Christmas Day 2007

Christmas morning was amazing. Grace has been wanting a bike all year and has been sincerely hoping to find one under the tree. She was absolutely thrilled to find just that thing on Christmas morning. Harriet is finally understanding a little of the magic and excitement. She even got the hang of trying to find "our elf" each morning during the month of December. ("Red" came each day to check on our house and reported to Santa each night!) Hattie found a bed full of baby dolls under her tree and was ecstatic. She has loved the Christmas tree, the lights, the bells, the music, and most of all - the BABY JESUS figures in the nativities!Having little kids and believing in Santa with them is one of the true miracles at Christmas. I don't care what some people might think of me, but for me, Santa and Christ go hand in hand and what better way to celebrate Christ's birth than to experience the pure joy of a child? Our only flaw of the morning was that for the second year in a row, we have finished opening all our gifts to realize that we didn't take a single photo! David manned the video camera through it all and I tried to orchestrate the chaos of passing presents and helping the girls open them and there just wasn't a second camera man available! In a way, it speaks to how excited and wrapped up in things we get that we totally forget to take pictures while we're opening gifts. I guess we trade being in the moment for recording the moment with a snapshot.

We did take pictures of everyone enjoying their gifts afterward. We received such an abundance from Santa and from relatives afar that we are still enjoying each gift as we play with it, wear it, or use it for the first time.
After all of the decorating, shopping, planning, wrapping, driving, thinking, mailing, sub-for-santa-ing, baking, and re-doing all of the above, the big day has finally come and gone. Sometimes in the middle of it, I really wonder if I'm doing the right thing by setting all of these crazy standards and trying to do so much - shouldn't Christmas be simple and solely about Christ? Then, when the day comes, I am glad that I did it and sometimes wish I could have done more. I think that threaded through the middle of what seems to be excess is the real Christmas spirit and I don't know if my Christmas spirit would be the same if I pared it down. In fact, I am wishing that I was able to do one more thing that I didn't get to do. I missed the Nutcracker this year with Grace and I felt the hole all season. I planned to take her "after Christmas when things calmed down", but so far, the calm hasn't come. So, I'm afraid it will have to wait until next year. To me, the abundance and craziness and tons of traditions just means that I love lots of people and want to show them that and also that lots of people love our family. And, in the end, I am always humbled by the generosity of everyone. Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent, but back to our day. We lucked out and got a warm Christmas day with a melted driveway - perfect for trying out the new bike. David pitched in big time and made a huge turkey dinner complete with all the side dishes and dessert. We had a great time just eating together in our dining room as a family. We didn't go a single place all day long. Even though we do miss going to different family members' houses, we were so grateful for an entire day that could be devoted to playing with the kids and being together without any other agenda.
We do want to say a very big THANK YOU to each person who sent an e-mail, card, picture, gift, or talked to us on the phone or video chatted with us on the computer this season. We felt very loved and remembered.

Christmas Eve 2007

(Grace and Hattie making sugar cookies for pre-school and the neighborhood.
Don't worry - we were all healthy that day and I made sure lots of handwashing went on!)

Christmas Eve was a busy day for us. We started the day by tromping around our neighborhood with goodies and gifts. Apparently, the "neighbor gift" is not a phenomenon in our area. I remember wherever we lived in Salt Lake, it seemed like you always had an endless stack of goodies brought over by the neighbors and/or people in the ward. So much you were sick of eating it all. Even if you forgot a neighbor, you always had plenty of extra to re-gift something real quick. Nope, not here. We have been giving goodies for 3 years to our immediate neighbors (now 6 houses) and no one reciprocates except our sweet friends, Roger and Jeanne and their daughter Elisabeth and her boyfriend Jay. We're not offended. We do like to spread a little Christmas cheer to the people whom we see across the fence or through the yard.

Roger, Jeanne, Elisabeth, and Jay always have something special for our kids tucked under their trees. Grace especially likes visiting their houses and Grace has now helped Jeanne and Roger decorate their Christmas tree for the past 2 years.

