Christmas
Well, it's been a week since I have written here. Christmas has come and gone, and life just keeps coming at me. I'm not complaining.
Wednesday was some of the same old stuff at work. I went to Young Men that night and we just had a play games night while Lance interviewed some of the boys on their scouting achievements. The Daybreak ward (a ward that is meeting in our chapel because they don't have enough chapels in their stake or area) was using half the gym and told us that they are supposed to have this night once a month. Our bishopric had never heard of this, but we had to try to keep it down a little bit because they were having a Christmas Party dinner. It was kind of hard because we were playing some football and dodgeball. Those just are not quiet games. My wife went with the Young Women to see the lights at Temple Square.
Thursday we had our IT Christmas party. We went to FatCats to bowl and have pizza. I was able to play three games while we were there. I use the term play very loosely. My scores were not at all great. I would do well if that same score went toward a golf game. Of course there was a prize drawing at the end. I got some ugly jacket that we will be sending directly to the Deseret Industries.
I had the day off on Friday. My kids had been out of school since Wednesday. There was a little bit of snow on the ground and when I asked my daughter where my son was she told me he was outside shoveling the walks. I was grateful for that. He has been really good at helping me this year with that.
Around noon of Friday we headed out to Ceder Hills to my brothers house to drop of my son and take Shelly and two of her girls, along with my wife, myself, and my daughter to go see "The Nutcracker" from a local college in Timpview High. We were on row Z which wasn't too bad. The weather was kind of bad getting there (but not too bad). We sat in those seats for the first half of the play. At intermission, my nephew waved us down to some seats near the front. His wife was in the play (which is part of the reason we went to it) and it was nice sitting with him and his in-laws. We congratulated Andrea when the play was done and left. We went to Apollo Burger for dinner.
All of Saturday was spent trying to clean our house up somewhat for the Christmas Eve party at our home. My wife swears we will not do this again next year at our house. It was a bit tiring, but we got it mostly ready. There would still be a few things to do on Sunday.
My stake told all wards to have all three meetings. We went to church and I had a good lesson in Deacons quorum. It was out late, so I went into the chapel rather than Sunday School. The choir was practicing for the program. I noticed that Mary Fletcher(she works in Young Women as well as the Choir director) got mad at some of the men who were talking in the chapel and told them to be quiet. A little later there was more noise and she turned around to see the Young Women president talking to others. At first she was going to say something but didn't. A few of the men noticed this, but what can you do. It's interesting about the double standards sometimes. Anyway, there were three songs and two speakers for Sacrament meeting. The second speaker bored me to tears (just an expression).
Arriving home, I noticed that my wife had wrapped a lot of our Christmas presents which would save me time that night. I was grateful for that. I helped to get some things ready for people to start coming at 5:00 that night. We had my wifes parents there as well as Gladys, Pam and Anne, Brandon, Jeff, Nathan and Collin. Christopher came a little bit later. It wasn't a huge group, but was enough that we had fun. Dinner was mexican haystacks (Fritos with a meat sauce and a lot of trimmings) and a salad. The drink was Raspberry Crystal light mixed with Fresca. After dinner, Anne sang some Christmas songs to us (she has a wonderful voice) and my son and my daughter played a tune each on the piano. We mostly just visited.
A few gifts were handed out. We started this with a gag gift to Pam. She had told us that all she wanted from us was a Lexus with a bow on it. Not able to find a matchbox Lexus we gave her a Ferrari with a bow on it. Of course we also gave her some balsamic vinegar and a nice picture frame made of slate with a picture of a fall scene that had our kids in it. It was quite a beautiful picture.
As Pam and Anne were leaving that night they asked if I could download a book for Annes Palm. It was a gift to Anne from Pam. My wife was pretty upset with me because I said I would see what I could do, and this was supposed to be an evening for family, not one to do this kind of stuff. Well, I didn't do it, and came out to help clean up everything and then went to help finish wrapping gifts.
