. Moving on.

The next party was Josh's work party at a nice restaurant, Goodwood. Josh wasn't too excited to hang out with a bunch of these people, but we were going for the free dinner. As luck would have it, when we got there, the main table with all the work people was full, so they sat us at a booth. By ourselves. So essentially we got a free date night at Goodwood. Rock on! (I will not go into detail about the subsequent shopping for a shirt to match a darling skirt where I may or may not have had a mini-meltdown full of I'm-fats and I-don't-care-if-you-think-I'm-gorgeous-because-I'm-tubby-Mctubbers. That might negate the whole "best life ever" theme.)

The night after that was my company's huge Christmas Holiday party. (Does that bogus politically correct crap bug anyone else?) These parties are notorious for their huge prizes, so it's always quite the event. It was semi-formal dress at the Grand America Hotel ballroom in Salt Lake City where, I might add, they so generously offered XanGo employees a one-night only offer of a cheap $229 per night deal. (Yeah, that's how nice this place is.) I checked in and got my employee gift, which included a $50 American Express card, an 8 GB flash drive, gourmet chocolates, and a Real Salt Lake jersey (for which Josh was ultra excited). We then sat down and had our fancy-pants dinner. The drawings started and I was drawn for 250 bucks in cash. Woohoo! The chick who won over 2000 bucks from the same guy shortly after me, or the other chick who won 4000 in cash from the same guy later, ooor the guy who won the trip anywhere he wants in the world may argue that they have the best life ever, but c'mon - no one expects to one-up the guy who walked on the moon. (If you didn't catch that reference, shame on you. Go listen to Brian Regan.)

(And here I will not mention the drive from Provo to Salt Lake where I may or may not have told Josh to step on it because he was driving soooo slowly, and where he may or may not have been equally annoyed because of the snowstorm that had covered the roads in snow, and where these little annoyances may or may not have made for the most pleasant drive ever. Again, don't wanna negate the theme...)

The next night was a party in Park City with a bunch of people Josh knew in Hong Kong (did I mention Josh grew up in Asia?). We went with his mom to a beautiful cabin, and I got to pass the girlfriend test. It was good food, and especially nice seeing Josh so proud to show me off to all these people he's known for years.

Oh, and before we left for the party, Josh's mom gave me some nice Arbonne body butter and scrub, as well as a kitchen tools set. Nice!

I sort of stunk at taking pictures at all these events, and the sweater one is the only picture of us I was able to steal from someone else on facebook. Sooo, in order to keep your love and make up for the boringness, here is a picture of Cathy - my alterego. Perhaps I will better introduce ya'll later.




Oh my. I just posted that on the internet. Ah well, there's no turning back now!

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

1.


This is funny stuff. Oh, to be so clever.

And why is it that most things are sooo much funnier when guys do it than when girls do?



2. The concert.
Wait, whaa?? I know you are all shocked and dismayed that I am grateful for this.



3.

The past I-don't-know-how-many-times I haven't been able to make arrangements to see my bffs who are in the Phoenix area, because my family is 3 hours away, and ya know.. it's hard. This trip home for Christmas I decided it had been entirely too long since I'd seen these wonderful women (Jewel, Corri, and Jenn!) who have meant so much to me, so I went on priceline.com and got me a nice ol' hotel room for 35 bucks. What? You heard right, 35 smackeroos. (How come no one uses that word anymore?) So now I get to see them aaaand spend a night with just me and my mama hanging out in a hotel room doing what we want in Phoenix - one of my all-time favorite things to do.



4. This three-times-daily reminder.



This little picture graces the back of each of my pills. And it cracks me up every time.

I may or may not have sneaked them in Josh's coat pockets and other random places for him to find periodically as a reminder to be chaste.



5.


The fact that a week from today is CHRISTMAS (can you believe it's a week??) and I will be in Arizona with my fabulous family.

I forgot to mention...

Recognize this guy?

Yeah, that's Richard Gilmore. Ya know.. Gilmore Girls? Ok, it's actually Edward Hermann. He also played FDR in Annie and is in a ton of other movies, too. He was a guest performer at the concert. He gave a monologue about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which segued into a magnificent performance of the song Longfellow wrote, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." It was very touching. He also recited Luke 2.

