My Birthday

Happy Birthday to me! My actual birthday was a blur. We had New Beginnings that night, which was an amazing production, thanks to our YW President and Laurels advisor, they are dedicated women. The same women found time somehow to decorate my door for my birthday with streamers, a banner, and lots of candy. Geez.So we celebrated on Saturday. Freeman made me a cake!! He also spoiled me with a tortilla press, which I’ve been coveting, and some other tortilla accessories. Now making homemake whole wheat tortillas will be easier. I loved hearing from lots of friends and family.

Happy New Year!

2012. Let that sink in.

Happy New Years week! Its been a busy one. I’ve been occupied with hurry-and-get-it-in-before-you-have-a-deductible doctor’s appointments, including my first mammogram (which was not as fun as Disneyland, but a lot less awful than everyone made it sound).

On Wednesday my Mom and sister Denise flew into town, there is nothing better in the world than family who you feel totally comfortable with and who love you no matter what. Everyone should have someone like that. We had dinner at Rosa’s Café with our free gift cards. It also happened to be our anniversary. Some anniversaries are romantic. Some are a communal celebration of family. This was the latter.

I did have to get piano lessons and doctor’s appointments finished up the first day they were here and then the fun began. Friday morning we got to go to the temple and enjoy a session together. I was so grateful to Teresa for taking kids and making that possible. It was a spectacular day, clear skies and 74 degrees. That evening I tried out Denise’s Christmas gift to me, an ice cream maker!
We made fresh lemon ice cream and it was DECADENT. I think I crawled into bed around 1:30 am after epic chatting with my favorite sister.

Saturday morning we had our Daddy with us. We woke up, made homemade granola, and had Christmas morning all over again, the kids opened presents from Grandma.

Granola in the making. Then, glorious day, Mom, Denise and I all got massages! It was the fastest hour of my life. We walked out in a happy massage coma and went shopping. We immediately found some fantastic sales. What a girly fun day. I am known for my dislike of shopping and spending money in general, but they made it super fun.

After we came out of the massage, Freeman texted me to tell me not to hurry home. I think posterity deserves to know how sweet this guy is. Here’s the text string:

Me: “Hey, we just finished the massages. Will keep you updated.”

F: “Go enjoy a nice lunch and a fun day of shopping with your mom and sister. We are eating lunch now, then putting the kids down. After that we’re going on a bike ride to the park. I really hope you can have a fun, relaxing day. Please, whatever you do, do not feel guilty about anything. Enjoy!!”

M: “Wow, we’ve been gone long time. Home soon.”

F: “You guys should go to dinner and then to a movie or something before you come home. No guilt!”

M: “Well, I think we are almost done, one more store then heading home. UR sweet!”

F: “That’s only because you’re hungry and thirsty. If you sit down and eat and drink something for a few minutes you would have renewed energy.”

And that after having 3 kids, 5 and under, for 7 hours!

Here they are, for the record.



Our New Year’s Eve party that night was smashing. We tried 5 new foods (pita chips and dip, roasted edamame, corn and bean salsa, pomagranate, breaded green beans). We toasted our sparkling grape juice to the new year, wrote down our predictions for the coming year, and had a dance party. We watched the New Year come in Dubai at 9 pm Texas time and made some noise. We finished the night off with our new movie, Cars 2, yet another gift from Denise.

Christmas

Last year on Christmas Eve morning we visited an assisted living center for patients with Alzheimers. We’d wanted to repeat the visit and make it a tradition, but a friend chose that morning to be baptized. I will admit that getting the whole family up and Sunday ready early Saturday morning made my brain hurt a little, but once we arrived at the baptism we were so glad we made the effort. The woman being baptized is the mother of one of the Beehives I teach, and seeing that family take one more step to being sealed as a family someday was wonderful. After she was baptized the pianist played “When I am baptized” and the audience sat quietly. There was such a sweet spirit in the room, testifying of the importance of following the Savior’s way, as this woman had. One friend said to me, “I guess we did get a white Christmas, after all!” It was the perfect way to start Christmas off.

