Christmas 2009 in Brief

Christmas was lovely this year. Two weeks of pure family fun with no interruption from work or school...and very little from friends (seeing as how you almost all live out of state. See what happens when you leave Washington for 10 years? Everyone else leaves, too. I guess my leaving left them with very little incentive to stay.) I thought I'd recap this year's festivities by re-using my wildly creative idea from my second blog post ever: The Top Ten List.

10. New Year's. New Year's Eve was fantastic. I went and saw Avatar (for the second time - I dislike sci-fi as a general rule. But I love fantasy and things that are pretty. Avatar was those things.) at 9 in the morning. Early, you say? Actually it was perfect, and it wasn't even my idea, if you can believe it. Around noon, I watched a movie on OnDemand about Portugal's fado music. Pretty sure it could not have been enjoyed nor even moderately appreciated by someone who's not mildly obsessed with Portugal. Then I took a two-hour nap, and we went up to Seattle and had dinner at the Flying Fish, played crow's feet, and then watched the fireworks off the Space Needle from Alki Beach. It was beautiful, and I love the water and the city and I'm getting closer and closer to the time when I'll "eventually go back to Washington."

So if New Year's was so fun, why is it only #10, you ask? What, have you not yet looked at that picture? That was New Year's Day. Me, Dad, Rusty, and Burke all truck down to Uncle Steve's in Olympia, and then they all crash while I sit there watching this horrifically boring sport on TV called football. Awesome.

9. Enjoying an hour of throwing the ball to Grant as he misses it repeatedly, while Bennett walks around smacking the ball (read: floor) with his racquet in their church clothes. ADORABLE. (And yes, that racquetball court is inside our house. Please don't ask. I think it's weird, too. Also, I don't know how to play racquetball.)

8. After Mom picked me up at the airport, she mentioned that at some point she needed to stop at Trader Joe's. I insisted that this happen immediately. Nothing like Reed's Ginger Brew and Fruit Floes to get your morning started.

7. For those of you who are not yet aware that bookstores are exciting, let me assure you that they are. This first picture is me, full of excitement, in Powell's Bookstore in Portland. I spent two hours there, bought 8 books, and then had to scram because my parking meter was about to run out. It claims to be the world's largest new and used bookstore - 68,000 square feet of books.

One word: Heaven. Actually, there is no word to describe its perfection, so I'm forced to make one up. And I'm going to do so RIGHT NOW - scrumtrulescent.

I also might have discovered that my favorite bookstore in Berkeley has a convenient location in Bellevue, Washington. I might have also gone there and purchased more books.

Also, I might have taken some books from Dad's shelves (they're moving. It was not stealing, it was encouraged.) and he may have also given me some for Christmas, and Alexis may have also shipped me a book from North Carolina that arrived before I left Seattle, so I might have arrived back in Salt Lake with an extra carry-on full of 19 books.

These are them.

Did I mention that I like to read? It's not that I read obsessively or that I spend a lot of time reading each day, because I don't. But I might always have a book in my bag and occasionally I read at stoplights, and when I find time I like to sit and read on my bed with a cup of hot chocolate. I also like to buy used books and put them on my bookshelf and stare at them lovingly from my desk.

6. This is my home. I love it.

5. I got to ski for an hour!!! Then Foot started to whine and complain so I had to go in (which ended up being a good thing because I was a little behind on Secret Christmas Project '09), but MAN THAT HOUR WAS FUN.

I came back out later for a quick tour of the bunny hill with Scott, Nate, and Grant.

4. Pseudo-killing each other on Christmas Day with Nerf dart guns. It began in the living room, was interrupted by a cease-fire for dinner, then moved down into the recroom and ended in the racquetball court, and was mostly three hours of going back and forth between darting around to find cover, and then just walking out in the middle of a crossfire real nonchalant-like to pick up some ammo off the ground. Burke got shot in the eye a few times until he put on his ski goggles, but other than that there were no serious injuries.

3. Secret Christmas Project '09....so, over the summer Grandma Jones taught me how to knit. I was all laid up from my foot surgery and needed something to do besides Netflix and online trivia quizzes. I thought that it would be a) entertaining, b) more meaningful, and c) significantly cheaper to knit my family cool (read: "cool") stuff for Christmas. I didn't get pictures of Mom and Alexis' scarves, but all the final products I thought were lovely, and I was awful proud of myself, and I know my family must LOVE having homemade knit apparel (are you cringing?). The boys got knit hats and the ladies got scarves.

Burke and Cam both made separate comments while watching me knit about how I was aging right before their eyes.

I don't really know what they all thought of them, but Cam wore his hat for two days straight, and I have orders from Mom, Nate, Grant, and Basement Kelli's entire family for beanies, so it couldn't have been all bad. (Also, if you'd like a scarf or a beanie, please let me know. They're all I make so far. Please do not request a sweater. I find them...how do I put this delicately...undesirable.)

2. I've been looking forward to this Christmas all year - it's the first one where the whole family has been together in Seattle since 2005. Here's a neo-Brady Bunch shot (if you're wondering who the unfamiliar girls/guy are, it's Mike's daughters and son-in-law, Katie, Aaron, and Shelby), and your traditional mantle pic...

I know you must all be very anxious to see how the Nephews have grown. I won't disappoint. (did I mention that plans for me to go to North Carolina again this summer are in the works? It'll be like Season 2 of my very own reality show...)

When you ask Bennett what sound a monster baby makes, he says, "Raaaawwrrr!!!" This kind of looks like a baby monster face, but it's actually the face he made when Scott said "Cheese."

If you'd like to learn about Webkins, Grant's your man. Pretty sure he's got over 20. And now he can shove their heads into this holster/pillowcase each night while he sleeps.

1. Lastly, I'd just like to point out that I'm grateful for the meaning of Christmas. The last year has involved a couple big life decisions and a trial named Foot that would have been much more difficult were in not for being able to trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for when things get hard because it reminds me of how enormously blessed I am. I have a great life, and I'm actually really glad that the last year has been as difficult and uncertain as it was, because this Christmas I felt a much deeper love and gratitude for my Savior. It made it all worth it.

Merry Christmas, everybody. I hope it treated you well.

P.S. Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of my blog. :)