Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas. We were basically snowed in, so we stayed home, warm and cozy with just our little family. We missed our extended family, but had a nice day with just the four of us. Taylor's parents visited today, and my family will be up tomorrow. We got some great gifts, and the kids got some great toys. We've been playing with them for two days now.

On the 21st we celebrated out sixth wedding anniversary. We stayed at the Anniversary Inn here in Logan. We got the student rate ($129 for any room!) on a great room. We can't believe that six years have passed since we were married. We have come so far.

On the 22nd we went to Salt Lake to Body World. It was cool. Definitely a must-see.

On the 23rd my family had our annual night where we stay up all night long playing games. When we were little we did this so that we could sleep on Christmas Eve (instead of being up all night too excited to sleep). We have added in-laws over the years, and it gets better every year. This year we were really into the Wii Nintendo games. I even finished higher than last place on a few turns at Mario Cart (really impressive for me).

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at my folk's house then headed back to Logan. We went through the light display at Willard Bay. It was really neat. Claire kept saying, "Wow! Would you look at that!" Kyle made great baby noises, and we all enjoyed the display. We were very grateful to make it home before the storm started. We finished all of our wrapping and santa activities and made it in bed by midnight!

Our kids slept past 9 on Christmas morning (yeah!). Kyle was a crazy present opener, and tore into the wrapping paper. Always a helpful child, he handed each scrap to Taylor to put in the trash. Claire was pretty funny with her "Oh! Thank You!" after each present. She's wanted a backpack for over a year, and we found one for $4 at Kmart that is really cute. When she opened it she said, "Oh! Just what I wanted! You guys are SO sweet!" Pretty funny girl.

And oh how it snowed. Last night before we went to bed a little before 2am (see next paragraph) we opened the front door. It was so bright outside that it actually illuminated our front room. It was so cool to see all of the snow. It's so deep that it's touching the bottom of the swings on Claire's swing set. Bless Taylor's heart he has scraped and scraped our front walk. There is talk of going sledding tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.

The excitement has caused a delay in Claire's good going to bed behavior. She's screaming at Taylor as I type this. We're at our wit's end with her. She won't stay in bed. She's out of her room every 5-10 minutes. She was up past midnight last night. She's causing a serious problem with our sleep and other bedroom interests.... (TMI?) Would it be wrong to handcuff her to her bed? Maybe just with soft ribbons? Also, she changes her clothes all night long. Are there any serious objections to us sewing her pajamas shut? Just a few stitches, and she goes potty before she goes to bed. We're sick of cleaning up the mess and having a popcicle child join us in the middle of the night wearing a sun dress.

I'll post pictures later. The camera is downstairs, and I really don't want to go down and then come back up. Lazy. I know. Maybe that can be a New Year's Resolution.

Kudos to Taylor

Taylor did two outstanding things today. First: I took Claire to the doctor (just regular stuff), and when I got back he had cleaned out the coat closet. Really. I didn't even ask or hint. The thing is that we keep all of our coats there, and we've hidden our DVD/VHS shelf in the back of it, so it entailed quite a bit of effort. Yeah Taylor!

Second: I love Jim Brickman. He played in Salt Lake on our wedding day. I still believe that I could have made it to his concert (a matinee) in between our luncheon and reception. It would have been close, but I think it would have worked. No one else thought it would, and I didn't go. SIX years later I was presented with tickets to his concert in little old Logan today. Yes world, Jim came to Logan (he seemed just as suprised as we were). And at about one-quarter the cost you all pay to see him in the big city! Taylor just bought the tickets on his own initiative without even checking with me. (A very brave thing to do.)

The concert was amazing. The piano playing was incredible, but the violinist, Tracy Silverman, really stole the show. I have never heard anything quite like him. He played an electric violin, and it was the coolest (for lack of a better word). If you get a chance to see the show, take it. It was way better than Kurt Bestor. If you don't see Jim, go see Jon Schmidt---he's every bit as great as Jim---and still better than Kurt (I liked the Kurt Bestor concert the first time when I went 15 years ago, but it's got a little to much about the show, and not enough about the music).

Anyway, good job Taylor! And as I type this he's putting both kids to bed. Isn't he great?