Merry Christmas

We've had a quiet and nice Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, our family band, Gourmet Chips, played some Christmas songs together (see Instagram).   Jared and I played together a little as well.  We also played a new board game that we got for Christmas, and we played the hand-bells.  We reenacted the Christmas story from the Book of Mormon, and finished with some Lego Rock Band.  It was a pretty fun night. 

Christmas morning started at 7:30 am.  Jared got some bongo drums, and Ruth got a comforter set for her bed, Chuck got a shirt and tie, and I got a pressure cooker.   After presents we had to get ready for church (and I had to do some food prep).  

My Christmas program at church went pretty smoothly.  My choir sang as well as I have heard them. I have about 15 more people at Christmas than any other time. It's nice to hear all four parts for once. Overall I was pretty happy with it.  

On Christmas afternoon, Ben, Kaitlin's boyfriend, came over and we all anxiously awaited Kaitlin's call.  We had a great conversation with her.  She was so happy!  She had been in to the hospital that morning for a follow-up, and she said she has the fanciest doctor in the whole city and is getting good care. She is so excited to come home in just five weeks.  We had a good visit with Ben, and learned that he isn't going back to school this spring, rather he is staying home to "earn some more money" and will return to school in the fall. 

It's been our tradition to make ornaments every year. This year it was "ugly Christmas sweaters." 
Can you guess who made which? One is a give away.

It's also our tradition to reenact the Christmas story on Christmas eve. This year we did the Book of Mormon story.  Here is the angel/Captain America telling Samuel the Lamanite, and his reindeer, and his turkey, to go back to Zarahemla. (Everyone chooses their own costumes). 

This is Samuel the Lamanite (and his turkey) on the wall fending off attacks from the wicked people. 

On every Christmas eve there is a quiet moment late at night or early in the morning that Moms get to enjoy, when all the gifts are under the tree and most of the hard work of Christmas is done.  Making Christmas happen is a great work. 

The thing Kaitlin wanted most in our Skype call with her was a "talent show".  Here is Jared playing for her. Ruth also did some of her debate presentation for her. 

Kaitlin was so excited and happy to talk to us.  She sounded like she was doing really well. 

Have you ever made Turkey in the crockpot??  I have now!   This is a 13 lb turkey and I cooked it for 8 hours.  Next time I'll cook it a little less. It was tender. delicious, and super easy. I also made potatoes in my new pressure cooker.

Our Christmas cracker hats at Christmas dinner. 

We got 6 inches of snow on Christmas eve.  We're glad we had decided not to travel, because all that snow had an icy underbelly.  Luckily the streets were plowed by the time we headed for church.

All About Jared

Today is Jared's birthday. He is 14 (for reference, when Harry Potter was 14, he participated in the Triwizard Tournament).  Jared chose for his birthday today to have Salmon, a cheeseball, and rootbeer floats.  I also made him egg-in-toast for breakfast.   Jared got some clothes (including a Good Mythical Morning t-shirt), headphones, treats, and a juggling toy.    Since today was Sunday, Jared also had some other cool things happen.  First of all, he was ordained to be a Teacher.  That is the next level for boys in our church after Deacon.  Jared is super excited to be a Teacher because he was Deacon President for over 18 months and he wanted a break.   Jared also got recognized in church for finishing his Duty to God (a program for boys where he has to fulfill certain requirements like serving in the church and doing service and reading scriptures and that sort of thing). He got a certificate and was recognized in front of the entire congregation.  So that was pretty cool.

This week was also Jared's holiday band concert.  This was his first time playing the Bells (the Tubular Bells) and the base drum. It's cool to be the mother of a percussionist because it's like your kid has a solo in every concert because you can hear what they are playing so clearly.  He really likes band and his concerts are getting progressively better and better.

We spent a couple hours this week playing guitars together.  Jared's learning to play a basic bass line while I play the rhythm guitar.  It's pretty fun.