After visiting the last neighbor where we found out about noradsanta.org, we came home and started tracking Santa! This was a crazy thing. Grace sat in front of the computer for hours checking off all the countries as he raced through the time zones to deliver gifts. When it was time to leave for Christmas Eve dinner, Santa was in Africa and we had tracked him through Russia, Europe, and the Middle East.

As we drove on the winding roads to the Bahe's house, we marveled over the post-card setting we live in. The snow had a top layer of freezing rain, and in the full moon and Christmas lights it was like sparkling glass. The perfectly decorated country colonial homes were little paintings out of a Victorian Christmas calendar.

We spent the evening with our friends, the Bahe Family and the missionaries in our ward. The Bahe's invited us over to their house for the second year in a row. They have great traditions from soup for dinner to reading the Texas version of The Night Before Christmas (complete with Texan accents), re-enacting the Nativity (Grace was the donkey - hence the gray tail), singing carols (THEY sing well - professional musicians), and playing Christmas songs with hand-made chimes. Grace loves this party. She and Aydan Bahe get along famously. The Bahes also have some great little animals - 2 little dogs, a cat, and a kitten. They kept Hattie busy for sure.
When we got home from dinner, it was pretty late. We were nervous to see where Santa was on the tracker. He was VERY close. Actually, Grace saw him fly through the sky with Rudolf as we drove home. He was working near our time zone in South America. Boy, Santa expected us to be in bed at a good hour! I guess that's how you get on the nice list. Our household has gone back and forth from the naughty to the nice list this past month and we hoped to end up on the nice one! We decided we better hurry ourselves to bed and I think we just made it in the nick of time.

Christmas at the Ward

We went to what was, I think, the best ward Christmas party I've ever been to last night. It was simple, but very nice and everything was timed nicely so it wasn't too long and the pageant was really cute and not too long - so much that Grace said "that's the best play I've ever seen!"

The other great thing was that a lady in our ward went TO TOWN on having a great Santa set up. You could have fooled me. I think the REAL Santa was at our church last night. No fake beard - he was 100% genuine.

Hattie wouldn't sit on Santa's lap and Grace was a little nervous, but she did utter that she wants a bike for Christmas.

Hope your ward party is as good as ours was! (except David just reminded me that we got isolated with the whole deacon's quorom at our table so we didn't get to chat with any of our friends - oh well. at least they like him!)

Oh- and the best part about church this weekend was that we didn't have to go today! One great thing about New Englanders is that they cancel things for a storm. It would have taken more than an hour for us to drive there in the foot of snow that fell right when we would have had to leave. Don't be too jealous :-)

Frosty the Snowman

I built a snowman today for the first time in possibly 20 years. We got about a foot of snow yesterday and today was a glorious blue sky with sparkly fresh snow on the ground. I promised Grace we would try to build a snowman - you can't ask for a better day to do it. The only thing is that we got dry powdery Utah ski snow instead of wet sticky New England snow. Ski snow doesn't make for good snow man building, but I did my best.There was no way to roll up a ball of snow, so we started grabbing handfuls and packing them on top of each other as we went. After hundreds of handfuls and a bit of snow sculpting, we had an almost 3 foot snow man. With all the snow, I was hoping for a bit more of a giant snowman that could be seen over the snow drifts in our front yard. Our Frosty certainly doesn't compare to my friend's Frosty . Chris and her family built a pretty dang good snowman for SLC I have to say.

Will Frosty survive the nor'easter that's blowing through this weekend? We'll keep you posted. I think I'll bring in my wool felt hat and scarf though...

Early Christmas

In a way, Christmas came early for me this year. My mom and Melissa and Sean came out for a 4 day visit. They were able to see Grace's dance recital - a first for them. We also did lots of Christmas shopping, hanging out, and eating. We took the kids on a winter trip to Drumlin Farm and saw the animals in the snow too. Sean loves pigs and Harriet LOVES anything with 2-4 legs that makes a barnyard sound. Grace, of course always loves anything to do with a barn and animals and outside. I didn't take my camera, so I need to get some pictures of the farm from someone else (hint, hint.)

