Christmas Survey

On Christmas morning after we'd opened all our presents, I took a survey of our Christmas favorites of 2008, starting with Rachel...

Favorite Gift Given: A tool set for my dad.

Favorite Gift Received: My DVD player, now I can watch movies in my room.

Favorite Christmas Song: Winter Wonderland. We sang this at our Christmas choir concert.

Favorite Tradition: Every year on Christmas Eve we go see a movie. This year we saw "Bolt".

Favorite Christmas Movie: The Grinch.

Favorite Christmas Goodie: Chocolate covered peanuts.

Favorite Christmas Memory of 2008: Going to see the lights on Temple Square.

****************************************

BRADEN:

Favorite Gift Given: I did my shopping at the dollar store. They were all great.

Favorite Gift Received: Guitar Hero 4.

Favorite Christmas Song: Feliz Navidad, I can play it on the guitar (real guitar, not Guitar Hero).

Favorite Tradition: Going out to eat on Christmas Eve.

Favorite Christmas Movie: The Christmas Story. I can quote most of it... "I can't put my arms down!"

Favorite Christmas Goodie: Chocolate covered carmels.

Favorite Christmas Memory of 2008: Christmas Eve Movie.

*****************************************

STEFANIE:

Favorite Gift Given: A beautiful watch for my sister.

Favorite Gift Received: MP3 player. I put all the songs from Mama Mia on it.

Favorite Christmas Song: "Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart." I turned that song up very loud whenever it came on the radio.

Favorite Tradition: See a movie on Christmas Eve.

Favorite Christmas Movie: The Year Without A Santa Clause.

Favorite Christmas Goodie: Colorful candy canes (not the peppermint kind).

Favorite Christmas Memory of 2008: We went to Grandma's house the day after Christmas to play with my cousins.

*********************************************

KENT:

Favorite Gift Given: A fancy necklace for my wife.

Favorite Gift Received: Flat screen TV.

Favorite Christmas Song: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear from the hymn book.

Favorite Tradition: Going out for lunch and a movie on Christmas Eve.

Favorite Christmas Movie: It's A Wonderful Life.

Favorite Christmas Goodie: Carmel brownies

Favorite Christmas Memory of 2008: Driving safely through Sardine Canyon during a blizzard...twice.

*********************************************
ME...
Favorite Gift Given: Slipper Socks for my mother-in-law. They were so soft and warm I nearly kept them for myself.

Favorite Gift Received: GPS Satelite Navigation System for my car. Now maybe I won't get lost so often.

Favorite Christmas Song: The Little Drummer Boy, the song my chime choir performed on TV.

Favorite Tradition: Decorating my home inside and out.

Favorite Christmas Movie: It's a Wonderful Life. Kent and I watched it together on Christmas Eve.

Favorite Christmas Goodie: Pecan Pie. My mom had one waiting for me when we arrived at her house the day after Christmas.

Favorite Christmas Memory of 2008: Christmas Eve family devotional, retelling the story of the birth of Jesus, and a new tradition we started this year...Christmas love notes.
.

Hope everyone had a wonderful merry Christmas, and wishing you all a fabulous new year!

WIN

Copper Hills High School got a nice win last night against Granger in West Valley. A Deseret News reporter interviewed Coach Smith and a couple of the players after the game, here is a link to the article. I personally am very relieved with that win, now my husband can have a happy Christmas... at least until January 2nd when CHHS plays LEHI! (Who will Rachel cheer for???)

(Update: Lehi won by 4 points (boo!) and Rachel sat by the Copper Hills fans. I guess family loyalty won out this time.)

LET IT SNOW!

Look what's being dumped on us this morning! We'll have a white Christmas for sure.

I never realized how much I'd enjoy having teenagers (ha/ha)!

CHIME CHOIR

I can't say it enough...I love my job! And the "cherry on top" is directing the school chime choir. I held auditions back in September and selected twelve great kids to be in the chime choir. We've had rehearsals every week since then, getting ready for our Christmas performances. This Christmas season has been awesome, but also insanely busy for us. We've performed multiple times in December, today was our final performance for the parents at our school.

Last Wednesday evening we did a forty-minute show for the shoppers at University Mall. That was so much fun. Most of the people walking by had never seen a chime choir before and had no idea what we were doing, but it sounded so magical and wonderful that they had to stop and listen. Chimes are similar to handbells and have the most beautiful, clear ringing tone.

One of our most exciting performances was on the morning of December 10th when we made an appearance on live TV! Fox 13 morning news sent a reporter to our school. If you'd like to watch it, here is the link. Scroll down to the side video links, select the second link from the bottom and click the "play" arrow.

OK, that was our first performance of the year, so it was far from perfect but I was just grateful we got through it. For days afterwards I got comments from people who had seen us on TV. Pretty cool!