We Moved but Didn't Go Anywhere

When we moved into our house almost 12 years ago we told ourselves that we would replace the ratty carpet soon.  Well, we finally did it.   On Monday and Thursday very nice workmen showed up (not punctual) to our home to put in new carpet. We replaced all the carpet upstairs.  So Sunday night found us moving everything out of one half of the house, then Monday night we moved it back; on Wednesday we moved everything out of the other half of the house, and then Thursday night we moved it back.  I told everyone that if there was something they didn't want to move back into their room to put it in the basement, now the basement is half full with boxes, bags and random bits of furniture. On the bright side, our rooms are clutter free.  Our whole house smells like new carpet. 

Christmas Arrived

Christmas was on hold until the new carpet was installed.  In addition to moving back into the house we also moved Christmas in. The tree went up and the stockings and all that stuff. Now it feels very Christmasy. It's hard to wrap my head around how fast time is flying by. 

More Debate

Ruth's domination of the debate world continued this weekend where she took one first and two second places (one of those 2nd place wins was in Storytelling - a brand new event for her), and then took second overall for the entire tournament.  This is her highest ranking finish ever. 

My New Job

I've been at my new job for two weeks now and I'm really enjoying it.  I am a teacher's aid assigned to first grade.  I work for four teachers who divide me up between them and I do whatever they need me to do.  In two weeks I've put up four bulletin boards, made hundreds of copies, laminated, figured out how to run the new CD players, tested hundreds of sight words, and have read a story about a hen (with two wings, and two legs, and a long neck) sixty times.   The work suits me well. I don't have to make decisions. It isn't stressful. Every hour I'm doing something different. It's perfect and I'm happy. 

Our church Christmas party had a "photo booth" so here we all are with a selfi-stick.  It isn't very often that the whole family is in a picture, so here it is. 

We had a nice and quiet thanksgiving at Grandma's house.  Activities included: talking, eating, cleaning, talking more, cutting out snowflakes, eating more, and setting up Grandma's Christmas tree.

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The rest of Thanksgiving weekend was filled with a retileing project in preparation for getting new carpet next week. We managed to get all the old tile removed, the floor prepped, and the new tile laid out and cut.  

Reflections

Ruth won some Reflections things at her school.  She entered four areas and was in it basically to make money and to get points for her Sterling Scholar application.  She made $20 in gift cards with the two wins.

Election Woes

Ruth's debate team had an election party on election night.  Ruth drew a map of the US on a whiteboard and the team filled in the states as they were called.  It was a tough night for them, and a tough night at our house.   The next morning the debate team got together for a post-election breakfast just to console each other in their sorrow.  It was a tough week overall for all of us.  It just made it clear that the way that our family sees things is way different than others see things, including our own family and neighbors.

New Job

A month or so ago I got a phone call out of the blue from a local elementary school saying they had my resume and they wanted me to come and interview for a part time aid job. I was surprised because, while I had started looking at the job market again, the resume which they had was over a year and a half years old.  The amazing thing is that I had just told God two days before that if he wanted me to get a job that I needed some help opening some doors. So all things considered, even though I didn't really want to work as an aid again, I went into the interview just to see what they had to say.  A week later they called and said that I didn't get the job, but they wanted to hire me and they'd let me know if they had future openings. I just shrugged and went on with my life, not expecting anything.  Three or so weeks later I got a phone call from them saying they had a job for me and could I start at the end of the month?  It all seemed so surreal that I figured I better take the job.  I mean, how often are jobs just handed to you like that?  It's part time and has hours are in the middle of the school day.  So it's perfect.  I start the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Debate Judging

I got to judge at Ruth's debate tournament again this weekend.  This was a bigger tournament and there was a lot of competition.  Some of the kids I judged were amazing.  Ruth got fourth place, and was pretty happy with that considering the competition and that she'd been sick.  I took this picture of her before the competition.  Talking to walls is part of debate culture.  Before any tournament, you'll see tons of kids lined up against the walls giving their speeches and practicing their points.

Jared's Ukulele

Jared is still playing the Ukulele every day and he has an amazing talent for it, surpassing where many of my guitar students were after a year of lessons.   I love listening to him play and we've even played a few duets just for kicks.

New Adventures in Paraguay

We got word from Kaitlin this week that she's been moved from Asuncion to a city right on the border of Brazil.  She's a little nervous about the move as she was super happy in Asuncion, but she's excited to get more practice on her Portuguese.

