Better

So I complained, and things turned around. Maybe I should complain more? We had an awesome Christmas. Our families and Santa totally spoiled us. At 6:30 am on Christmas morning we were all fast asleep when the doorbell rang about 10 times and someone pounded on the door. It freaked me out. I jumped right up. Taylor rolled over. I tried to get him to go get the door, but when he's out, he's out. There was no rousing him (maybe it was because we had only gone to sleep about three hours before then?). So I opened the door and peaked out. There on the doorstep was the biggest present I have ever seen. I quickly closed the door as I knew I could NEVER get it in the house alone.

I had to wake Taylor, then we both went down to check it out. At this point we realized that it was not only abnormally huge, it was abnormally heavy. And I'm a wimp. But it was Christmas, and I wasn't about to let the giant mystery box sit on my porch, so I mustered up some strength and we got it in the door with about 1/4 inch clearance. We decided to wait for the kids to open it---and I doubled check to make sure it didn't bark or moo---and we went back to bed. Well, Taylor did. I'd been coughing non-stop since Tuesday, so I got ready for the day then laid in bed coughing.

Kyle came in about 8:00 and Claire about 8:15. We went downstairs, saw what santa brought, opened some presents, then got the the big present. We were amazed to find a Power Wheels Tough Talking Jeep inside. And presents for Taylor and me---jackets for each of us. Then when we opened up the Jeep's hood we were astounded to find $100 earmarked for a date for the two of us. We don't know who brought it or why, but we are very grateful. If you've ever spent time with Claire, you'd know that she's wanted a power wheels for about two years. It's her fondest dream. Yet somehow she knew it had little hope of coming true. Although we aren't destitute, we certainly don't have the cash to justify getting her one. We do look at DI and kid-t0-kid and craigslist occasionally, but nothing has panned out. And since this year wasn't a white Christmas (glad, for the first time every it wasn't), she and Kyle were able to go out and take a spin. Kyle's a little freaked out. Claire is over-confident, but they'll even out soon.

Like I said, we have no idea who did this. And about 30 guesses as to who it could be. I guess that's one of the best parts of the day---we've thought a lot of nice things about a lot of nice people.

And to round out my excellent Christmas, on Christmas Eve, before we went to bed at 3am, I checked my email (not really sure why) and found out that I won tickets to Jim Brickman on New Year's Eve! I won them in a giveaway to piano teachers from Alfred music publishing company. Jim played in SLC on my wedding day. And I really tried to make it work so that I could attend his concert between the ceremony and reception (no one would go for it). We saw him a couple years ago and were crazy about him and his violin accompanist, so we're thrilled to be there again.

Oh, and the broken camera? We took it back to Best Buy to see if they could repair it. They just replaced it---and it was on sale that day, so they gave us $50 store credit. Awesome.

Good times. Pictures to follow.