Sleeping Angel

Poor Jackson was so tired on Sunday that he fell asleep during church. He was very creative using his scriptures as a pillow. I think this is so cute.

The 5 Days of Christmas

Wow... I can't believe Christmas is over. We have tried our best to make sure it lasts as long as possible. We have, with our friends, created the best Christmas activities. On the Friday before Christmas we arranged an impromto canned food drive for the food bank. The boys had so much fun running from house to house. We gathered 88 lbs of food. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Saturday was a cold day (yes we have those in AZ), we spent a couple of hours watching Cam play baseball- way to go Cam, we had great lunch, a badmitton tournament, and then a great evening eating pizza and watching the BYU football game (Rise and Shout!!!).

Sunday we spent a nice night strolling around the AZ temple. It was beautiful.

Monday was our Christmas Eve event. We saw National Treasure: Book of Secret, ate at Cafe Rio, and then had an amazing dinner. Our evening was capped off by a great talent show.

Tuesday was a very laid back day. We didn't open presents until 7:00am. Nothing like sleeping in on Christmas. I think we surprised the boys by giving them a Wii. They had all their money saved and they were going to buy one after Christmas. We did absolutely nothing--it was nice. We ended our 5 days of Christmas by playing one of the games we received for Christmas. I won the game by lapping up water like a cat for 30 seconds--not one of my better moments.

Anyway-Christmas was wonderful this year. It was full of friends and family. I only wish we could have had everyone we love with us. We missed you all!

Christmas Joys

The last couple of nights we have been out in the neighborhood delivering Christmas treats to our friends. This has involved Chris driving (and sending emails from his black-berry), me frantically putting bows on the bottles and giving Chris directions, the boys carefully (except for Jackson who was swinging the bottles around) carrying bottles of Martinellis up to doors. There was also the usual arguments over who got to do which door. There was also a lot of "fine, I'm not delivering anymore." I was wondering to myself, as I sat in the middle of two boys yelling at each other, whether this was really worth it. About this time, the boys stopped fighting and one of them reached over and gave me a hug. He said, "Mom, thanks for getting all these ready so we can deliver them. It's a great Christmas." I guess somewhere between the arguing, the the bows falling all over the car, and Chris complaining about my directions--A little Christmas spirit worked it's way into our lives.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

New York by Blackberry

Business travel for me means late nights, early mornings and conference rooms in between. Not much, if any, sight seeing. When we lived in Europe I would buy a little disposable camera each trip and take whatever pictures I could hanging out a cab window on my way to said conference room. I would call the photos "London by Cab" or "Zurich by Cab". Now that my BlackBerry (Angie's arch-nemesis in our relationship) has a camera, I took a bunch of pictures in New York this week I call "New York by BlackBerry". Here are a couple.

-Chris

Christmas Cards

I love everything about Christmas. I love decorating, the music, the food (I am trying to be good), the gift giving, and even the dreaded Christmas Cards. I know some people don't like them, but I love getting a letter with the cards. I love reading what has happened to my friends and family over the past year. I do hate trying to come up with an original idea every year. Last year we took our picture out by some cacti in the desert. I thought it was pretty cute. Friday is the big day for us to take our picture. I am a little nervous because we have not planned very well (Chris has been in NY the whole week). But tomorrow is the day. Wish us luck!

Merry Christmas

The other night at dinner we were talking about all the places that won't use the words "Merry Christmas". Now usually I am a little liberal in opinion on personal rights, but this is one time where I say-Merry Christmas! For me Christmas symbolizes so much- not just presents or a holiday. It symbolizes Christ- the core of my faith. I love the what Christ taught- Love one another. How can that be wrong? No matter your beliefs, it should be human nature to be kind to one another. So as I go through this Christmas season I will say it loud and proud Merry Christmas.