History of my Christmas Village

It has been amazing to be home with my family! I love it! My favorite part was spending pretty much the whole weekend putting up Christmas decorations and laughing at my four-year-old nephew. He is hilarious. Yesterday we put up the village. We started the village when I was in high school because my mom wanted me to have a collection of some sort. Some of my siblings wanted in on the fun of making a village, so they got some houses of their own, which eventually required the use  of the entire front room to showcase our village houses.

At first, my village was just a random collection, but eventually my mom began buying me houses or people that represented something about me or my life that year, so we've kept that tradition. Almost every item in my village tells something about me or my life. I have about 25 "items" in my village now. I say items because not everything in my village is a house. This year I actually got three things to add to my village: a house to represent me moving into my grandma's basement, a teddybear shop because I collect teddy bears, and a train because I rode a train for the first time this year. I am super excited to have a train in my village now! It even blows smoke and has a whistle!

I loaded up my car yesterday and it is packed full of my village and other things I am taking back with me. I'm hoping to set up my village on Tuesday night, at least start setting it up anyway.

As I started setting up my mom's village, I thought about how much work it is every year to take down all the boxes, figure out how to display it, take all of the things out of their boxes, etc. and I wondered if we were crazy for even doing it. I started out doing it by myself, but then I decided to wait until others could help me because that is what has made having a village so meaningful. The time we spend doing it means the world to me. Not everyone helps set it up, but they still do something to add to it. Ryan every year has put random toys in the village and told me the story of how they came to be there. I will really miss that about not having my village at home. Each year it is a different story and I look forward to it.

There is more I can say, but this will have to do. I have family dinner to go to !!

Tender Mercies

I finally made it home after a slight delay. The cover of my gas lid wouldn't open when I pulled the button, so I went to my reliable friends in Provo who pried it open for me-- meaning, he broke the lock so now it can just be opened. I am actually grateful he broke it...

By some miracle, or a dozen miracles I'd say, I was able to stay awake all through the night to make it home at 4 AM. By then I'd been awake almost 23 hours and I was struggling. I don't think I'll drive alone at night ever again like this, or at least night leave just before 9 PM. It was worth it though. Anything is worth it to spend time at home with my family. I love my family.

Yesterday we began decorating for Christmas. That's right, the day before Thanksgiving. We have lots of decorations and usually we get grumpy and really tired when we try to do it all on the day after Thanksgiving, so I am really grateful we started yesterday. It was nice to know we had plenty of time and could just enjoy it all. We put up the tree and decorated it and put up garland and other decorations in the kitchen and family room. I sorted through the ornaments and my mom sorted through the angels so I can take them back to UT with me to decorate my own place. We listened to Christmas music and I just loved every moment of it. It was also fun to see how excited Tyler was to do little things to help decorate. He is getting so big!

Phase 1 of decorating is complete. Phase 2 will be setting up the village. I am going to bring all my village houses to UT with me, so I will sort though them all. It will be interesting to see how much space I will have left in my car after I put them all in. Before starting Phase 2, my daddy and I must play pool. We set the village up on the ping pong table that goes on top of the pool table, so to get our games in, we will play today. I like my little pool games with my daddy.

Thanksgiving dinner we are going out to Home Town Buffet. Most people think that is really odd, but it's something that we've done many times since I was in high school or younger. We still do have it at home some years, but only when I or someone else requests it. Mostly it's because it's a hassle to cook and clean up after, so it's easier for my mom. Afterward, we are going to have a Harry Potter marathon.

Sometime this weekend I will also be helping Amanda put in her college application to BYU. So exciting!!