During their last night here, we had a big family old-fashioned Christmas and Birthday party. Melissa and I have birthdays 2 days apart in December and we've always celebrated them together except for the few years I have lived here. We have fond memories of going to our Grandma Primmer's house for Christmas where she baked up a storm of goodies and had the most delicious food for Christmas dinner. We tried our best to re-enact the old parties from when we were little and I think we were pretty successful. I have really missed having a big family Christmas party since we moved here. Sure, we celebrate with friends and ourselves, but it's just not quite the same. Of course there are lots of reasons to be glad that we don't have to go to the family Christmas parties with all of the drama and confusion that sometimes happen (we try to focus on those things when we're feeling blue at the Holidays!), but for the most part, the extended family parties are missed and I know David's family has traditions that he misses too.

So, at this family Christmas party, Sean and Grace and Hattie got to exchange gifts together for the first time as little cousins. That was my most favorite part - to see them open their presents together.

Thanks for coming mo Deb and Aunt Lis and Sean! We love you and we miss all the rest of ya too!

Now, I am most looking forward to seeing my little girls creep down our stairs to see what Santa has left under the tree. That little magical moment has to be the best part of Christmas for a parent.

Grace's Big Night

Grace is in her second year of dance and while I don't know if she is getting better, I do know that she is having fun. She was very excited for Thursday's Christmas recital and that her cousin Sean and Aunt Lis, and Mo Deb could come and watch her. She danced to Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer and then in a Finale with everyone that dances at the studio.


She did a great job despite her antlers that kept falling off her head and covering her eyes. She had a great time dancing and watching all the other dancers. I wish that I could say the same.

So if you couldn't be there, here is Grace dancing.

O Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we braved the cold and more importantly the bitter wind to take the kids out to pick out the family Christmas tree for 2007. It was so cold that we minimized our time outside and took the first tree that was short enough to fit in our house. It had just barely been taken off the truck and unbound so we did recognize or appreciate just how full this tree was. To quote Clark Griswald, "... a little full, lot of sap."

We got the tree inside and mounted and quickly discovered that we may have to do some trimming. So, since Michelle is the artist of the family, I got her the hedger and she went to town. You probably don't do that every day! After it was all said and done the tree looks great and we already have presents to put around the tree.

Just don't ask Michelle about ticks in the tree!

Goodbye and Goodnight

NaBloPoMo is over. The challenge was issued and accepted. In the end it took both the efforts of myself and Michelle to officially accomplish the task. I figure that is all well and good. Afterall, some days saw multiple blogs from yours truly.

I discovered that many of you would prefer I not blog about politics and that I instead stick to day to day activities of the family. While it was a struggle to come up with some blog material every day and I certainly did a poor job on some days, I can at least say that I did it. Perhaps not all "A" work, but I passed.

Now that it will soon be December, I hope that I can continue to maintain a healthly blog posting frequency. Every day is probably too much, but hopefully you all can tune in to hear me rant and rave and ramble 2-3 times a week.

Goodbye and goodnight to NaBloPoMo!

Christmas Dresses and Little Girls

...don't always mix. Some little girls LOVE to get all dressed up like a princess. Not my royalty. They think that fancy dresses are itchy and get in the way. Sorry mom, Harriet will NOT wear the little sleeve gloves you made to match the dress, so I took the pictures without them. I hope she'll wear them when we have to leave the house so she's not cold. She wouldn't wear a bow either. She doesn't understand bribery yet. Grace does, thus the bow in her hair.

I decided that I don't have it in me this year to go to some picture place, drive 30 minutes each way, wait in the waiting room until dresses and hair and nerves are shot and then come away with 2 poses that I half like and had to pay a fortune for. So, I took my own terrible pictures for free! (after all, we have a really nice camera now - no excuses not to use it.) Nerves still frazzled, hair still not too good, but dresses survived the ordeal.

