A White Christmas!

We got a wonderful Christmas gift this year! Sure, the games,books, puzzles and the sweaters were great! We love them all, but when we were up at Gramma and Papa’s in Auberry on Christmas night, we got snow! SNOW! It wasn’t very deep and it was really wet, but it was snow! The girls were thrilled!

It has only snowed in Fresno twice in the last twenty years -- once was when Amanda was about a year and a half old. In the past we have taken the girls up in the high mountains to play in the snow, but the last time we did that, Rebecca was about a year and a half old. Katrina has never seen snow before, and she was enthralled! She ran out into it before we could even get her coat and hat on. She was startled when she slipped and fell, but she got right up and kept going! We had to convince them to come inside after a while so they didn’t get too cold. (Our apologies to those of you who are now existing in four feet of snow and below freezing temperatures to so blithely say that they were cold in their sweatshirts and hats.) We hope your Christmas was filled with wonderful surprizes too!


Katrina runs outside without her hat and sweater on

Katrina slips in the snow

Katrina makes handprints in the snow

Rebecca and Amanda run through the snow

our footprints in the snow

Bond. . . James Bond

Kevin and I went to see the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace the other night, and I just wanted to put my opinion out there for anyone who is interested in knowing it. I have seen every James Bond film, as our family were fans as I was growing up. We were big movie fans in general, but there were several, like James Bond movies, that were essential. My favorites would have to be Goldfinger and Dr. No. Those were the best villains ever! "I don't expect you to talk Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

I have to say, first of all (and I am sure that most of you will agree with me), that there is no other James Bond than Sean Connery. He was, is, and always will be THE quintessential James Bond.

Now, most of the actors who have played James Bond since Connery have done a decent job, with the notable exception of Roger Moore. The only thing that Roger Moore did was play next to great villains, like Jaws.

That being said, I am really enjoying the newest James Bond, Daniel Craig. He has definitely brought back the gritty, physical, sexiness that is what James Bond is all about. (One major change however, is that the sexism that was prevalent in the early movies seems to have been diluted. I LOVE Judy Dench as M!) Gone are all the gadgets and back is the use-what-you-can-get-your-hands-on kind of fighting that makes James Bond what he is! That is why we also like Jason Bourne (remember the pen in The Bourne Identity? Ouch!).

He still has the one liners, the cars (Wow! The '64 Aston Martin! Okay, the new one is nice too.), the women, but it is on a greater scale than we have seen in a LONG time! I would even say on a different scale than we have ever seen. The opening scene in Casino Royale is amazing in it's physicality, complexity and sheer length. Who would have thought you would say that about James Bond?

In short, I am glad they picked Daniel Craig as the new James Bond!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have been seriously busy this last few weeks, so we haven't been able to stop and share all the fun stuff we have been doing!

Thanksgiving was great! That is one of my favorite holidays. No gifts, no decorations, just focusing on good food and what we are grateful for in life. Not to mention the fact that I have Mayflower ancestry. Isaac Allerton and his family. Kevin's parents were in Nevada with his sister, so we got together with the Molloys and Kaufmans. We each brought a part of the meal and then all got to take home leftovers. It was great! We all played games and had a fun time.

The weekend after Thanksgiving we put up the trees. This year we bought a new 6.5' pre-lit tree and absolutely covered it with thirty-two years of ornaments. You can barely see the tree! The other tree is all my nativity ornaments. We get a new ornament each year. This year I got a monarch butterfly ornament for the family. Amanda got a silver A, Rebecca got a pink tiara, and Katrina got a handmade Little Einsteins ornament (I just can't justify paying Hallmark $15 for the 3D one that plays the theme song).

