WHAT THE: December 2008

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

and then there was one...day left...

my christmas eve started at 5 AM with loads of laundry, a Chritmas episode of Saved by the Bell and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air--you know, the one with Boys II Men. I got to work and immediately downloaded their version of Let it Snow. Phil is going to fix my headlights today. They BOTH went out and I've been driving with my brights the last week. My apologies to everyone who "flashed" me to make sure I knew I was driving with my high beams. Your message is noted. And a lehi family christmas has officially begun. Em came in on Sunday and Phil and Marilyn got here yesterday. It's a Christmas Miracle they're even here in the first place--I can't believe all the snow!! I love that it's a white lehi family christmas but man, it's annoying. I hope you're all well and with the ones you love this holiday season. Wise Men Still Seek Him. Merry Christmas!

And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good-Night!"

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

stop with the sweets already

spotted: N at her desk in a sugar coma. Toffee and caramel popcorn to blame. What is the deal with holiday treats? There aren't even enough individuals at our firm to warrant the amount of boxes and baskets and tins that are arriving in bulk daily. Anyway, I've pretty much made myself sick and I'm quitting sugar. At least until tomorrow.... :)

Here's a few random photos:

M at Thanksgiving. We jimmy-rigged a few blankets so he could feed himself

me & B-final performance of Messiah

Grandpa & M. They loved watching football together

M & H staredown. H doesn't like being in 2nd place now.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

oh no you didn't

In my attempt to catch my blog life up to my real life, I missed a few little events: Festival of Trees Part 1, Craft Hour, Festival of Trees Part 2 and The First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

1. Festival of Trees Part 1:

The girls and I decided to go to the annual Festival of Trees. It is a charity event where people donate elaborately decorated trees and they are auctioned off for a Children's Hospital. This event is huge and quite popular here in Utah. One tree even went for $26,000. what? Anyway, as you can imagine, the parking lot at the expo center was a circus. People were circling like sharks and using every parking lot trick imaginable. We've all done it. The slowly inching behind pedestrians, sitting in an aisle off to the side, waving along everyone behind us, throwing on the blinker, quickly b-lining it toward a pedestrian in another aisle...you get the picture. Well we had paid our dues and gone up and down several aisles and had been one car too late for about 10 or so minutes when finally we saw a couple move toward their vehicle. Jackpot. We were the closest and next car. turn the blinker on. and bam--totally blindsided by a parking spot thief. What? Seriously? I know it's only a parking spot but there is some etiquette to parking and we were clearly there first. We pulled behind them and did the "what the" with our arms up in the air and were about to move along when the lady totally gloated about it. She comes up to our rolled down window and snottily boasts about what an awesome spot she just got. She was somehow proud of her husband's ability to be a snake. We found a spot a few minutes later and I was almost over it until I saw her and her smug little husband standing in line. My blood was boiling. I had fire in my eyes as I practially ran toward them and told them what I thought of them. I'm a little embarrased at my behavior because at that moment I was no better than they were but I couldn't help myself. There are few things that get me irritated and sadly enough, this stupid parking spot was one of them. Bah Hum Bug. In the spirit of Christmas, I wished upon them a non-injury accident. Had it not been Christmas, I might have wished upon them an injury accident :) Tis' the Season.

2. Arts & Crafts:

Kim and I decided to do craft hour the weekend before our little black and white soiree. Well, actually I decided for us and roped Kim into helping :) We were pretty proud of ourselves with what we created with foam cones, glitter paper, a glue gun and silver ornaments. We cranked the tunes and got crazy with our mad craft skills and we even got excited to use the dustbuster to clean up. They may as well put us in the nursing home now. :) It was after 11 and I started to pack up and get ready to head home when I got a phone call from an unrecognized number. I made the fatal error of answering. "Hi this is Debbie with Festival of Trees and you're not here" What? Who? I don't understand. "You signed up to help take down the festival of trees and you're not here." Oh...it was true. Weeks earlier I had signed up in church to volunteer at the Festival of Trees takedown. But where was the reminder phone call? Apparently this WAS the reminder phone call.

3. Festival of Trees Part II:

So against my better judgement I hauled down to Sandy. It was well after midnight when I arrived. I was told that my team was to load up all the stanchions on crates and forklift them back to a certain area. Can someone explain to me why they picked the single girls to be in charge of the 150 lb. stanchions? Real smart, people. I decided to be in charge of the shrink wrap but was told I was doing it wrong. I could lift about every tenth stanchion so I ended up just wandering around and occasionally pushing the fork lift. I did get some great photos though.

4. The First Presidency Christmas Devotional was very nice as always. Kim, being the only one on time, managed to charm her way into the conference center (I had the tickets) and save us seats. Thank you for being a rock star, Kim :) We took the obligatory photo on the deck with the temple in the background and then called it a night.

Monday, December 15, 2008

10 days until Christmas

wow. I'm not quite sure what has happened the last few weeks but I'm now just able to catch my breath. It's just been nonstop ever since I got back from Texas. Thanksgiving was great-the whole gang was there. The Johnsons are all about food and football so Thanksgiving is definitely our gig. I can't believe there are only 10 days left until Christmas. I've got a lot of shopping to do. The only thing I've purchased is Hello Kitty slippers for my two nieces....and me. I've got really small feet and there was a pair that fit me :) My work party, which was a Griswold Family Christmas, went really well and I was very pleased with how it turned out. The photo booth, moose mugs and ugly sweaters were a big hit. I'm doing the Messiah gospel choir again and have had a number of rehearsals and performances which I L-O-V-E. Our director, B Murphy, is one of the coolest people and just a bright light to those around him. It's not a way of praise I'm used to but inspiring just the same. My eyes have been opened to another way of worhip and it has been such a good time for me. I also had a little black and white soiree with some friends over the weekend and had a great time. It had snowed all day so outside was really pretty and the home we were in was gorgeous. We ate and played games, ate some more, etc.....and a big thanks to Marilyn for making the miniature stockings. Who knew mini black velvet stockings are nowhere to be found :) Now I've just got one more performance of the Messiah tonight and the Christmas Carol play with Molly tomorrow and that will be about it until the fam gets here for a Lehi Family Christmas :)