Harriet was NOT happy about any part of the picture taking. I had to give her the favorite baby doll just to get her to sit down by her sister. No, she's not holding a baby we haven't announced! Just a doll that's almost as big as she is.

These are the final results. Please make honest comments. Tell me if I need a do-over. Do I need to dress them up again tomorrow and try again? I'm pretty happy with Grace's close up. I don't like any of them together - lots are cute, but not what I was after and none are "good" photos. I came up with nothing from Harriet, but I doctored up what I could. Would you want a glossy 8x10 of these at your house?

I'm just putting the two that I doctored and like best on the blog. Look at the flickr page for all the miserable shots...

Taking pictures of kids is a good way to put the scrooge back into Christmas! I'll try to get over it and decorate the tree this weekend.

addendum: David came home and thought Hattie needed a better photo, so we put her dress back on and took 20 more shots. Here's the winner:

Work, work, work

No rest for the weary around here. I have been gone from 7 AM until 9PM every night this week and I have to go into work even earlier tomorrow to get ready for a program review. Thus, it is a short blogging night. Luckily only 2 days to go.

Almost there, almost there, ...

I am finally getting close to the end of the month. NaBloPoMo has been a tough feat. Certainly some of my posts haven't been worth the ip packets that were sent over the internet. At the MRS the last couple of days I have been recommended to read several books. I thought I would pass it on,

1) Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World. A plea for scientific literacy. Should be a good read.

2) Stephen Hawking's, God Created the Integers. It is about how math changed the world around us.

And finally, the last one isn't a book, but is a transcript of a talk given by John "Kappa" Cornworth. Check it out here.

Scientists Step Up

The annual Fall MRS meeting started today in Boston. Most of the sessions this afternoon that I attended weren't too interesting to me, but I stayed for the two plenary talks tonight. Both by Nobel Laureates and both talked about the need for scientists to confront global warming and our energy needs. It won't be the politicians, it won't be the movie stars, it won't even be the Al Gores of the world that will solve these problems. It will be the scientific community. Things look drastic and we truly need revolutionary ideas to confront our growing appetite for electricity. However, what we also need it a huge increase in renewable/sustainable energy research. Coming out of graduate school I really wanted to work for NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) but they were laying people off. Despite the warning bells that are sounding we continue to neglect this very important area of research. We had the Apollo Project, we had Star Wars, now it is time for Green Energy. Let's hope the politicians can at least put some resources toward this so that science can solve yet another problem. Let the politicians get the credit too, let's just get a move on solving this problem.

The End of the Road Trip

Well we are back home. After a very fun and enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend at Brian and Wendy's we are back home. Driving was going well until we hit the New York-Conneticut border and then it was bumper to bumper gridlock for most of Conneticut and into Massachussets. We were on pace to get home in just under 10 hours, but instead it took 11 1/2 hours. Not fun with 2 kids and 2 dogs. The dogs were great and so was Grace. Harriet was pretty good, but near the end, fatigue set in. Also, she picked up Grace's cold so that made things bad. Luckily we are home and won't be doing anything more than a couple of hours anytime soon.

Of course now that I home, I got start thinking about Christmas lights. Do you have your lights up yet?

Diary of a Utah Fan-Deja Vu

Last year I was sitting on my couch and watched the improbable touchdown that BYU had to win the game with no time left. This year, I was in Pittsburgh listening to it on the internet and was pretty much discouraged by the way the offense played the entire game. When the Utes went ahead 10-9, I was hopeful but thought, "There is too much time left." Sure enough. BYU drove 88 yards thanks to 30 yards of penalties and 49 yards on a 4th and 18 play. How do you give up 49 yards on 4th and 18?

Slightly different path, but the same result. A BYU win with hardly any time left on the clock. The game was a mini-season. Alternating between stellar defensive play, inept offense, big plays given up by the defense, enough offense to keep us in the game, but not enough defense when it was most needed.

