Can you guess what we did tonight?

A Christmas at Gma and Gpa Higbee's 2006

Tonight, we decorated the Christmas tree. I spent hours in preparation. The children acted like delinquents. Susannah decided that today was the perfect day to get up on her knees and start scooting over to that tree. Joe and I struggled to keep it together. And I had a flashback. To my childhood. When every year, we would go up in the Mountains to get our family Christmas tree. And we siblings would pray that mom and dad would not split up.

A favorite Chaffin Christmas. I'm thinking 84?

Arguments over the family Christmas tree are famous in our history. My parents would begin debating next year’s tree in January. Arguments often became so heated, that after a few years, my parents decided to rotate who got to pick the family tree, with my dad getting to pick roughly one out of three years. Every year, the entire family would trek into the mountains in search of the perfect tree. We would hike for miles, each of us pointing out dozens of lovely trees that always fell short of my mother’s expectations. And then after hours of searching and miles away from the truck, my mom would find it. My mom preferred trees with distinctive features like mistletoe or lots of pinecones, or a small family of squirrels.

The relief of finally finding the tree was always short lived, because it was immediately followed by some disaster, a small child rolling down the mountain, the realization that we left the saw in the car, or some other similar catastrophe.

If finding the tree was difficult, loading it on the car and setting it up in the house was grueling. Our family could tell stories for hours of the doors that had to be removed from hinges, trees that broke 3 tree stands in one night, trees that had to be wired to the ceiling or have extra branches wired into the trunk.

Despite the fact that there were tears, lots of bickering, and the occasional profanity, this was considered family bonding and attendance was required by every member. Every year this was how my family would begin the Christmas Season. Those were good times. Yesterday, Mom posted that she and dad picked up their tree at Home Depot.

10 on Tuesday - Thanksgiving edition

This week I'm thankful for:

1. A successful birthday party with 10 6 year olds, a pinata, turkeys made out of cookies, and pin the tail on the donkey.

2. A great recipe find for our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm making this on Thursday.

3. A husband who is home all week and quickly making his way through the 3 page list I've compiled for him over the past two months.

4. A spare van key, since I accidentally flushed our original down the toilet last night.

5. Good friends. Look for another friend post coming soon!

6. That Christmas is coming. I'm waiting until after Thanksgiving to put up my awesome Christmas playlist. I don't know if I'll make it that long before I put up the tree!

7. My family, even though they are a little crazy, non-committal, and slightly eccentric in food taste.

8. A fun date night with Joe. Bowling. QOTD: Me: That was fun! My best score ever. I don't think I've ever broken a hundred before. Joe: I don't know if scoring 100 even is technically "breaking" a hundred.

9. Good Books.

10. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Go here. What are you thankful for?

It was that bad

When I was a senior in High School, I went to the Christmas Dance with Jacob Vargas. My sister was home from college for the Holidays and I borrowed her elegant cream skirt and sweater for the occasion.

That evening, we went to dinner and then headed to the dance with friends. I was rocking it all night long. Then I noticed that some people were laughing. I heard Kyle Schnieder say something about the black light.

Did you know that cream is one of those colors that doesn't glow at all in a black light? Unlike white, which glows a bright purple.

So while nobody noticed my dress at the dance, everyone noticed my white bra and half slip glowing through the dress.

It was kind of like that on Sunday. While nobody noticed my new green sweater, everybody noticed that my skirt had slid halfway down my butt as I left the room in the middle of class to feed Susannah.

Ten on Tusday

1. While I had the best of intentions of posting last week, we did have some technical difficulties. Unfortunately, they occurred while Rachel was playing on e-pets and her solution was to turn the mouse upside down and spit in it. Which pretty much ruined the mouse. Joe has since replaced it and we are up and running again.

2. Still recovering from an awesome shopping trip with my mom and sisters last weekend. We had a great time, bought some fun stuff and I'm already planning for next year!

3. We are getting everything ready for Annabel's birthday party. It's her first with friends and she is very excited.

4. Jill sent home a Christmas present for Ben and I put it up on the highest shelf in our laundry room. It is agony for Ben. He's pleaded, begged, cried and tried every method he can think of to open it. I've stood my ground. But I don't think I'll be showing him any more gifts before the 24th.

5. I'm still blushing from my awful wardrobe malfunction in Sunday School. Joe is still laughing. I'm too embarrassed to go into detail, but I will tell you it was bad. There were gasps.

6. Funny Guy:
7. Sweet girl:
8. Tried to get a family photo for the Christmas cards. It did not go well. It was freezing and all of the children look as if they are being tortured. I look pregnant. I'm thinking about getting the photo that looks like it was taken from a mile away. You can't really see us, but you kind of get that we're there.

