conversations at christmas

Random comments heard around our house on Christmas:

Billy: "Does it concern you that your daughters can break into houses in multiple ways, but don't know how to hem a pair of pants?"

Rachel: "My boyfriend has some mad balloon animal making skills!"

Billy's skills, not so much:"I made a tadpole!"

On my package: "The most lovely lady on the block. The one and only beautiful Hott Mama"

To Rachel, a Gift card to Barnes and Noble:

Roxanne: "I couldn't find the book you wanted, so I got you a gift card."

Billy: "I fell asleep at that Barnes and Noble so I hope the card means something special to you."

Gift tag from Melanie: To Kyle the Tile "I tried to make it sound cool, but nothing really rhymes with Kyle" His gift, a remote control police car: "I'm going to pull someone over with this!"

Melanie's favorite gift, a Bedazzler: "I have been dreaming about this FOREVER! I'm going to bedazzle everything !" Everyone else: "You can bedazzle your easy bake oven!" "Nobody leave your shoes out!" "I'm afraid to go to sleep now!"

New bag of Potpourri: "You know how our bowl of potpourri is dusty? Now we have a new scent. We can bedazzle it. It will be pretty and smell good"

Roxanne: "Billy knows just what I like." Billy: "That's because I told her - here is $20, walk around the mall and if you find something, buy it."

Dave gave the girls some HUGE illustrated storybooks. Melanie: "Roxanne, now you can be a 2nd grade teacher!"

Melanie, opening a video: "I've never seen the Three Stooges. I think this will finish up my education!"

Dave gave Rachel a gift that included a LONG letter listing all the reasons he loves her, which included: "I love you because you know what a groove reducing coupling is."

(It was a box that scrolled out a long letter, (a LONG letter) then scrolled out into a string of money-all $2 bills)

Dave got everyone wooden 3D puzzles.

Melanie: "I got a wasp, no . . . a cicada."

Roxanne: "What's a cicada?"

Melanie: "It's those bugs you don't want to see floating in your pool."

Rachel: "Mine's the best, I got the Eagle."
Cynthia: "It says for ages 6+, so there's a bit of a buffer there."

Billy: "My dinosaur will eat your motorcycle"

Kyle: "But my motorcycle is cross country so it will chase your dinosaur."

Billy: "But your motorcycle will need some fuel sometime and my dinosaur will be waiting at the gas station."

Billy, opening a Charger's t-shirt from Roxanne: "Now we can go to the Charger's games in style . . . well, once Roxy buys us both some Chargers tickets."

Melanie got some barbie clothes and stuffed them with money for Rachel to get a new outfit. Imagining taking these to the store with her: "I know you don't take checks, but do you accept "doll"ars?"

We ended the day with a messy house, our bellies full of Christmas goodness and a lot of this silliness:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

the facts of christmas

FACT #1
There still has to be a letter to Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, even though the youngest person in the house is 16 years old.

"Dear Santa,
Please help yourself to our plethora of treats. They are all most divine and filling. Mrs. Clause might even be jealous of our dessert skillz.
I believe the Hale unit has been 100% good this year so no coal would be necessary.
I hope you travel safe tonight and stay warm. . . Get Brady something RAD! He deserves the best !!
--Melanie, Roxanne, Billy, Rachel and Kyle

FACT #2
There were a lot of children's gifts/toys/movies given around here even though the youngest person in the house is 16 years old.

FACT #3
Dave enjoyed shopping so much this year, there were many presents under the tree for him. (yes, that means from Dave, to Dave)

FACT #4
I am glad that there is a lot of candy and holiday food available to snack on all day long. I am glad no one is truly hungry. I forgot to put the meat in the crockpot and our main dish for dinner this afternoon is not going to happen. We will subsist on Muddy Buddies, Divinity, Sugar Cookies and Eggnog.

FACT #5
I didn't get enough sleep last night. A nap is definitely in order this afternoon.

FACT #6
Forty Five minutes is NOT enough time to visit with our favorite missionary who we haven't seen for 353 days.

Saturday

The day started with some dramatic lights as the sun came up in the nearby hills.