On 2 December, we went for the opening walk-thru night of Christmas Tree Lane with the Molloys and the Kaufmans. We walked the two mile route in two hours (including a potty break with a very long line) and got to see all the displays up close. Many of the displays have been there since Kevin and Lora were kids, and others were brand new this year. We have many favorites that we look forward to seeing each year. The older kids were so excited to get to look for all of Santa's reindeer up close! They found Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph. When we got back to the cars, we had hot chocolate, hot Tang, and really yummy gingerbread cookies that Andrea had made. It was a late night, but a lot of fun.

On 4 December, the girls went to make gingerbread houses at the Library. We have been doing that since Amanda was eighteen months old. Amanda is glad that there is not an age limit so that she can still go and do them. I am glad that Amanda is still wanting to go and that it has not gotten too "cool" to do it anymore.

On the 7th, Lora and Andrea Kaufman sang a song called "Baby Christ Child" for the prelude in Sacrament Meeting. That night we went up to Mom and Dad's in Auberry and we helped Dad put the lights on the tree out in the yard by the driveway. They had a live tree about six years ago when they first were building the house, and they planted it next to the driveway. Every year Dad puts lights on it. This year it is probably 12-15' tall! We were going to take a few photos next to the tree so that we could play around with the ideas tat we had and and then retake them later. Well, as luck would have it, we actually got the nearly perfect photo! The tree looks great, we are all smiling, the sun had just set so there was a beautiful glow in the background, AND. . . there was a star in the sky right behind us! (It is actually Saturn, but at this range, it looks like a star.) It turned out great!

On the 9th Rebecca went to the library for a Christmas Storytime and got to make an ornament. It is pink.

In between all of this Amanda has been having meetings twice a week at our house with the Odyssey of the Mind group. They are just about to get their first trial structure made so that they can test it.

On 11 December the Relief Society had their Christmas Party and I was in charge of it. It went really well. We had a progressive dinner of sorts and the soups were especially delicious! The focus was on service and we had a Christmas decoration swap and a Service Swap. Each sister filled out a card with a service that they would be willing to give to another sister, and then the cards were drawn in a "White Elephant" type game. It was a lot of fun! We also had several really wonderful stories that the sisters shared about how giving and receiving service has affected them. It was a lovely evening, and, as we hoped, the fog delayed it's encroachment until after we were done and home.

On 12 December we went to the Ward Christmas Party. This year was a dessert party, so we made fudge. Yum! We took the photos of Amanda and Rebecca with Santa just like we did last year. (Katrina again refused to have anything to do with Santa, even when we offered to sit on his lap with her.) Members of the ward shared family traditions and memories of Christmas and we sang songs. The kids got to decorate cookies. It was fun.

On Saturday I got together with Andrea, Cory and Camille to practice "O Holy Night". I am really proud of myself, because the version that we are singing did not have an alto line, and so I figured out what notes I would sing and created the alto line for Camille and I to sing. I took it to my piano practice on Wednesday and Sister Moses was really impressed and helped me to tweak a couple of spots so that it sounded even better. We practiced really hard and got to the point where we could have sung it a capella if we had to. We got so many compliments when we sang it on Sunday. It sounded so good!

Now we just need to make our Christmas cards and get the last few presents taken care of so we can get things in the mail!

Blogging my weight loss journey - Month 11

I was hoping to do better in the two weeks remaining in November, but with Thanksgiving and too much fudge and a root beer float, I didn't get to where I was hoping to be, but I am heading back in the right direction.

I need to remember the phrase I said all the time at the beginning: Let the temptation pass. Temptations don't usually last all that long, so if I get the temptation to eat something I shouldn't, I should wait for a little while, and then my mind will have moved on, and I won't crave that thing any more.

I have been exercising in the mornings, getting up at 5:00am, to get in a 30-45 minute workout before the girls get up at 6:00am. I resisted getting up that early for a long time, but it is working out okay. I also need to get out and walk more again.

I lost 3 pounds and 3.5" in the last two weeks. I am really going to need added strength in this next month as there are many of my favorite foods that are going to be readily available around me. Let the temptation pass! Let the temptation pass!