Monday was Christmas. We set our alarm for 6:30 when my wife got up. At about 7:10 she asked me if I was going to get up (which I did). We then had to wake up the kids (after I showered). We went out and opened our gifts. My daughter got a Sandisk Sansa MP3 player and then some girly type of stuff (perfumes, finger nail polish and some of that). My son got a portable DVD player. He also got a Magnetix toy (Magnets with steelies that you build stuff with). There were also some odds and ends.
Something funny about the Magnetix is that the night before, we couldn't find it. We had put the beans for my daughters bean bag chair (oh yeah, she got that as well) in the attic, so I was looking in the attic as well as through various drawers and all of our regular places to hide things for this game. We looked above our kitchen cabinets. We looked downstairs in the Christmas tree box and other places. We looked in the garage. Nothing. After about an hour of this searching my wife said, "It can't be as simple as being under our bed". I then told her that I knew exactly where it was. Looking under our bed I pulled it out.
Well, with all the extra dust that I had knocked about in all those dusty places, I had some major asthma for the rest of the night. There were some calmer times but there was also times where my breathing was very hard and tight. I finally calmed down enough to go to sleep. The last time I looked at the clock, it was 2:15 AM.
Now, back to Christmas (I just had to get in those other happenings). My wife got a leather coat, leather gloves, chia herbs and some odds and ends. I got my leather coat, rock'em sock'em robots, and other odds and ends. It was nice.
Before heading out to my parents house, I plugged in my daughters MP3 player to the computer to charge it up. We then went to my parents home to have breakfast. Breakfast always consists of Brochnitas (not sure how to spell it, but it is French Toast the way I grew up saying it), pancakes and ham. There is also grapefruit and chocolate milk. Of course we opened more gifts there. Names had been drawn previously based on how many kids you have for cousin gifts and then I have one brother that I give a gift too. We also open gifts from my parents or the kids grandparents. It is a major time of confusion, but gets done with some semblance of sanity.
We left there and went to my wifes parents home. For lunch we had a pot roast dinner. That was quite good. After awhile, my wife and I went home, leaving our kids at the Wach house. We had to let the dog out so it didn't have an accident in our home. My wife wanted to take a nap, so I decided to see how it was going with that MP3 player as well as see if I could download the book for my sister-in-law. I could not move any MP3 files to the MP3 player, and thought maybe my computer was having a problem. I rebooted it, but that did not fix the problem. It was charged up and all, but nothing would go into it and my computer would no longer recognize it. When I unplugged it from the USB drive the screen went to blue and stayed that way. It would not turn off. You couldn't get it to do anything (what a pain). Well, next project. I went to download the book, but had to get the name of the book first. I got that (but when they called me back it woke my wife up) and was able to get the book onto Annes Palm. After finishing that, we went back to the Wachs.
There were all kinds of goodies out at the Wach household. Treats, a homemade chicken pot pie (well puff pastries were used with the chicken pot pie goods) and drinks for all (non-alcoholic, of course). Once again, we visited and enjoyed each others company. Later in the evening we left (my daughter stayed to spend the night with Michelle). It was a tiring day, so we pretty much went to bed.
Today, I had to get to work. Not a lot of people were at work so it was kind of a quiet day. It took all day, but I fixed up a problem that I was having with Old Republic data coming from Gallagher Bassett. I was glad to finally get that cleared up. I will have to finish some more on it tomorrow. At lunch time I took back the MP3 player and ordered a new one. None of the Circuit City stores had it and the supplier didn't have it in stock either. I was told it will probably be two weeks before I can get one. My daughter is quite disappointed about this, but there is nothing I can really do about it because I like the one I picked out.
On my way home from work, I stopped into Smiths Marketplace because we had bought an extra Countdown game. I got the money back on that and then went to pick up a prescription for Prilosec (well it is the generic version I get). My reflux has been happening since I quit taking it about two weeks ago. I was hoping I could go longer without it, but that isn't going to be the case.
At home, my daughter still wasn't home. My wife wasn't too happy with her brother and the fact that she should've been home by now. She finally came in around 5:45 with Michelle. It was then that we found out that Michelle would be staying the night at our house (my wife had invited her over, but didn't set up the time). We asked her what the plan was, and we were told that she thought her dad might pick her up tomorrow. What a pain.