TEMPLE SQUARE

Tonight for Family Home Evening we went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. They were beautiful.

COACH SMITH

My husband is living his dream... ...for as long as I've known him, he's wanted nothing more than to coach basketball. He is head coach at Copper Hills High School in West Jordan and he loves every minute of it.

CHHS is a 5-A school, which means it is one of the biggest high schools in the state. Tonight was the first home game of the season, it was great to be back in the stands, cheering for the boys of Copper Hills...and their awesome coach!

He has a great coaching staff, the four of them manage three teams... sophomores, junior varsity and varsity teams. They practice every day for at least two hours and have games on average twice a week from November through March.

That definitely makes me a "basketball widow" but he is so happy doing what he does, I can't begrudge him all the time he is away and busy.

By the way, did I mention the outcome of tonight's game? Copper Hills: 57, Hillcrest: 41. Their season record is now 2-1. Way to go, Grizzlies!

DECK THE HALLS

The house is decorated inside and out, the tree is up, and we are ready for Christmas! I truly love this time of year...

BASKETBALL HERO

Last month Braden tried out for the 8th grade basketball team at his middle school. He made the first and second cuts, but wasn't sure if he'd make the team. On the day the roster was posted he was pretty excited to find his name on the list. He is "on the short side" so it wasn't a sure thing, but what he lacks in height, he makes up for in skills, speed, athleticism, and smarts. His team practices three mornings a week at 6:00 a.m., He's always had a hard time getting out of bed for school in the mornings so I was wondering how he'd manage this, but somehow (so far) at 5:45 a.m. he's been up right on time and ready to go to practice. Two weeks ago at his first game of the season his team was down one point with six seconds left in the game. Braden was fouled so he was sent to the foul line for 1-1 free throws. Pressure!!! Kent and I were sitting in the stands completely stressed out, but Braden was totally cool. He sunk them both and his team won the game by one point. (Whew!) Good job Braden!

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

This is a glimpse of our Thanksgiving weekend this year...Braden's super-league soccer team played in a tournament in sunny St. George. It is the same tournament they played in last year and the outcome was the same again this year...tournament champions. Here they are at the awards ceremony accepting their medals. Braden is on the top row, second from the left. Last year on Thanksgiving Day we headed down to St. George early and ate Thanksgiving dinner with the other soccer families at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. That was fun once, but we didn't want to repeat it this year. So instead we decided to make our own Thanksgiving dinner here at home and then leave for St. George immediately afterwards. It is the first time we have cooked and eaten Thanksgiving dinner at home on our own. Kent was in charge of the turkey, potatoes and gravy, and I did the stuffing, rolls, salad, veggies and pies--everything from scratch. We missed being with family, but overall the dinner was great!

We left for St. George as soon as the kitchen was cleaned up and the left-overs put away. We arrived that evening with enough time for the kids to throw on their swim suits and play in the pool and hot tub. All the soccer families from our team stayed in the same hotel, so the kids loved running around with their friends. Kent liked watching football on the big screen hotel T.V. But my favorite thing was shopping the next morning. At 3:30 a.m. (yes, that is A.M.!) Kent and I got up, left the kids sleeping in the hotel room and participated in the crazy phenomenon known as "Black Friday." It was nuts! I would never have believed the crowds at that hour, long lines and general madness! I loved every minute of it, snagged some great bargains, and got a huge chunk of my Christmas shopping done as well. We spent the rest of the weekend running back and forth from different soccer fields around St. George, cheering for the boys in yellow.

What a great weekend. Congratulations Arsenal Soccer Club! Next year they're talking about entering a Thanksgiving tournament in Las Vegas or San Diego. We'll see...

SWEET SIXTEEN

My baby Rachel is sixteen years old!
Today I've been reflecting on the day of her birth, sixteen years
ago. Kent was a BYU student, a couple of weeks away from finals.
I had graduated about six months before and was working part time at a nearby elementary school.

We'd been married for two years, we were living in a tiny
apartment in Provo, and we were so excited to become parents.
Our families were excited too, she was the first grandbaby on my
side. We had decided not to find out the gender of our baby, but it
was no secret that I dearly hoped for a baby girl.

Thanksgiving was two days away and we were planning to travel to
Preston for the weekend. The baby wasn't due for a couple of
weeks. I'd been to the doctor the day before, he told me that
nothing was happening, and not to expect a delivery for at least a
week to ten days.

But our baby had other ideas. After a long, painful night and
morning we headed to the hospital that afternoon. It was not a
smooth delivery, the baby was posterior, the cord was around her
neck, her heart rate dipped to dangerous levels. The room was
filled with doctors and nurses working fast and furious, and we
were minutes away from an emergency c-section. Kent and I
were terrified.