At least I can say, wait until next year.

Rockin' in the Christmas Season

Well with Thanksgiving officially over it is time to start thinking about Christmas. Since we are away from home we can't do some of our traditional day after activities like the Turkey Bowl, and Christmas decorations, picking out the Christmas tree, etc. But, we have had a fun day in Pittsburgh. This morning we took the dogs to a dog park and they had a blast. I don't know if it was the smartest thing to do as it was very boggy from the rain and snow over the last two days. The dogs didn't seem to mind the mud, but the people were all walking around gingerly trying to avoid the muddiest spots. Despite our best intentions, Grace went running through some mud and left her shoe behind. Thus, one muddy sock (and the foot become sockless). Then Argos jumped up on me with his muddy paws and got my pants and jacket. But hey, it still was fun. The dogs were running around with each other, chasing balls, and sniffing other dogs. I'm just glad that Shadow didn't decide to roll around in the mud. They were dirty enough as it was and I'm sure Michelle wasn't so happy with us when we got back home.

The rest of the day we have spent lounging. I stayed home with Harriet while she was napping and everyone else went to the Natural History Museum. Grace was looking forward to the dinosaur exhibit, but unfortunately it was so packed that they weren't able to get into the exhibit for another 4 hours. They decided to skip it and came back home. Grace was disappointed but hopefully she will get another chance. After all, Carnegie Mellon does have the largest collection of Utah dinosaur bones.



After everyone was back we decided to have a billiards tournament. I was liking my chances as Brian and I have split 4 games and I felt like I was starting to find my touch. However, we were both eliminated and Wendy stole the championship. In fact, Alec seems to have my number. He has had some nice shots and currently I'm 0-3 against him. Hopefully that will change before we leave on Sunday.

Tonight Brian and Wendy invited the Seppe's over and they brought leftovers and we put out ours and had the traditional day-after left over meal. You can't complain about more turkey, mashed potatos, cranberry sauce, and of course pumpkin pie. Duane, who is an economics professor at Carnegie is also a rocker wanna be. He recently purchased an electric guitar and he brought it over to have a jam session with Alec on the keyboard.



After some Neil Young, the music turned to Christmas songs and Duane started rocking out to God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, Joy to the World, and some other classics. Fun was had by all. Now if only I played the guitar.

One tired mom at the end of the day!

An International Flavor

For the first time in the last three years, we had Thanksgiving dinner with family. Brian and Wendy also invited several people they know here in Pittsburgh such that we had a Korean couple and Dutchman, and of course us strange Mormons. It was a very enjoyable time and Wendy (with help from Michelle) made an excellent meal. It was a little crazy in the house with 7 adults, 6 kids, and 3 dogs, but we kept the dogs from the turkey and made sure that everyone had plenty to eat. It was very interesting talking with the other guests about their experiences in America and how life differs in areas across the world.

In line with the day, I have to blog about what I am thankful for. While there are many things I appreciate and enjoy, there really are only a few things I just couldn't imaging life without. One of those things is family. Not just Michelle and my kids, but the extended family as well. I can't imagine driving 600+ miles with 2 kids and 2 dogs for many people. Yet, for family it not only was worth it, but didn't seem like much of a sacrifice. Of course we aren't home yet either.

The best part of all of this has got be Grace. She has had a blast here in Pittsburgh. For the week gearing up for our trip she was mainly excited to see Clare and Argos (their dog). However, it was Jeremiah that she has had a blast with. The two spent the entire day together playing with the dogs, playing pirates, playing games, and just plain hanging out. It is too bad that Grace doesn't get to hang out with cousins more often. Harriet has also had a good time but mostly with the dogs. She loves animals and Argos is just her speed. She goes from dog to dog to dog giving loves and pats. She also made a new friend today as the Korean couple had a 1 year old daughter that played well with Harriet.