My little phone camera made it look just a wee bit more dramatic than it really was, but it was a nice sunrise nonetheless and a great early morning hike. Then the day ended with some dramatic lighting of a different kind. We spent the evening out at the temple. Not only a great evening of lights, but Dave's chorus sang for the evening performance. It was an awesome performance, so good in fact that I was so enthralled with the music I didn't get my camera out the rest of the evening . . . until we were leaving and I snapped a couple of blurry pictures of the lights, but no pictures of my husband. Just know that he was dashingly handsome, and performed wonderfully. Everyone loved them and they've already been invited to come back and perform again next year. Yeah, they're that good.

fa la la la la, la la la la

It's the middle of December, and the leaves are finally turning colors of yellow and gold. Autumn has arrived in Arizona. And we all know what that means . . . IT'S TIME TO GO CHRISTMAS CAROLING with the family !!
And now for your viewing pleasure, here is our family's skit for the ward party which involved a dramatic reading and a dancing present. Don't ask what the point of it was. There was no point, except that Melanie wanted to dress as a present.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

just random stuff

Apparently it was Lexi's birthday today. There was a big white board in our living room today with this message on it. Melanie said she remembered about it yesterday, but didn't want to write anything about it until today because she didn't want Lexi to read it and spoil the surprise.

Lexi didn't seem to be too excited about the birthday wishes.

Other stuff going on around here -- we had a lovely Thanksgiving. Our group was small. We are missing Brady during the holidays this year. It is the first time our family won't be intact through the holidays. Not only were we missing Brady, but Rachel drove up to Utah to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend. She had a great weekend, but it made me very nervous for her to be on the roads with so many storms blowing through. Fortunately, she had no problems in traveling. Roxanne's boyfriend spent the day with us and we invited a couple of families over later in the day to have pie and we sat out by the fire pit for the evening.

Brady got transferred last week. He didn't know where he was being sent when he last e-mailed us, so it has been making me anxious not knowing where he is living for a few days. He could be in Iowa, Illinois or Missouri tonight. I don't know why that makes me unsettled. I'll hear from him tomorrow morning and then I'll feel better. We get to talk to him in less than 3 weeks YAY!

I am still surprised that people pay us to paint this silliness on their store windows. Shannon and I realized that we've been doing this for 17 years. It is our guilt-free Christmas spending money. Most clients ask us to stay away from anything other than the generic "Season's Greetings". So it is surprising to have someone ask us to paint "Peace on Earth" and for the 2nd time in 17 years, we painted a nativity scene.

Melanie tried out for soccer this year and is on the varsity team. Games start this week. It will be fun to see how she does. This is her first go at team sports.

Dave made a float for the annual Electric Light Parade here in Phoenix. It's a fun event and he loves the whole process - designing, building, painting, driving, waving to his fans etc. He and his brothers used to make floats for the parades in his hometown so this is something that ties to his family and hometown memories. And if Dave is not busy enough, his chorus Spirit of Phoenix has 3 big performances coming up. One of the performances is out at the Temple Lights in Mesa later this month. They are really, really good.In more embarrassing family doings (embarrassing to me, but apparently not to anyone else), Melanie participated in a self-imposed event called "No Shave November". There didn't seem to be a purpose, but she was glad for the morning of December 1st to come.

Dave did a major smash up job on his fingers at work recently and had two very black fingernails. He told Melanie he didn't want his fingernails to look so ugly so he talked her into painting his two fingernails. (Ugly? or Goofy? what's worse, I don't know.)

We've had a wonderfully quiet Sunday afternoon. On days like this, I sure see the wisdom of the Sabbath being a day of rest. The last six days have been over-scheduled and stressful for everyone in this house. I will be glad for the semester to end. Rachel has a split personality -- her "I'm so stressed out, will graduation never come???" personality, and her "Winter break, Spring break and Summer break" personality. It is surprising what is required in the upper level classes at the University. It is almost not humanly possible for her to get everything done and keep up with work too. If she can survive 8 more days, we will see her calm and delightful personality return.