The other guest was this guy:


You probably don't recognize his face, but his name is Brian Stokes Mitchell and he sings "Through Heaven's Eyes" in The Prince of Egypt and is a Broadway star. Hearing his voice on this song and the simple fact that he was performing with MoTab, one might assume that his style is pretty classical. Yeah, sure, he can be, but he is sosososo versatile. (He even brayed like a donkey.) His range was totally out of hand. Josh even commented on how out of control he was.

Speaking of out of control, at the end when I was taking pictures, assuming it was fine because the concert was over (while being chastised by Josh if you recall), they started singing a short little finale, so naturally, I recorded it. You'll have to excuse the talking and movement at the beginning. I was trying to tell Josh I was recording (because I was so pleased with myself) without letting everyone else hear me, but when he couldn't I kept trying to nonchalantly move a little closer to him to tell him.

Hmm. I'm a dork.

Best. Concert. Ever. (EVER!)

I sneaked my camera out at the ending bows to take this, all the while being chastised by Josh. (Yeah, like he's ever been a goody two-shoes...)

I've always thought yeah, ok, MoTab is nice, but in the past year or so I have developed an absolute adoration of the choir and their music. Seriously. There have been weeks at a time where it was only MoTab that I listened to on the 25-minute drive to work, and then on the way back home again. Every day. I listen to them every night to fall asleep. I love the orchestrations, I love the peace that comes from their slower songs. It calms me. It soothes me. Have I mentioned that I love it?

That being said, you can imagine my excitement when two tickets to their concert just happened to fall in my lap. Joshy agreed to go with me and I was like a little kid going to see Santa Claus. Even so, I had no idea how absolutely wonderful and, I might venture to say, perfect this evening would be.

The singing was impeccable. The selection of songs inspired. The presentation delightful. Most of all, however, the Spirit that was imminent in that hall was astonishing.

My testimony of preparing oneself for spiritual things was solidified in this experience. I know that pretty much everyone there thought the concert was wonderful, too, but I don't doubt that it was the prayer and pleading for a special experience that helped it hit home so hard. (Now the thought has occurred to me, why not do this more often and more sincerely prior to Sunday's meetings?)

Also increased was my testimony of this: God loves me more than He loves my happiness. And He knows exactly what I need. The past several months have been rough for me. I've plead for some sort of relief, but it seemed to be eluding me. This was exactly for what I had been longing. And the delayed relief made the experience all the more sweet, and all the more tender. As cheesy and cliched as it sounds, I felt like my soul was fed, but I hadn't realized just how hungry I was.

I could ramble on about this experience for awhile, so let me sum up by saying this - Tickets are randomly selected months in advance, and I strongly suggest, if at all possible, you at least try for tickets next year. Now don't go thinking, yeah, but she's a MoTab freak, so naturally she'd love it. Even Josh, who wasn't really all that excited to go, absolutely loved it. He's not really one for hyperbole and he even called it "amazing."


I'm telling you - you won't regret it.


Oh, and it also didn't hurt that we went to The Cheesecake Factory afterward for a delicious dinner and delectable dessert. Awwwwesome.

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

1. The opportunity to serve. I love that at Christmastime, there are so many opportunities to dive in and do something for a specific person. Drives and projects are held year-round, but only at Christmas is it so easy to find out the needs of a specific person whom you have never met, and try to help them. I am grateful to be in a position to be able to do adopt a soldier, pick an ornament with a local child's wish list off a tree at a store, etc, etc. It's been fun, and has helped me to get out the "getting" mode that can accompany Christmas, and focus more on the giving. I do, however, tend to get a little out of control. How is it that I'm pretty budget conscious when spending on those I love, but when it comes to people I don't know at all, I'll pick this up and that up and oo! That too! - and end up spending more money on them than nearly anyone else?




2. These little packets of goodness. Although we have a love/hate relationship and only part of me is grateful for them...
I just purchased these maybe 10 minutes ago, but they have already changed my life {slash} been one of the top 5 worst mistakes of my XanGo career. They are delicious. They melt in your mouth. And now I will know they are upstairs in the vending machine. I will think about them. I will want one everyday. But they pack TWO HUNDRED calories PER cupcake. And I will slowly expand my muffin top and drain my bank account little by little. Dangit, what have I done?! These things cost more calories than my lunch! I had already banned myself from purchasing Hostess cupcakes. How could I foolishly expect them to be only partially satisfying like Little Debbie? Nevermind - cupcakes removed from the Thankful list. They are the bane of my existence.