Thanksgiving 2007 is now coming to an end, but it has reminded me once again the importance of family.

We Made It!

This year we decided to join in the great American tradition and head out on a road trip for Thanksgiving 2007. Thus, we loaded up our Pathfinder with 2 dogs, 2 kids, gear for everyone, cargo box on top of the car (we have a pregnant pathfinder now), dvds, ipods, and snacks. We thought we were done for when 25 minutes into the trip Harriet starting screaming at the top of her lungs. She wanted out of her car seat and she wanted out now. Luckily Michelle was able to calm her down and we continued on towards Pittsburgh.

After 623 miles, 10 hours, 10 minutes, 2 stops at the gas station, a couple of hours of the iPod, and 5 dvds later we arrived. Traffic wasn't bad and the kids were great. The fact that we only had to stop twice is a testament to how both the kids and the dogs did. Of course the dogs were just excited to come. They were looking pretty dejected last night and this morning and we starting packing and loading up the car. However, the second they saw the leashes come out, they knew they were in.

I'm not saying I would like to do this often, but the drive was actually fun for me. I grew up with road trips. My family would load up each summer and make treks to Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon, Arches, Capital Reef, Chicago, Washington D.C. and the like. We have some classic Chapman family stories such as showing up at Natural Bridges with our tent, but no poles, camping up in the mountains around Willard where God spoke to Brian, but not John, 17 year old me driving in D.C. rush hour traffic and also coming back from Chicago one Christmas and having the freeway closed right in front of us. Great memories and great times.

Unfortunately, Michelle doesn't share my enthusiam for the road trip. Anything over 2 hours is tough. Four is doable for the right people, six if necessary, but anything more than that is just plain absurd in her mind. She is probably right when you are dragging kids and dogs in tow. But, the drive was so relaxing. As we headed through western Mass and into Connecticut I enjoyed the New England towns we passed through. As we got farther south into New York and Pennsylvania the trees were actually still quite colorful. I enjoyed passing the Pennsylvania farms and enjoying the sites and sounds of America.

While I probably won't be driving to Utah any time soon, I hope that we can get out as a family and explore some of the world around us. Maine, Cape Cod, even New York City. Hopefully they are just a road trip away.

Road Trip

Well I have spent the night getting ready for our road trip. Bad weather, 600 miles, 2 dogs, 2 kids, what fun we will have. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow. Today we got our first snow of the year and had about 2" on the grass. Some of it has melted, but roads are going to be slick in the morning.

Grace is excited to see Clare and I think that it will be fun to get out of town for a couple of days. It will be a tight fit in our car with all of the people, dogs, and gear, but it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without an over the river and through the woods trip.

See you in Pittsburgh.

Hattie loves her Dada

When we still lived in SLC, I would often ride my bike to school and back. When Grace was in the age range of 18-24 months she would love to greet me at the door and help me take my cycling shoes off. Now that she is 4 1/2 she doesn't care so much when daddy comes home.

Hattie is now the same age as Grace was then and she loves it when daddy finally comes home. The second I walk in the house I can hear her squeal in delight saying "da da!" and she comes booking towards the mud room. Nothing beats that. It sure makes it worth while coming home from work to hear the squeal of delight.

Grace no longer comes to the door to greet me, and Michelle just posted about Grace's boyfriend. I thought that I had a few years yet before having to worry about boys and my daughters. Am I already going to have to use the shotgun and a shovel line? I sure hope not. But I may.

Gracie has a boyfriend!

Or, at least, she has a boy who really really likes her! His name is Collin and he is in her pre-school class. He has been telling his mom for weeks how BEAUTIFUL he thinks Grace is. They walked out of school holding hands today all the way to the car. He is a really cute little boy and Grace likes him a lot too. Uh, how early are you supposed to tell your little girls about boys?!!! We jokingly told her tonight that she's not allowed to kiss anyone, but she can hold his hand. She does not like it if you call him her boyfriend, but she is happy to call him her friend.