We all met at Mom and Dad Linton's that evening. We had dinner and then Mom planned a program. The kids did the nativity and were stunningly reverent. Afterwards the kids thought of something nice they could do for Jesus and wrote in on an ornament, then Grandma and Grandpa had a gift for each of them! We gave Mom and Dad their gift, which we were in charge of this year, and we gave them an up-to-date picture of each family with a gift card for frames. Santa visited Grandma’s house while we were there, running in, shouting a greeting and a Merry Christmas, and running out. The kids were mesmerized. Then cousin Emma found an empty Elf on the Shelf box….with a clue! The kids ran around the house (shrieking with delight), following the clues until they found the Elf.

Tyler as Joseph.

Emma reading the note from "Snowflake" the elf.


More nativity.


Christmas was magical. Tyler is 5, Anslie almost 4, Tucker almost one. Our home was glowing with Christmas light. The kids left cookies for Santa, which he found. Church was at 9 am, so we woke to stockings and went to church. I accompanied the choir for part of the program, and Bishop Liddell gave a simple, heart felt Christmas message. Freeman and I agreed that Christmas on Sunday can be lovely. We returned home to open presents, and enjoyed being home together the rest of the day. We played games, played with new toys together, ate good food, called loved ones and napped. Merry Christmas!

Ty and Anslie on Christmas Eve.

Cookies for Santa!

December, weeks 2 & 3

Our December has been brimming with fun!

Anslie and I went to see the Nutcracker. We had been reading the book and dreaming of ballerinas since October. The big day finally arrived. We both wore our prettiest dress and curled our hair. She held our tickets and carried them in her purse. In our fancies, we first we went to a cupcake shop and indulged, then drove to the theater. Anslie was riveted by the dancers gliding across the stage. She was equally riveted by the small bag of popcorn I bought her at the concession stand (a luxury I would normally never permit. That was half of the magic). I hope she felt special.

Anslie with ballerinas at intermission.

Anslie and I before the show.

We are starting to have some fun holiday traditions in Texas. We returned again this year to the free carriage ride at the Shops at Highland Village, splurged on a cup of hot chocolate that we split between the four of us, then afterwards soaked up the lights and the huge Christmas tree in the center of the plaza, took pictures of the kids, and read books to each other at Borders book store.

Carriage ride!

The baby.

Tyler's hat hair!

Merry Christmas!

My three.

Freeman took the kids early in December to Bass Pro to have their picture taken with Santa and enjoy the Christmas festivities.

We enjoyed mingling with our ward at the ward Christmas party. It was simple, which allowed us to focus on talking to people and enjoy their company.

On a random Thursday night I drove my little self to a choir concert at a church in downtown Dallas. I’d read about the choir online and it sounded interesting. I was surprised to learn that one of the choir members is a Mom in our preschool co-op and the director is Mormon! I LOVE beautiful choir music. Sometimes its good to go on a date with yourself and remember what it is you like.

Freeman’s sister Collette came to town December 20th – 23rd. Tyler went roller skating with the big cousins and loved it. I just love Collette’s family. Those boys are so good to their cousins. Collette is a powerhouse, but so humble. She always makes you feel like she is on your level and that what you are saying to her is important. A talent.

I love having my home full of people who are enjoying being together. I didn’t pull off much of that this year, but we did have a small holiday piano recital for my students. I only have 4 students, so the performances lasted a total of about 15 minutes. Afterwards we had cookies and the families lingered for awhile.



Our friends, the Browns, invited us over for their traditional “Bethlehem dinner.” We ate foods that would have been used in Bethlehem: meats, olives, pita bread, and ate on a floor table. Jeremy and Audrey are some of our favorite people. Jeremy offered a simple prayer and explanation of the dinner before we ate, and the kids enjoyed running, playing, frosting cookies and watching a movie after dinner.