More Debate

Yes, 'tis the season to hear about debate. Ruth competed in another tournament this week. I grabbed her for a picture late Saturday night after she had been at competition for 23 hours over 2 days.  She was exhausted because she had triple entered and then made it to finals in all three. One of her finals overlapped the other so she had to compete and then run across the school to be the last competitor in another one.  In the end she had gotten 1st in Humorous Interpetation, 2nd in Declamation, and 3rd in Poetry.  Her team got 4th overall which is a big deal because their team is really small so they rarely get any team level awards.  I guess one student getting 3 wins could help with that. 

Jared is a Star

Jared was given a rank advancement at our Scout Court of Honor this week. He's now a star scout. That's one rank away from Eagle. He also went on his last camp out with the scouts, as he will be moving up to varsity scouts next month.

Balancing the Books

This week between filling orders I actually tried to balance to books for my little hobby that pays for itself in preparation for the end of the year. I'm not making tons of money doing this, but I'm in the black so that's good.  I also made this commissioned Skyrim helmet.

Harry Potter Halloween

So here is what I've been working on in my free time for the last month. Ruth and I have talked about cosplay as Luna and Trelawney for a long time, but about 2 months ago I got it in my head that the whole family should dress up as Harry Potter characters for Halloween. And so it began.

The two Harry Potter robes were purchased on eBay. You can get them there much cheaper then I could ever sew them and they are pretty good quality.  I also got Ruth's tie off ebay.  Everything else was my creation.  Dumbledore's robe was a repurposed bathrobe. I sewed his hat. My dress and scarf. Ruth's necklace and earrings.  Jared's Quiditch armor and broom were all made by me.  We made our wands as a family home evening activity.   It's been good fun and a nice break for me to make things that don't have to compete in a competition but just for fun.

I've put up more pictures on facebook. These are different from those. We had so many good pictures!

Jared's First Band Concert

Jared played in his first band concert of the year.  He really loves band.  And he looked very handsome.

Debate Competition

I went with Ruth on Friday to judge at her 2nd debate tournament. I was lucky enough to get a bye the first round and was able to go with Ruth to her first round to see her compete.  This is the first time I've seen her compete.  She did really great and smoked all the competition in the room.  She has another competition next weekend.

Pumpkin Adventures

It's been a tradition of ours to spend a Saturday in October at my mom's farm where we usually find a pumpkin patch or do other fall activities.   This week we picked up my mom and then headed north to a Pumpkin Walk.  There was a park full of scenes from history or from pop culture made out of pumkins.  Some were all pumpkin, and others were just pumpkin heads but all were very creative and we had a good time walking around and looking at them.

After the pumkin walk we stopped to buy some cheese curds at the cheese factory there, and then we went to a farmers fruit stand (the kind where you drop some money in a jar after picking out what you want) where we got some pumpkins.

It was a fun day and it was great to visit with grandma and spend some time together.

Stake Choir

I forgot to mention last week that the stake choir I conduct sang at stake conference last Sunday.  I had around 30 singers and we sang two numbers.  One of the great things about conducting the stake choir is that I can choose more difficult music and my singers are usually a little more versed in music.  The choir responds better to direction both verbal and when I am conducting them.  It challenges me, because I have more control, but it's also a thrill when things go well.


Cosplay Contests

This weekend I competed in a couple of contests.  The first was a new cosplay contest at the Halloween Expo.  Because it was the first year for this one, the competition wasn't too crazy. The judges really liked my costume in judging and they asked some really good questions.  It's nice to be able to talk about your craft with people who really know what you're talking about.  What I didn't know at the time was that for this contest, pre-judging was the only judging - there was no stage portion - which was good for me because often, my stage presentation is my lowest score.  In the end I won Best-in-Show which means I won the whole thing.  This is my first ever Best-in-Show win.  As a prize I won a creepy animal scull plaque.

At the Halloween Expo I was also able to meet a few of the contestants from the TV show "Face-Off" .   Two of them even approached me to talk to me about my costume - they really liked it.  It was super cool to have some pros look at your work and approve of it.

Chuck accompanied me to the Halloween Expo as my handler, and he dressed up in his steampunk garb as well.  If anyone asked we were the tinman and the wizard of Oz steampunk style.   Chuck was a really good sport, and I was glad to have him watch me compete as he has never gone to any of my competitions before.

