Dec. 26 - Anti Christmas Dinner

Ok.. I'll admit. I made it sound like my mom cancelled Christmas. But lets be real for a moment. She would if she could. She's already streamlined us to the point where if she tries to cut out anything else she will have a mutiny on her hands. And that would end badly for her. We dont need much, but our traditions matter. Not to her. But to us.

But we deep fried a turkey. And it was amazing. Dave was totally quality control. He does a good job. Thats why we like him.









Katie came post-nap. And kinda reverted to the little girl of the summer. The one that makes grown adults cry cause she's ruthless in holding out her love. She's not a "just woke up" kinda person.

I cant really blame her tho. Grumpy pants run in the family on occasion. Or at least we share them.


Ben and my Dad played with Ryder's toys. It was precious.

Dinner was amazing.

















It always is.

Anti-Christmas Christmas

This year my mother vetoed Christmas Dinner. On Christmas anyways. She figured the big waffle breakfast we have and the left over Chinese food would be enough. She wanted a break. She needed to get to enjoy the day instead of slaving away making dinner. And truth be told - I bluster that is was a big deal to me. But really it wasnt. I didnt even miss Christmas Dinner. And its not like I havent missed it before (the year they refused to wake me up for dinner). So woman - we bluster at your need to change tradition, but all in all I really didnt mind.

So this is how the day went.

We ate breakfast. Mm.... waffles are SO filling. And = LOVE.
Then we sat down to open presents. The phone rang - anyone who knows us knows that we all contemplated ignoring the phone.
Good thing we didnt. It was Missionary Matt. Calling for Christmas.

Say Hello Elder Lowry










I miss Matt.

He had a half hour  to talk to us. But we thought he had an hour. All I wanted to do was just talk to him on my own. So when we finally started doing individual seshes I was excited. My turn came. I asked him about his companion. If he was cute... he stopped and ask his companion if he was cute. Matt relayed that the answer was yes. And then asked if I wanted to talk to him. NO! I wanted to be talking to Matt. If his companion thinks I'm cute and is cute himself thats just a bonus right?

In my opinion missionary phone calls are always freaking awkward. I love my brothers but when they become the name tag... Man, phone calls are awkward. But hearing Matt's voice. That was good. I cant wait for him to come home. Sure its another like 10 months. But I'm already prepping myself.

The children said hello to Matt.
That last a whole ten seconds.
Then they were bored.
And wanted to open presents.
And Katie proceeded to go and stand on every single present.
Precious.











These two are cute.
And kinda my favorite.
Its fun like that.

PRESENT TIME!

So Ryder was asked to open a present for the new baby Stryker (P.S. the babies real name isnt stryker we just call her that cause seriously thats a ballin name)

Please notice his face. I caught it from the side but its still epic.

Poor child looks SO disappointed.

Katie on the other hand LOVED it. The baby is gonna have to fight her for it.

My father received house keys.

That have been sitting on the microwave since the installation of the new doors.

My parents think they're funny.

I got a new camera. That I already love.

Many pictures have already been taken with it.

FYI Cathy and I have matching cameras now.

Awesome.

The children got real gifts too.

Ryder needed to be told that his sweater was cool tho before he was happy with it.

Ryder unwrapped a printer.

In which was hidden a Batman xbox game.

He was pumped.

Dave unwrapped his present. There was a lot of newspaper.

But the iPod touch was totes worth it.

This is really proof that Lindsay and Ben got gifts.

Our Christmas was pretty low key.

But I actually kinda liked that.

My mother vetoed Christmas dinner.

But it really wasnt a big deal.

I like that our family is low key.

Makes me happy.

Run Run

My dad raps softly on my door this morning and peeks his head in.

"Run Run?"

My eyes flutter open. It takes a moment to let my mind begin to boot up.

I'm still tired. Again, I went to bed late and am woken up early.

"Run Run? Its noon your time."

... ... ...

"Ten am this time. You coming?"

Yes I am coming.

I love the Saturday morning runs with my Dad.

First I am exercising - something I should be doing everyday.

Second - Runs allow us to chat. Its our time together. Just him and me.

I think often about the runs we've taken together, especially when I'm far and away and unable to be part of them.

I'm a sucky runner. But he lets me control the pace.

Doesnt matter if the pace is running him into the ground or ridiculously slow.

I love our runs.

We talk.

It is awesome.

And I never doubt that I am important to him.

There are other people that I may not always feel important to.

But my dad is not one of them.

Our run was a suckfest. Guess thats what I get for not having done cardio since October.

But we got home and cleared all the ice off the driveway.

The whole driveway was ice FYI and not small.

Then we went and washed his truck and my mom's car.

They we went and got bandaid's and hair products.

And then dropped the recycling off and bought pickles.
And he told me that its not fair when I wear makeup... cause it enhances and makes me even more beautiful.
I rolled my eyes at that.

But I love my Dad.

The End.

P.S.

My mother said there was a huge bug in the garage. And needed my Dad to come kill it.

This is what he brings back in the house...

Can you tell what it is?

Its a huge mother bug - on a tooth pick.

Who does that?

Good thing Dad was there.

My hero.

Red Lips

How do we feel about my first attempt into red lips?


Good, Bad, Hideous? I kinda like it.


Now I know why Bonnie loves it.

Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve

We tell secrets

We have Chinese food. (except Ryd who "apparently" hates it - weirdo)

We do Dog-Piles

We make the children play nice (aka take a nice pic)

And momma makes us play a lame (and I mean LAME) Christmas Eve Gift opening game (aka we pass the present around until it gets to the right person and a bell is rung.. like I said. Lame. And can I add stupid - its for the children apparently)

The only disappointment was the lack of our Christmas Eve presents involving PJs. We always get PJs on Christmas Eve. Or bed product presents like blankets.

Woman. Dont you know that traditions are great because they... keep going year after year. They're traditions. And PJs on Christmas Eve is tradition.

Pre-Christmas Update

Seriously being in Alberta has been insane. Because I feel like I'm constantly busy. Crazy busy. I just really dont want to miss a moment. Or turn down anything fun to do. Cause as much as I want to experience the fun in the moment, I know that when I get back to Boston, re-living the moments will be half the fun. And completely necessary. Some of my favorite moments:

1. Decorating Christmas Cookies
I dont know that I've ever really done it before. But it was alot of fun. Dallin and I got dessert first and then headed to Cathy's to help her fam jam decorate cookies.









Because Cathy's family hate to lose her. And so do we. So we combine forces. And it really was a great time.





They made fun of me because a couple of the cookies I decorated were ugly. Really ugly. Ugly enough that they gave them to a blind person. Bahahahha.. Yup a straight up real blind person.

2. Lindsay-a-special Dance Parties





















Ya, first song EVERY time is this one. It plays on repeat.
We kinda want to shoot ourselves
(well everyone except Linz and the kids).

But they love it. And we allow it.

3. Building a Fort

The children wake me up. And I decided that building a fort would be a good idea.

But I think the last time I made a fort was in Year Two with Julie and Bets. And I

didnt actual participate with the making. So I suppose not the same. Whateves.

Lindsay sucks at taking pics tho. Dang Lindsay.

This is a Fort.

It was made from two chairs tipped on their sides.

And blankets draped over top.

It was ghetto. But the children wanted a place to tell secrets.

And I wanted a dark place to lay and try to sleep more.

(They wake me up early - I'm a tired little girl)

The Fort was kinda uncomfortable.

Ok not so much the fort as the two children climbing on me. More than once I had to dodge the mag-lite they were dragging around.

4. Some Waterton Good Times

(separate post to come)

5. Pilates with the Children

They suck and I rock at it.

Ya I said it.

Mormon Fight Club.

Yes. You read that right folks. In Alberta, the land of amazingness, we do things like have a fight club night. Mormons gather together in someones basement. We all surround the walls as two people fight in the middle. It was surprisingly fun. I know... it sounds barbaric. And it was. But it was also really entertaining. And rather well controlled. We had refs to make sure it didnt get out of control, a time limit and more than enough people willing to either box or wrestle. Really, is there anything better on a Saturday night?

Scott Leishman and I arrived about halfway through the fights. We just barely missed the fight where the one kid got his nose broken. But we witnessed some really great fights. You cringe, but secretly love it. It took some major convincing to get Bonnie and Cathy to come. They were anti for sure. But once they arrived they realized that only in SoAB could something like this come to be. We tried our hardest to think who in Edmonton would willingly participate in such an event. The list was pretty short.

Eric Eklund vs. Jermaine Forbes

And yes. Your eyes are not decieving you. Eric Eklund is not wearing any pants. It was slightly inappropriate. But hilarious as well. And I'm totally busted being into my phone right at this moment.

For real tho. How ripped are these guys? Every guy there was like that. Even the ones I secretly would wish fatness onto.

"Kid whose name I should know but have forgotten" vs. Clayton Willoughby

Clearly its not turning out so hot for Clayton. He totally had a blood filled mouth. Luckily he didnt spit it all over Cathy this time around.








Tanner Tolman vs. Braden Hamilton and Alan Pavan

Tanner Tolman was one of Josh's closest friends. He won provincials for wrestling in highschool and I'm pretty sure continued with some sort of fighting since then. And as such people didnt think it would be fair for him to fight one on one with someone. And really, I dont blame em.

It was crazy to see. There wasnt so much a winner persay, but Tanner was fighting two on one. Come on. Clearly we thought he should win.











But after the two on one, people thought that Alan Pavan looked like he gave a good showing and might be able to handle Tanner on his own.

 Jimbo did ok for a bit.

Until he wasnt.

I took secret pleasure out of watching this. He turned purple. And had to tap out because he was getting destroyed. It was great.

Dan Osmond vs. "Random Kid whose house this was at"



























Do you feel the power? Freaking day. Please zoom up and notice that every muscle in Dan's body is rippling. Sheila - am I going to zoom into this and make it into a poster for you? Yes. The answer is always yes.

Please love this with me. P'wned. I dont even care who won.


















Sometimes the fighting got close to us. In fact sometimes the fighting was on top of the people on the sidelines. Of course the ref stopped it - but not before a few punches were thrown on top of someone. The poor people behind me. I definitely would try to disappear into them if the fighting got too close.

The Final Fightdown.

You cant have a fight club without a guy with legit tattoos. I mean sure, a couple of the mormons had some nice chest tats. But this guy... oh - they were everywhere! He apparently is like a UFC fighter. He did pretty dece.

















That is until he got tired.
Garrett MacLeod. You are amazing PS.

Freak I love Alberta. And that things like this occur. Boston and its snootiness would never allow this. They'd want to talk about art or some other crap. And how they go to MIT (Harvard, BU, insert other high end, high status school). Oh Alberta. You're freaking awesome.