It's nearly midnight and the craziness of another week begins in about 6 hours. I'd better get to bed.

missionary monday

Some excerpts from some recent e-mails from Brady:

Before I go on too far, I need to tell you that I shook the hand of an apostle on Saturday!! Elder Nelson came to stake conference here in the area, but on Saturday there was that World Wide Leadership broadcast. President Jergensen wanted all of the district leaders in the area to go to it, so we traveled to Ames. He was there, so after the broadcast Elder Noel fullbacked his way to the front of the chapel, while I was the running back behind him. We hit the gap between the elderly and hurtled our way over a wheelchair, only to put a spin move on bishop, (you know how crowed a chapel can be after a long meeting, every one has to mingle). We finally made our way over to him and we both were able to shake his hand!

The Trunk-or-Treat was really fun and I got some pictures of that stuff and my costume. I forgot to tell you that a couple of weeks before the Trunk-or-Treat, the Primary had a activity and they invited the missionaries to come teach them about how to talk to their friends about the gospel. So we went and taught them then we practiced how to do it. At the end of the activity I promised the kids that if they would bring a friend to the Trunk-or-Treat the missionaries would have a prize for them. Then this little girl runs up to me and she said "I don't want candy, I want a cantaloupe!" I was like OK, what ever you want, you just have to bring a friend. So Friday comes around and she comes running up to me right at the start of the Trunk-or-Treat and says "where is my cantaloupe? I brought my cousin and she doesn't go to church!" I was like, oh boy she really did it. So at church on Sunday I brought that little girl a cantaloupe, every one thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

I want to thank you for the information about Jonathan H. Hale and Elijah Thomas. When we went to Winter Quarters, we were able to go on a tour of the visitors center. After we went through the temple, as we started the tour, the sister missionary started going on about how much the saints struggled and the pain and suffering that they had to bear. She then compared that struggle to the struggle of missionaries today then compared it to our own missionary struggle. Then the sister missionary took us over to the "look out" where it overlooked the temple and the graves. She then asked us why we were on a mission I got a little choked up, just a little bit, then told a small portion of my conversion and how I had got there. We then went on through the whole tour and still having our missionary struggle compared to the saints' struggles. And then you sent the stories of our families and what sacrifices they had gone through to build God's kingdom once again. It was truly amazing to realize that I am serving in the same area where my family served, still building God's kingdom. I put those stories right next to my patriarchal blessing in my mission folder.

playing hooky

Suzanne was on vacation last week and enticed me away from my desk for a couple of days to go play with her. We put in a lot of miles and traveled around the state.

On Wednesday, we drove down to Tucson and visited the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum . I'm not sure why is is called a "museum", it is actually a cross between the botanical gardens and a zoo. It was a pleasant walk through, and where else would you see a bunch of Javelinas?

There were also big horn sheep, a bear, wolves, coyotes, ocelots, snakes, racoons etc. Suzanne has some cool pictures of our day here . We also enjoyed sitting in the hummingbird aviary.

After the museum, we went to the Saguaro National Park. We asked a park ranger to suggest a hiking trail and told him we had 2 to 3 hours. He gave us an idea and we set out. We had some absolutely breathtaking views, but only after a relentless uphill hike for over an hour straight. I don't mind uphill, but I would much prefer some ups and some downs.

I saw this book in the park's visitor center. "Lizards of the American Southwest, a Photographic Field Guide". Here's the thing - it is over 500 PAGES LONG !!!!Anyway, fun day. Favorite quote of the day from Suzanne: "Hummingbirds have so much energy. They are the Chihuahuas of the Bird World!"

The next day, we took off early in the morning again and drove north. We got to the Grand Canyon by 10 a.m. and bundled up against the cold and headed out to explore a little bit. We went into the visitor's center to look at the maps and decide where we wanted to go. We headed out to the nearest overlook and started snapping pictures. We basically spent the whole day doing this:

We took the rim trail which goes, obviously, right along the rim. So we walked for hours with breathtaking views right at our side.

I have to post this picture, because Suzanne bought the most awesome lizard shirt. Isn't it cool?
At the end of the day, we added up the sections of trail we walked and calculated about 4.5 miles. I would have guessed more, but still not a bad day for exercise. All in all, she and I walked about 25 miles in the last 6 days.

Favorite Suzanne quote of the day: In the Visitor's Center before we started out: "Now we need to find the rim trail. I'm pretty sure it's not in here, let's go outside."