The Halloween Expo contest went a lot faster than I expected so I was done in time to hop over to our community Pumpkin Festival and compete in their costume contest.   Now there is a huge difference between a costume contest and a cosplay contest.  In cosplay you have to had made it yourself and you are judged on your level of craftsmanship, in a costume contest you are judged by which ones the judges (who usually know nothing about costuming) like the most. So you're competing against store purchased or "gag" type costumes, so you just never know how they are going to go.

Ruth competed in the teen contest as Astrid and won, and I competed and won in the adult contest.  That's my second year winning this contest in a row.

Before the costume contest Ruth had been working at the Pumpkin Festival as a volunteer for the Youth Council. For an hour she ran the pumpkin bowling booth - today her back is sore from setting up bowing pins (pop bottles).

Kaitlin Update

In Kaitlin's letter this week she seemed super excited and happy about what she was doing in Paraguay. She's still in the city and close the mission office. She loves her new companions and her health has been good.  She's now been out for a year and two months, and will be coming home the 2nd week of February.

And So It Begins

Ruth came stumbling into the house late Saturday night, after spending 23 hours over two days at the first debate tournament of the season, with a shiny first place trophy in her hand.   Debate season has started with the first tournament at the University of Utah. There, Ruth competed against varsity high school debate students from all over the state in the categories of Humorous Interpretation and, for the very first time, Dramatic Interpretation.   She felt good about her DI performance but didn't make it to finals in that category. She did, however, take her HI all the way to finals and then got the win.  She's really happy about it because she knows, since this was her first time competing with this script, that she can improve and be even more competitive in the future.  Her next tournament will be at the end of this month.

Jared's .001 %

This weekend we took Jared to Asian City to buy him some chopsticks and while we were there we also bought him some healing spheres. Since then he's been eating everything with chopsticks and the light clanging of the spheres has become a constant.  It's all part of him getting in touch with the .001 % Asian part of him that showed up on his grandfather's DNA test.  He also says he has learned enough in his Chinese class that he can count to 999 and call people names.

Bonus: While Ruth was away at the debate tournament and Jared was off at scout camp, Chuck and I went out on a long overdue date.  

Happy 17th Birthday Ruth

Today for Ruth's birthday we watched General Conference.  She asked for homemade cinnamon rolls and popcorn chicken bowl for her birthday treats.  To give you some insights into Ruth's interest she got a black pant suit (to wear at debate tournaments) and also a Harry Potter robe, among other gifts.   On Friday she had some friends over and they watched movies and ate pizza.   Ruth is smart, ambitious, confident, talented, and beautiful.  She's been working very hard at her AP classes and is practicing constantly for her first debate tournament of the season which takes place next weekend.

Summer

Our little bunny Summer died this week.  This didn't come as a surprise to us as Summer has been showing her age for awhile now and the past couple of weeks she has been pretty sick. But even in her elderly state she managed to eat peaches under the peach tree until she could hardly move, and she managed to eat all the tomatoes of the vines that she could reach.  It wasn't until the last week really that she has struggled getting around.  Last Saturday I brought her in and cleaned her fur and brushed her down; she hasn't been able to groom herself very well.  She was just skin and bones and she just lay there and whimpered as I brushed her. Poor little thing.  So while we are sad to lose Summer we know that it was her time and we are glad that she isn't suffering anymore.

Here's the last picture I took of Summer a couple of weeks ago.  She loved eating the tomatoes.




Summer was grumpy but also a beautiful and soft bunny.  

Homecoming

We had a few things this week. Jared went on a camp out with the scouts, I played guitar at a church thing, we painted the front and back door,  but the most notable event was Ruth going to homecoming. 

Ruth always loved Kaitlin's homecoming dress from a few years ago so she decided that she wanted to recreate Kaitlin's look for her homecoming this year.  Just as Kaitlin did, Ruth got a lot of complements on her dress. It's just so different then what other girls are wearing.

Ruth went with Drew, a guy she met at Les Mis and has dated a few times since then. They went with 5 other couples. For their day date they went hiking and had nerf gun battles. They had a great time.