Now, to give thanks. I have so much to be grateful for this year. It has been a very challenging year for me, with a lot of growing up experiences. I am grateful that I moved into my grandma's basement- to have my own HUGE room and space to make the beginnings of my own home. I am also grateful for my friends. It was a really rough start, but there are a few individuals who have been there for me from the very beginning. I've also made many friends in the past couple months who have helped me in so many ways that I can't even begin to express enough gratitude for them. I am also grateful that I have a job I love that teaches me new things everyday about the kind of person I want to be and prepares me to be the kind of wife and mother I want to become. I am also very grateful for my family and the traditions we do together. I am grateful that they love me for who I am and are always there for me, supporting me in all that I do. It's just amazing to me to have a group of people who know me so well and they love me for everything that I am. They have helped me to become who I am and I am grateful for that, too.

Now, time to play some pool with my daddy!!

Thanksgiving

A speaker at church today said that she refuses to set up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving because she wants to remember Thanksgiving. At first, I laughed and looked at a couple of my friends who have already started decorating for Christmas and listening to Christmas music like I have. I also kind of got a little defensive because she made it sound like it was a HORRIBLE thing to start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Of course, it's not a horrible thing and it's just her personal opinion. The point she was trying to make is that Thanksgiving is an important holiday, too, and shouldn't be passed over.

I assure you, I haven't forgotten Thanksgiving.

I'm trying to be more thankful or express gratitude all year round, just like I try to give service to people all year round and not just at Christmastime. However, the speaker gave me a good idea. Thanksgiving can be a day that I express thanks to specific people--a special thing and not just a general "I'm thankful for... " that we sometimes say before we eat Thanksgiving dinner.

To me, Thanksgiving and Christmas go hand-in-hand because they are both all about being with my family-enjoying them and showing my love and appreciation for them. It's also a time for me to show my love and appreciation for my family and friends in a little different way than I normally do. I am not a huge gift giver, so it really is a special or significant thing for me to show my love in this way once a year.

This time of year is when I am the most happy. There are just so many things that I love about this time of year, it was hard to postpone putting up decorations to start feeling that holiday spirit myself even if no one else is. Plus, decorating early has brought me some really fun reactions from people, and that has only added to my happiness.

I am SUPER excited to go home on Wednesday to visit my family!! I'm helping Amanda with her college application to BYU. It's weird to think she will most likely be out here next year going to college. I am excited for her to start her own new adventure!

Friends

I realized something this past week that really made me happy- I have friends. Okay, I already knew I had friends, but I didn't realize until this week how many friends I have made here in PG. I didn't have work for most of this past week, so a few nights this week I was able to stay out a little later watching movies or just talking and laughing with my friends. Tonight at the CES fireside, I looked down the row where I was sitting and saw that my friends and I filled up the whole row plus some. It's amazing. I don't know most of them super well, but that is coming.

With that said, tonight I decided that I needed to change my birthday party plans. I was thinking to do a fancy dinner party with my china dishes and a small group of friends that have really helped me transition into living here. But now I'm thinking that will have to wait until another time. As I sat at the fireside surrounded by some of my new friends, I felt like I wanted them all to be invited to come if they want to. Why not? So, now I'm going to have cheesecake and martinelli's in my fancy glasses and a game night. I might even get some chocolate mint cookies and have hot chocolate if anyone wants it. It's simple and that's perfect for me.

I am just really grateful to have friends that I can laugh with, tease, and just have fun with. I've been missing that aspect of Provo since I got here and now it's finally starting to come.

Speaking of friends, a couple of my friends helped me unbury my Christmas tree and set it up as well as move some things around so I can set up my Christmas village. I'm so excited for Christmas. One of those friends is giving me a hard time about getting him into the Christmas spirit too early, but whatever.

For some reason, I just really needed to start Christmas a little earlier this year. I got most of my shopping done already and I am probably going to decorate my tree this week. I have to wait until I go home for Thanksgiving to get all my ornaments, angel collection, and Christmas village collection to set up. It just feels good to decorate and think about what I will do this Christmas season. I signed up to do Sub for Santa this year. It's similar to a family tradition my family had and so I thought it would be a good thing to start doing on my own until I have my own family. I'm excited to do things with my friends and go home!! It will be an awesome holiday season!