9. Recently, the girl's bedroom door just fell off the hinges, which incidentally makes it incredibly difficult to storm off to your room and slam the door.

10. QOTD: In an effort to keep Susannah quiet during dinner, I let her keep the baby wipe I used to wipe her face. Me: I guess I'll just let her suck on that. Annabel: you can't let her suck on those! THEY HAVE ALCOHOL IN THEM! Then she'll grow up to smoke!

Have a great week!

Moody

So I'm very grumpy today. Joe says it's hormonal. Typical. Just because I've been grouchy the same week every month for the ten years we've been together. Whatever. I've tried to type my list for the week and it's sounding very negative. Lots of rants about crazy children, commentary on rude people at the supermarket, our dreadful attempt at a family portrait, and don't even get me started on Aaron Carter on Dancing with the Stars. After much thought, I've decided to sleep on it, and start fresh tomorrow. It's not hormonal.

10 on Tuesday

1. Happy Halloween! We had a great time at our ward trunk or treat, and walking around the neighborhood with Robert and Summer's girls.

2. The cop
The 50's girl

The mummy
and the dragon
3. I was able to borrow some jars and my mom's apple saucer to can apples this week. Do you think my dad was a little tired of packing and moving jars?


4. Sabrina saved our children's lives the other day by coming over to babysit (looking darling in her brand new high heels). We had a much needed night out with dinner and a movie.

5. Took Ben to buy some new underwear the other day. He was thrilled. He's never had such a selection in skivvies before and has a difficult time deciding which ones to wear. His solution is to just throw them all on. It makes going to the bathroom a little more difficult, but being able to wear Wall-e, Nemo, and Spiderman all at the same time makes it worth it.

6. Susannah:
7. On Sunday, Joe saved all of the store ads with toys in them from the paper. On Monday, the kids found them and immediately began compiling a collage wish list for them, us, all their cousins and everyone else they know. It took hours of cutting and pasting and was quite possibly more fun that Christmas morning will be.


8. QOTD: Annie: what are we having for dinner? Me: Ham and potatoes. Annie: I don't like ham and potatoes! Me: you don't like anything Annie: That's not true! Just the other day I ate a pea... WITH THE SHELL STILL ON IT!!

9. Ben was a trouble maker again today, and finally after he went into Susannah's room and climbed in bed with her waking her up from her nap, I spanked him. I never spank. Now, whenever he sees me coming, he turns around to walk backwards and says, "Sorry mom".

10. Continuing on the Ben/troublemaker theme, the other day, I picked up a little cup of bite sized nutter butters to enjoy after the kids went to bed. I noticed they were missing from the kitchen and asked who had taken them. Ben said, "they're in my room" I figured he'd probably eaten them all and was pleasantly surprised to find the cup still full of cookies. Then I looked closer. The little turd had licked the inside out of every single cookie! So now I don't feel even a little bad about eating all of his Halloween candy. Hope you have a great week!

10 on Tuesday

1. Last Tuesday, I ditched Joe and the kids and went to see my mom star in Tartuffe by Molière. She was awesome and it was a great little break from the daily routine. I was home very late and there was no blog post.


2. Joe has been working on a lot of projects over our network lately making it virtually impossible for me to connect. There was one awful day where I had no local channels, no Internet, and no cell phone. How does someone live like that? Luckily, for the moment his projects are finished and my important computer work (i.e. blogging, bejeweled blitz, watching Dancing with the Stars) can finally resume.

3. QOTD: (Joe is helping Annie with her homework) Joe: and then right here, you need to explain your answer. Annie: instead of explaining my answer, could I just decorate it?

4. Susannah is beginning to roll all over the house and thinks she is pretty hot stuff because of it.


5. Friday was our school's Halloween carnival. The kids have been talking about it for weeks. It was the event of the season, and everybody who's anybody (i.e. Braxton and Carly) were going to be there. It was a little crowded and crazy for Joe and I, but totally lived up to the children's expectations.

6. Tiffany was kind enough to invite us to a playgroup at the pumpkin patch. Ben and Rachel both had a great time, but I was a little distracted by Susannah's persistent vomiting.


7. Speaking of vomit, I'm sitting with Susannah in Relief Society the other day and she drops her toy. I lean over to pick it up and she pukes all over this poor woman's jacket that was hanging on the back of her chair. I just wanted to disappear.

8. Had lunch with Jenny Blayden the other day. We go way back. Way back. It was so fun to connect and catch up. I love those kind of friends that no matter how much time has passed, you can just pick up where you left off.

9. My buddy.
10. We just spent the evening carving pumpkins, we are officially set for Halloween! Although, Annabel's mummy costume has both Joe and I a little nervous. Our first try was a bit of a failure. Who new something as simple as a mummy could prove to be so time consuming and difficult?