Christmas Highs and Lows

I wrote a 12 page essay on our Christmas, but figured a highs and lows post should be able to take care of most of the details. I'll save the three week play-by-play for my own records.

Highty highty highs:

• Nights spent sitting around talking and laughing with the sisters and their husbands in Logan, like the good old days. Even if if meant Chris making up Family Feud games, Nikkala falling asleep and nothing really new being said. And family dinners. And general hanging out.
• Sitting in the comfy chair by the fireplace at my parents house. Reading intended, naps the reality. And staring at my mom's Christmas tree.
• The last minute buzz of finishing up projects. Sewing machine going, buttons being sorted through, embroidering happening and trying to keep things a secret. Fun.
• Wrapping presents on the chest freezer, on the concrete floor in the basement storage room. It's always been the wrapping station and Christmas just wouldn't feel the same without cold toes and the hum of the freezer.
• Chris being the luckiest boy around, circa 1992, when he got a GameBoy + Dr. Mario in his stocking. Thank you parents' cupboards for supplying our stocking stuffers!
• Two baby showers for Baby Girl. At the first one, most of the others in attendance were also sporting baby bumps, and the second was a Christmas party with friends and shower for me and another expecting friend, so my belly wasn't the only one there either! It is the phase of life for us and our friends. I felt so loved by everyone's support and generosity.
• Magic Philharmonic Christmas concert. If you can't have MoTab and David Archuleta, Magic Phil and Rob Newman make a fine substitute.
• Seeing so many good friends: at church, visiting at their houses, and around town.
• Two opportunities to serve in the temple, one with all my sisters and their husbands.
• The awesome scavenger hunt/amazing race my parents put on for the sisters and brother-in-laws. Karisa re-capped it here. 
• Shopping for fabric with Mom for Baby Girl's baby quilts. High for me, probably a low for her. I've got some strong opinions, yet I'm indecisive. But I love what we came up with!
• Taking it easy. With Chris still on the mend from his gall bladder surgery (at the beginning of the trip), me with my rib out of place, Dad recovering from oral surgery and Tameka with stitches in her chin, we were quite the banged up group. Which was kind of nice.
• New Years Eve party I planned at Nik and Chod's, even though they were still out of town. They made it home, we rang in the New Year with Tameka & Ty and Whit & Bri. And we all were headed for bed at 12:15.
• Funny things said by my nieces and nephews. Chris and I have realized that a lot of our vernacular comes from this particular five and under set. We got some new good ones to add to it. And I'm completely and utterly smitten by a dark and handsome two year old.
• A pretty small Christmas. The focus wasn't so much on what was under the tree, and we may have enjoyed each other all the more because of that. Though I did score some Blue Man Group tickets from Chris!
• Watching home videos Tameka had digitized. Nothing like reliving loud, homely, hungry, obnoxious or immodest memories with the people who were there when those memories were made. There were laughter tears on multiple occasions.
• Having a couple from our ward and a girl from my volleyball team and her family on our flights home. It made the layovers so much nicer to have someone to chat with. And we were able to catch a ride instead of having our friends come get us at ridiculous hours of the morning.
• Coming home. Ahhh, home.  My own bed! And bathroom (which I visit all too frequently each night). Our house survived our absence well and the Christmas card count beat out the doctor bill count. Not by a large enough margin, but still. We're home and in our own rhythm again.

 Lowdy lowdy lows:

• My very painful out-of-place rib. Particularly during all the traveling we did. Two trips to the chiropractor seem to have helped, but I don't think completely solved, the problem.
• Flight delays, there and back. And both were late at night.
• Having tickets and being there with what we thought was enough time, but still not getting in (along with the hoards of people in line behind us) to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David Archuleta concert.
• My best cousin friend getting really sick and not getting to hang out with her and Brian at the family Christmas party.
• Being dependent on other people for food, transportation, scheduling, clean laundry, etc. It makes a self-reliant girl really anxious.
• Never enough time to soak it all in.

And the highs have it. It was a pretty great vacation. Now it's back to real life, and what Chris anticipates will be a very difficult and demanding semester. I'm glad we had the escape for a little while.