Donut Falls and Other Adventures

This past week has been quite an adventure. A week ago I escaped reality by hanging out with two of my best friends, Savannah and Lynnae, in Salt Lake. It felt like old times and it was amazing! We stayed up until 3 in the morning talking and then hiked to Donut Falls the next day. Now, a week later, I really wish I were back with them, feeling like I did with them. Good news is that I made it to the falls this time and without breaking anything! Here are a couple of pictures:

Work this week was emotionally exhausting, to say the very least. It is so hard to learn about what the kids have to deal with at home knowing the only thing I can do to help them is love them and be the very best teacher I can be. Many things have come to the surface this week that make me ache for these kids and wish I could take them home and take care of them myself--or have my own kids to love and take care of.

Monday, we had a child throw up at lunch. Tuesday, I had to help a child through a kind of seizure. Technically, it's something like holding breath syndrome, but he's been doing it since he was 3 weeks old, so there's got to be something more to it than seeking attention. He's the child that I've thought a lot about at home this week. He is going through so much right now. Wednesday we had a field trip to the dentist. The field trips went well, considering how the previous two days went. We did spontaneously buy two society finches when we randomly went to a pet store after the dentist with our kids. I've recently really have wanted to get pet birds, so it's kind of fun to finally have some even though they aren't mine. The kids haven't named them yet, but we will do that on Tuesday. One of the problems with the birds are that we failed to remember that one of our kids in the afternoon has asthma... not good. So, we may end up having to get rid of them. Oh well, I guess. :(

Thursday, so much happened that I can't even get into it, but it was enough that I really had to keep myself in check that I didn't become the cranky co-worker on "Happy Cranky Co-worker Day." Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to my 3 days off of work next week! Today was parent teacher conferences and I had a long list of things I needed to get done, which I was very happy I was able to do despite feeling so overwhelmed and just tired of being at work this week.

On the bright side, I started scrapbooking again! Just about every night this week I've scrapbooked while rewatching season 4 of Chuck. It felt so good! Tonight I finished scrapbooking pictures of things I've done since I've moved here except for pictures from my Nauvoo Pageant experience this year, which I will probably start tomorrow. It feels so good to accomplish something. Scrapbooking just gives me so much joy. I know, it's weird, but that's me. :)

On the not-so-bright side, when my grandma went to the doctor on Thursday, she fainted in the waiting room. Afterwards, they did blood tests and everything came back normal, so they think that she may just be dehydrated. I wouldn't be surprised. She's had numerous dizzy spells lately, so I'm actually glad that she fainted when she was there so they could know about it and try to help her. I just really wish that she hadn't driven herself home after that. It makes me nervous every time she drives, even more so to think that she drove after she fainted! I also wish she had called me and I could have helped her. On Monday she will have an echocardiogram done. They will do an ultrasound on her heart to see exactly how it is functioning now that she's had some treatments done to help her with her congested heart failure. That should help us know where she's at in the disease and what needs to be done to continue helping her feel comfortable.

Oh, and for those of you who don't already know, my dad got a job! He was only out of work for about two weeks, which was awesome!

Random Thoughts

For the past many years I've told people that I don't really like Halloween. I've been thinking about it, and I decided that I do like Halloween except for two things about it--scary and gruesome. I think it's kind of cool that one day a year we can dress up as anything we want to just for fun and then it's okay to go around to neighbors (or strangers) houses to receive a treat. It's a fun holiday in that way. I just really, really don't like the feelings of being scared or the gruesome decorations, etc. that come with Halloween. Hence, why it is my least favorite holiday.

Speaking of holidays, I've been thinking a lot about the holiday season and the spirit that fills the air during the season. Yes, it's commercialized, but I do my very best not to get into that by doing what I can to personally make it a time of year to celebrate my Savior's birth and show my love for family and friends. I do my best all year round to remember the Savior and serve others, but there is just something about this time of year that just makes me so happy. In the past, I've tried to make my Christmas gifts to family and friends meaningful. Usually they've been homemade gifts, but I'm really struggling to know what else I can do. I don't normally express my love through gift giving, so that's another reason why Christmas is a special time for me to show my love for my family.