Except I love you, cupcake. Don't ever leave me.

3. The cute excuse.
I can get away with almost anything I want with Josh when I use the cute excuse. "You can't be mad at me. I'm cute!" or in this case, "Can I paint your toenails? I'm cuuuute..."

Don't worry, I don't abuse my cute power. (Often.)


And also don't worry. I will start blogging about real stuff again soon.

Disneyland - FANTASMIC!

I hate when I wait forever to blog about stuff, so then I have nothing really to say about it. It's like when you don't write in your journal for a long time and it's too overwhelming to catch up on everything so you just don't write in it? Well, I'm determined to do something about Disneyland, so I'm going to address it in installments. That way, I won't be overwhelmed and annoyed, and you won't be as bored. So here's installment one of my Disneyland trip with my mom, my sister, Ann Marie, and her husband, Cody.



On my first night in Disneyland we watched the show they're running right now, FANTASMIC! I've gotta say.. it really was super awesome. The show is in Frontierland on the water, and the basic premise is Mickey battling evil and conjuring good. They use floating scenes by projecting them onto a fountain of water shooting up in the middle of the lake, lots of pyrotechnics, and over 50 live performers. And it's all set to music.

If you ever get the chance to go to D-land while they're doing that, GO. Since the others had already been there a couple days, Cody and Ann Marie just camped out at the front of the lake to save a spot and let my mom and me go play. Because of that, we got fantastic seats. I'm sure this show is way better if you get good seats and I'm telling you - it's worth it to save a good one.

Enough of my rambling. Here are some from the show (Again, the videos look really great uploaded on my computer, but anytime I upload them on youtube or blogger you can hardly see anything! GWAH!!!):

Peter Pan and Captain Hook fought on this boat while the crew tormented Wendy and the others. And yes, Peter flew around. Yeah... my description bites. Watch the video. It's cool:





Then came some of the princesses and their dudes on boats. They each had a little turn performing their main love song. Awwww.



THE BAD GUYS:

Mirror, mirror on the wall water...

Mickey defeats the bad guys:





The fire from the dragon was seriously so hot. It was sweeet.


Steamboat Willie Mickey with characters all over the boat.






They then did a big fireworks finale

The fireworks got so bright that it was a complete white-out. This is with no-flash, but right as they exploded. Awwwwesome. This then segued into the huge firework show they do nightly over the castle.



How can you not love Disneyland??

Thankful Thursday

Another week, another round of gratitude! Man, I really should stop being so lazy and post on days besides Thursdays. Anyway, here goes!

1. This video:



HI. LAR. IOUS.

For outtakes, go here. Seriously, this woman is funny.


2. This and the wickedly awesome deal I got on it on Black Friday:
Yes, I went out on Black Friday. Yes, I was at Kohl's by 3:55am.

Stop judging, and thinking you're better than me because you'd never stoop so low to save a few bucks and shop on Black Friday. I reviewed the ads beforehand and I discovered that I could complete my Christmas shopping in the one trip and could save tons of money so I braved it. Plus, we Kohl's shoppers are much more sophisticated than the crazy Walmart folk who trample and kill people. Ya know... not that I'm judging you people who went to Walmart and saying that I'm better...

Back to the point.

Yes, I was strangely excited by a vacuum purchase. Yes, I was even more strangely excited to deep clean my entire apartment while everyone else was away. Seriously. I was a tad frightened by how excited I was. I'm still supposed to be cool and single! (Yeah, yeah, take offense married folk - you have husbands so shutup.) I just love the feeling of a tidy, clean apartment. Ahhhhh.

As I re-read that section, I noticed that it sounded a bit angry with the "sucka," and "shutup," and stuff. I am really happy inside, I swear. Can we still be friends?

3. To have all my Christmas shopping done! I've never been done so early, but it's super nice.


4. Christmas decorations. I don't have tons of stuff because ya know... I share an apartment with 3 other girls and there's not tons of room and I'm still in the stage of life where you move often. Well, other people move often. I've lived in the same place since I moved to Utah. What can I say? I'm a home-body. I do, however, have more decorations than most. I seized the opportunity to decorate after cleaning and my place feels so cozy now. I love it. And I love the mood I get in when there's just ambient lighting with the Christmas lights providing most of it.

For what are you thankful? Feel free to steal the logo (created by this chick) and have your own Thankful Thursday.