It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

It's a rare snowy day in St. George, and Bennett's pretty thrilled. Though after playing with Dan in the snow for a few minutes, Bennett suddenly realized he was really cold and that maybe he actually is glad he doesn't live in a place where it's snowy very often.



So I've been out of it for awhile. Buying a house and moving in has been time consuming, though fun and exciting. We're finally settled, and I've even thrown my first party in my new house. Inspired by Stacy, I decided to try hosting a cookie exchange. Dan (A.K.A. BEST husband ever) waitered for the party. I cooked most of the food beforehand. Some of the food flopped, and Dan could have used some help, so there were some kinks, but I had a good time, I hope my guests had a good time, and I certainly got some excellent cookies out of the deal. I forgot to take a shot of the set-up before the party, but here's the aftermath.


And here's my haul. The cookies were SOOO good. Dan, the kids, and I have already polished off all seven dozen, and the party was only two days ago.
This year our family went out and chopped down our own Christmas tree. For me and the kids, it was a first, but it's the way Dan's family got a tree when he was a kid. I would say it was a success. We took Laurie and Dave along, and I think a good time was had by all.



Decorating our tree...
We had an excellent Thanksgiving. I forgot to take a picture of the lovely and delicious Thanksgiving spread, but here are Jorryn and Jasper in their Thanksgiving finery. Jasper, by the way, has finally decided that it is time to join the world of the mobile. He does a funky little drag one leg crawl now.
This picture kind of belongs on the last post, but this is Bennett's Halloween party at school. I was there as a helper, and I took Laraine and Jasper along. Laraine got to sit with the kids and enjoy the Halloween treats.
So a couple Sundays ago, Dan decided to bear his testimony, kind of introduce himself to the new ward....it may have been a nice testimony, but I don't think anyone paid much attention to it. I was sitting in the center pew, third row (our children had already been making their presence known quite heartily), attempting to hold Jasper and control Bennett and Laraine, but when Dan went up to the pulpit, Laraine ran after him. That was fine; he picked her up and went ahead with his testimony. Then Bennett decided he should go up too. Well, it would have been all right if he'd just gone up and stood next to Dan, but no, he grabbed the pulpit from the front and began jumping up and down, trying to see Dan. After a couple of minutes of this, I decided I better get him. With Jasper in one arm, I grabbed Bennett with my free hand. He refused to let go of the front of the pulpit. I got to have the supreme pleasure of struggling with him, front and center, before the entire ward. I managed to pull him off and literally dragged him (he threw himself to the floor and commenced kicking and screaming) to the pews. He grabbed the second row pew. I sat on the third row pew and hung on to his hand, while he stretched (on the ground) across the row and hung on to the second row pew. Finally, he broke free and ran up to stand next to Dan. Dan put his arm around Bennett and finished his testimony while I sat wilted and humiliated in the pew. It was lovely. If I had been a spectator, I would have loved it. The kind woman in the row behind me told me how nice it was for her to see someone's children behaving worse than hers. Anyway, we did, indeed, make our presence known.

Moving on to the rant....

I got a calling last Sunday...guess what? NURSERY! I accepted VERY ungraciously. I think Dan was about to crawl under the chair. When the 1st,2nd? Counselor gave me the news, I turned to Dan and said, "I TOLD you they'd do this to me." (Our first Sunday when I dropped Laraine off at nursery, I learned that there had only been one leader in there for awhile, and I said to Dan, "What do you bet they nail me for that one?") I then said to the Counselor, "I can't tell you I'm happy about it, but I'll do it. It sure is nice to be new in the ward and get a calling that allows me to meet people so easily..." I said some more really inappropriate stuff. Then I said some more to Dan later about my opinions on callings, particularly how it's always mothers of young children in the primary callings, when we're hanging out with young children all the time anyway, and why don't older people get these callings more? (Because old dudes REFUSE---one of my pet peeves---have you ever noticed how it's mostly older women sitting in Relief Society?) I'm pretty sure I crossed the line into sacrilege, but do I have a target on my forehead or something? I've spent maybe 5 months in callings outside of primary in all of my active adulthood. You would think after the display last Sunday, they would find me incompetent to work with small children, but I guess they figured I need more practice.

Dan wrote today's review: Australia

I have been quite occupied with moving, but I finally read a book:

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

My review