But somehow the doctor was able to turn her, get her heart rate stabilized and she made her entrance into the world at 8:31 p.m. We were filled with joy when the doctor announced that we had a healthy baby GIRL!! She has been a blessing in our lives ever since.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of her through the years...

Happy birthday Rachel! We love you so much!

ARTS CONFERENCE

A few weeks ago my principal told me about a local two-day seminar for elementary classroom teachers and specialty teachers of the arts. He offered to send me and three other teachers from my school, all expenses paid. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and have been excited about it ever since. It was held this past Thursday and Friday and it was outstanding! It was held at the Eccles Conference Center in Ogden, about an hour north of here. Over 300 teachers from all over the state attended. There were classes offered in music, drama, art and dance. I went with hopes that I'd come home with a head full of ideas I could use in my music classes and was not disappointed. Each session was excellent, the presenters well prepared, their presentations inspiring. I can hardly wait to start using all these new ideas.

As part of the seminar, we got to attend a couple of featured performances at the Egyptian Theater, located inside the Eccles Center. It is a stunning old performing arts theater, built in the early 1920s and renovated about 15 years ago. It is ornate and colorful and has such a regal feel to it. My favorite performance was by a modern dance company from UVU, their show took my breath away.

There were four of us from my school who attended together, two ladies in their sixties, one in her twenties, and me.

Kent dropped me off at my school early Thursday morning, the four of us met there and drove up together. After registration and an opening session in the theater, we all separated for our various classes, but we met back together in a big fancy banquet hall for all our meals.

Thursday night our classes were finished by about 5:30 so we had the evening open to us. We went out to dinner and just talked for hours, then we stayed that night at the Marriott Hotel. I loved getting to know my collegues better.

It was a great experience for me, something I've never done before, but hope to have many more opportunities like this in the future.

UP ON THE HOUSETOP

This weekend has been beautiful! Sunny, blue skies, nearly perfect for mid-November. So Kent decided to take advantage of the nice weather by going "up on the housetop" and hanging Christmas lights.Our house is very tall. This day always makes me so nervous. Every year I read news stories about people who fall to their deaths while putting up Christmas lights.

Thank goodness Kent stayed out of the news for one more year.

SCHOOL PICS

Here are the kids' school pictures for the 2008-2009 school year.
Rachel--10th Grade
Braden: 8th Grade

Stefanie: 4th Grade

GIFTS

It's amazing to me how each individual is blessed with certain talents and gifts. For some it is the talent of being a great cook, for another it may be the gift of compassion. My sister Margaret is the most organized woman on the planet. My mom makes gorgeous quilts, as well as knitted and crocheted afghans. My friend Sonya can sit down at the piano and play almost anything as though she's practiced it for weeks. My next door neighbor Lynette has a pantry overflowing with her bottled fruits and veggies. What wonderful gifts!

Here are some gifts I admire in others, and am trying to develop for myself:

*the gift of generosity

*the ability to drive anywhere with confidence, and never get lost

*the ability to be positive in all situations

*the gift of spiritual sensitivity

*the gift of service--clearly seeing and acting on others' true needs

*the skill of understanding computers and technology

*the ability to remain calm under stress

Here are specific gifts I appreciate in my sweet family:

Kent: The ability to accept and love people just as they are. He is completely nonjudgemental.

Rachel: The gift of courage. She is--and always has been--able to step confidently into new experiences and situations.

Braden: The ability to be a friend. People of all personality types are drawn to him.

Stefanie: The gift of being sweet and loveable --I hope this will never change!

It's so easy to see other's talents and gifts, and so hard to recognize, appreciate or talk about our own. So tonight I will humbly--and timidly--list ten of my own gifts.

Ten things that I consider talents or gifts of my own:

1) The gift of dependability
2) The gift of sensitivity to the feelings of others
3) The ability to enjoy reading and appreciate good books
4) The ability to love and easily communicate with children
5) The ability to decorate my home
6) The ability to manage money
7) The gift of common sense
8) The ability to plan ahead and be prepared
9) The ability to create and appreciate music
10) The gift of a "green thumb"

What are some of your talents and gifts? I challenge you to be bold and tell the world. In this season of thanksgiving, I believe it is a way of expressing gratitude for them.

JAZZ GAME

Last night we went to the Jazz vs. Clippers basketball game. Kent snagged some great tickets, we were on the 9th row. We were right behind the basket, it was great! We were able to hear the players talking to each other and to the referees.

Everyone in the seats behind the baskets were given noisemakers to shake when someone from the opposing team shot a free throw. Rachel & Braden loved them and banged them together nonstop through the entire game. It was LOUD!!

It was nice to look UP at the jumbo tron this time. Most the time when we go to Jazz games we're way up in the nosebleed section looking down on it.

Yay, we won! Final score...Jazz 101--Clippers 79. Fun night!