I've debated just buying gifts like everyone else in the world, but then I think about my financial situation. I just looked at my dental insurance claims (because they've finally been processed) and it makes me sick to think how much I have to pay for the implant. I know it's what I needed to do, but it still makes me sick thinking about it. I should be able to pay it off fairly quickly, but it won't be without some sacrifice. I'm used to doing that by now anyway, but it sure makes Christmas a little more difficult to figure out.

I am super excited for the holiday season to begin. When I was younger, my family and I did the 12 days of Christmas for a family. We would give them one piece of the Nativity everyday with a nice little phrase or scriptures and a goody. We also usually chose a family who we would provide "Christmas" for if we knew they were in need. I will never forget those traditions and how they made me feel closer to Christ. I want to continue these traditions in my own family, starting now. Right now I don't have the funds to provide Christmas for a family in need, but I can do the 12 days of Christmas thing. There also may be a way that I can start doing the other tradition without spending too much money... I don't know. Anyway, I spent some time online tonight looking stuff up and now I'm really excited to get started. I'm not sure who I will do the 12 days of Christmas for yet, but it will be great.

I'm also really excited to go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I always look forward to setting up my Christmas village the day after Thanksgiving. This year, though, I'm going to bring some (if not all) of my village back to UT with me to set up in my basement to enjoy. I have a house or piece of the village to represent every year of my life. Since it will be my home for a while, I might as well, really make it feel like home. I also want to set up a Christmas tree and decorate it with my ornaments I've collected over the years. I hope my mom will be okay with that, mostly because I didn't think I'd want to do that until I was married. We've purposely collected Christmas houses, ornament, and angels enough that when I take them away, my mom will still have some to set out. I know it won't be the same, but it's something I want to do. If anything, it would be good to give my future husband a really good warning about what he'd be getting himself into if some day, when he is dating me, he has to help me set up the village! That will be the day I will find out if he REALLY likes me! My family and I joke about this EVERY year we set up the village. This year I am going to recruit my home teachers to help me. I'll consider it a trial run.

No work for the last two days of this week! I've got some awesome plans that I'm super excited about. It's about time for a reunion with my best friends, Savannah and Lynnae!

Reasons? Who needs 'em!

Yesterday morning I decided that I wanted to dress up to go to see the play My Fair Lady in West Valley City. I wasn't going with anyone, but I felt like I wanted to dress up for it. I didn't want to just look nice, I wanted to look and feel BEAUTIFUL for me and not for anyone else. So, I decided to wear my formal red dress that I bought for Oscars Night last year. Why not? I asked my friend Anna, who loves styling hair, if she'd like to do it for me. While she did it, I decided to ask her if she wanted to go to Olive Garden with me since I wanted to do more than go to the play by myself. I also asked one of my home teachers if he'd humor me by joining us in our spontaneous formal night. Besides, even though I was looking beautiful for myself, a part of me still wanted a guy to see it.

The night couldn't have been better. Considering it was gradually put together in one day, it was exactly how I wanted it and more. I went to the play and got many compliments on my dress and hair. I might have stood out like a sore thumb, but I didn't care. The show itself was really good. I was impressed with the stage and the costuming. The acting was really good, too. It wasn't until after the play the I heard back from my home teacher that he would join us. He was incredible. I didn't expect him to treat us girls like it really was a formal occasion by opening our doors to let us in AND out of the car, among other things. The servers were really fun, too. They kept asking us why we were all dressed up and they didn't believe us when we told them that we really didn't have reason except because I felt like it. I think we were the talk among the servers last night, which was kind of fun. The food was yummy and I really loved talking to my friends. It felt good to get to know them better and feel like I do have friends here who I can do random things like this with. Here are some pictures from last night and from some adventures from the past month or so:

Shooting with my ward for FHE. First time ever and it was a bit scary!

 

My classroom "Den" and tree that we made.

And, of course, just a few of the reasons why I teach preschool...