Wednesday was some of the same old stuff at work. I went to Young Men that night and we just had a play games night while Lance interviewed some of the boys on their scouting achievements. The Daybreak ward (a ward that is meeting in our chapel because they don't have enough chapels in their stake or area) was using half the gym and told us that they are supposed to have this night once a month. Our bishopric had never heard of this, but we had to try to keep it down a little bit because they were having a Christmas Party dinner. It was kind of hard because we were playing some football and dodgeball. Those just are not quiet games. My wife went with the Young Women to see the lights at Temple Square.
Thursday we had our IT Christmas party. We went to FatCats to bowl and have pizza. I was able to play three games while we were there. I use the term play very loosely. My scores were not at all great. I would do well if that same score went toward a golf game. Of course there was a prize drawing at the end. I got some ugly jacket that we will be sending directly to the Deseret Industries.
I had the day off on Friday. My kids had been out of school since Wednesday. There was a little bit of snow on the ground and when I asked my daughter where my son was she told me he was outside shoveling the walks. I was grateful for that. He has been really good at helping me this year with that.
Around noon of Friday we headed out to Ceder Hills to my brothers house to drop of my son and take Shelly and two of her girls, along with my wife, myself, and my daughter to go see "The Nutcracker" from a local college in Timpview High. We were on row Z which wasn't too bad. The weather was kind of bad getting there (but not too bad). We sat in those seats for the first half of the play. At intermission, my nephew waved us down to some seats near the front. His wife was in the play (which is part of the reason we went to it) and it was nice sitting with him and his in-laws. We congratulated Andrea when the play was done and left. We went to Apollo Burger for dinner.
All of Saturday was spent trying to clean our house up somewhat for the Christmas Eve party at our home. My wife swears we will not do this again next year at our house. It was a bit tiring, but we got it mostly ready. There would still be a few things to do on Sunday.
My stake told all wards to have all three meetings. We went to church and I had a good lesson in Deacons quorum. It was out late, so I went into the chapel rather than Sunday School. The choir was practicing for the program. I noticed that Mary Fletcher(she works in Young Women as well as the Choir director) got mad at some of the men who were talking in the chapel and told them to be quiet. A little later there was more noise and she turned around to see the Young Women president talking to others. At first she was going to say something but didn't. A few of the men noticed this, but what can you do. It's interesting about the double standards sometimes. Anyway, there were three songs and two speakers for Sacrament meeting. The second speaker bored me to tears (just an expression).
Arriving home, I noticed that my wife had wrapped a lot of our Christmas presents which would save me time that night. I was grateful for that. I helped to get some things ready for people to start coming at 5:00 that night. We had my wifes parents there as well as Gladys, Pam and Anne, Brandon, Jeff, Nathan and Collin. Christopher came a little bit later. It wasn't a huge group, but was enough that we had fun. Dinner was mexican haystacks (Fritos with a meat sauce and a lot of trimmings) and a salad. The drink was Raspberry Crystal light mixed with Fresca. After dinner, Anne sang some Christmas songs to us (she has a wonderful voice) and my son and my daughter played a tune each on the piano. We mostly just visited.
A few gifts were handed out. We started this with a gag gift to Pam. She had told us that all she wanted from us was a Lexus with a bow on it. Not able to find a matchbox Lexus we gave her a Ferrari with a bow on it. Of course we also gave her some balsamic vinegar and a nice picture frame made of slate with a picture of a fall scene that had our kids in it. It was quite a beautiful picture.
As Pam and Anne were leaving that night they asked if I could download a book for Annes Palm. It was a gift to Anne from Pam. My wife was pretty upset with me because I said I would see what I could do, and this was supposed to be an evening for family, not one to do this kind of stuff. Well, I didn't do it, and came out to help clean up everything and then went to help finish wrapping gifts.
Monday was Christmas. We set our alarm for 6:30 when my wife got up. At about 7:10 she asked me if I was going to get up (which I did). We then had to wake up the kids (after I showered). We went out and opened our gifts. My daughter got a Sandisk Sansa MP3 player and then some girly type of stuff (perfumes, finger nail polish and some of that). My son got a portable DVD player. He also got a Magnetix toy (Magnets with steelies that you build stuff with). There were also some odds and ends.
