A Post-Christmas Christmas Post

My Butt, I'm behind on blogging. Oh, I mean, My, but I'm behind on blogging! ...I'll never forget my friend Randy who played Bob Cratchit in a production of A Christmas Carol. He walked on stage and said, "My Butt! Would you look at this room!" when he was supposed to have said, "My, but would you look at this room!" Luckily that was just in a dress rehearsal. It sure was funny. BUTT I digress.

Christmas happened, so blogging did not. I'm sitting at the back desk watching snow come heartily sprinkling from the sky, and I'm wishing Christmas were still a few days ahead of us instead of a few days behind us. Partly because I've had the work all done for so long now, whereas I was still scrambling around on the 23rd and 24th. It's just so Christmassy out there! I hate that the season goes away as quickly as it comes. I guess that means that I really do love it.

Things to remember about this year. Our family did a few fun things such as visiting Zoo Lights with my brother Peter and his family. What a spectacular sight! Of course, we went on the discount night, which meant that we were kind of shoulder-to-shoulder with half the valley. I'd say that the zoo lights were spectacular and totally worth paying more money for a less-crowded night. The kids were entranced.

Another evening out was Indian Food and This is the Place State Park with our friends the Radants. Indian Food? Totally worth it. This is the Place? Perhaps not. It was so crowded I couldn't believe it and it was almost not fun. Almost except that we love the Radants and we always enjoy time with them. Also, some of the attractions bordered on being kind of strange. There was a puppet show in which something like, "The God of all Heaven!" kept being shouted by these puppets that looked like they came straight from the 70's. Little weird. But we did like the gang of highly theatrical and historically dressed singers wandering around. They were very cute, if slightly too reminiscent of the cast of Glee.


I always love visiting the down town lights at Christmas time, but we weren't sure we'd be up for the crowds this year. I hate it when everyone discovers something cool and then it's not cool anymore because it's so dang crowded! Well, the kids and I came up with an alternate plan that ended up being really really fun. We got in the car, buckled up, turned on some Christmas tunes, and took a driving tour of the valley. Up Capitol Hill, down through the city, over to Christmas Street, playing i-spy all the while. It really was fun! And warm. It would have worked out better if Bundle hadn't been crying most of the way, but I think it's a great alternative to braving the crowds and cold.

On the 23rd my entire family gathered for our traditional Mexican feast with gift exchange. It was so fun to be all together, although there are so many kids now that the atmosphere at our parties is much the same as you'd find inside a popcorn popper. Not a lot of quiet moments to sit and reflect on the season or have much serious conversation, but I'll promise you you'll never get bored. Great gifts, too. Peter and Sheri had us this year and gave us a hard copy of the first year of our blog. THAT is a treasure for us, so many thanks to them. The evening did have its high-brow highlight, which was when my sister and her friend who is a harpist played some music for us - some Christmas, some not, all delightful. It really made the evening.


I have a feeling that these three girls are going to be slightly over-photographed together over their youth, but we just can't help ourselves. Well, I think that's all this post can hold. I better publish before another month goes by, and keep working on all the other updating I have to do!