Something funny about the Magnetix is that the night before, we couldn't find it. We had put the beans for my daughters bean bag chair (oh yeah, she got that as well) in the attic, so I was looking in the attic as well as through various drawers and all of our regular places to hide things for this game. We looked above our kitchen cabinets. We looked downstairs in the Christmas tree box and other places. We looked in the garage. Nothing. After about an hour of this searching my wife said, "It can't be as simple as being under our bed". I then told her that I knew exactly where it was. Looking under our bed I pulled it out.
Well, with all the extra dust that I had knocked about in all those dusty places, I had some major asthma for the rest of the night. There were some calmer times but there was also times where my breathing was very hard and tight. I finally calmed down enough to go to sleep. The last time I looked at the clock, it was 2:15 AM.
Now, back to Christmas (I just had to get in those other happenings). My wife got a leather coat, leather gloves, chia herbs and some odds and ends. I got my leather coat, rock'em sock'em robots, and other odds and ends. It was nice.
Before heading out to my parents house, I plugged in my daughters MP3 player to the computer to charge it up. We then went to my parents home to have breakfast. Breakfast always consists of Brochnitas (not sure how to spell it, but it is French Toast the way I grew up saying it), pancakes and ham. There is also grapefruit and chocolate milk. Of course we opened more gifts there. Names had been drawn previously based on how many kids you have for cousin gifts and then I have one brother that I give a gift too. We also open gifts from my parents or the kids grandparents. It is a major time of confusion, but gets done with some semblance of sanity.
We left there and went to my wifes parents home. For lunch we had a pot roast dinner. That was quite good. After awhile, my wife and I went home, leaving our kids at the Wach house. We had to let the dog out so it didn't have an accident in our home. My wife wanted to take a nap, so I decided to see how it was going with that MP3 player as well as see if I could download the book for my sister-in-law. I could not move any MP3 files to the MP3 player, and thought maybe my computer was having a problem. I rebooted it, but that did not fix the problem. It was charged up and all, but nothing would go into it and my computer would no longer recognize it. When I unplugged it from the USB drive the screen went to blue and stayed that way. It would not turn off. You couldn't get it to do anything (what a pain). Well, next project. I went to download the book, but had to get the name of the book first. I got that (but when they called me back it woke my wife up) and was able to get the book onto Annes Palm. After finishing that, we went back to the Wachs.
There were all kinds of goodies out at the Wach household. Treats, a homemade chicken pot pie (well puff pastries were used with the chicken pot pie goods) and drinks for all (non-alcoholic, of course). Once again, we visited and enjoyed each others company. Later in the evening we left (my daughter stayed to spend the night with Michelle). It was a tiring day, so we pretty much went to bed.
Today, I had to get to work. Not a lot of people were at work so it was kind of a quiet day. It took all day, but I fixed up a problem that I was having with Old Republic data coming from Gallagher Bassett. I was glad to finally get that cleared up. I will have to finish some more on it tomorrow. At lunch time I took back the MP3 player and ordered a new one. None of the Circuit City stores had it and the supplier didn't have it in stock either. I was told it will probably be two weeks before I can get one. My daughter is quite disappointed about this, but there is nothing I can really do about it because I like the one I picked out.
On my way home from work, I stopped into Smiths Marketplace because we had bought an extra Countdown game. I got the money back on that and then went to pick up a prescription for Prilosec (well it is the generic version I get). My reflux has been happening since I quit taking it about two weeks ago. I was hoping I could go longer without it, but that isn't going to be the case.
At home, my daughter still wasn't home. My wife wasn't too happy with her brother and the fact that she should've been home by now. She finally came in around 5:45 with Michelle. It was then that we found out that Michelle would be staying the night at our house (my wife had invited her over, but didn't set up the time). We asked her what the plan was, and we were told that she thought her dad might pick her up tomorrow. What a pain.
posted by Craig's Blog at 11:19 PM
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