Christmas 2016

This Christmas was a bit different for my family. My aunt decided we needed to do a Christmas at a cabin, so we all pitched in a paid to rent a cabin in Island Park, ID. Friday afternoon I went and picked up my cousin Jamee and we headed up to Idaho. There was a winter storm advisory for Idaho and we were hoping to miss it. We didn't have any weather trouble until we got to Island Park and even then it wasn't too bad. We did see a moose on the drive and we only got lost for a minute.

 Saturday was a rough day for me. I was highly emotional and irritated by pretty much everyone and everything. There were many tears shed and tissues used. I did manage to pull myself together to participate in the Christmas Eve games. I was on the reindeer team with Sadie and uncle Benny and I won the guess the ornament game only getting two wrong and they were so similar that it was really just guessing for everyone anyway. Elsa or Anna and Elsa, how was I to know? :)

 Christmas morning I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. The front room was occupied with someone sleeping on the couch and no one else was awake except my brother David, so I had him come back into my room and we watched White Christmas on my laptop in the giant bathroom.

 Christmas morning was noisy and busy. 6 kids make everything a bit louder and busier. I got everything I asked for on my list and enjoyed watching everyone else open their presents. We read Luke 2 and had breakfast and then went to play with toys, watch movies and read books.

 I tried to take a nap, but my Kevin convinced me that I should go on the garbage run with them. We had 8 bags of garbage that needed to be hauled out and he assured me it would be fun and that the landfill was open.

 He was wrong. The landfill was not open so we had to haul the garbage back. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of carrying two bags of garbage on your arms while riding on the back of a snowmobile on a bumpy trail, let me save you some time. Don't do it. My body is so sore. It was a great core workout, but my legs are killing me, my neck is stiff and my arms are visibly bruised. It was quite the adventure.

 I spent a lot of my time over the weekend working on this 1500 piece puzzle. I was grateful to my mom and cousin Richard who put in many hours helping me as well as Kaylene, Julie, Marc and aunt Tammy. We finished it at 11:30 on Christmas night.

We headed out Monday morning. I was hoping we would get snowed in, but the nice neighbor man came and plowed us out. It was slow going back to Sugar City but the rest of the way back to Utah was clear roads with a bit of fog. I wasn't feeling super awesome for the drive and when I got home I got my stuff inside the house, ate some crackers and had some 7up and went to bed by 9:15. Overall it was a fun and successful Christmas. I'm back to work today and trying to prepare myself for student teaching starting on January 3rd.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Weekend Surprises

Last Monday my friend Camilla text me saying she had won a trip on a private jet to San Diego at her work party and that she could bring three people and that I was one of them and that it was for Friday. I said yes! And told work I'd be taking a half day Friday. Now before you say "Wow, Cathy, you believed her?!" Let me tell you that she actually has won a trip on a private jet from her work before so it wasn't that farfetched.
Come Friday I get this snapchat from my sister

That's my sister and my best friend. I guessed a few things like Julie was helping Katie move or Katie was taking Julie to the doctor. She had me keep guessing and I guessed they were coming to Utah which would be unfortunate since I was flying to California that afternoon, but my sister called and told me she had good news, bad news and funny news, which all turned out to be the same news which was that there was no trip to California and it had just been a cover so I would take off work to hang out with them.

The roads were really bad so it took them a lot longer than they planned to get here and then I drove up to Salt Lake and the weather was crappy down here as well so it took me awhile to get there. They got a hotel so we hung out there for a minute

After hanging out for a minute we went and grabbed some lunch at a Hawaiian place. Trying to feel a little more like San Diego than Salt Lake and then we did a little shopping. We decided to forgo our naptime and check out IKEA since Julie and I had never been there.

We definitely got our exercise in for the day. It was too early for dinner and we weren't sure if we wanted to brave the cold to go to temple square so we headed back to the hotel. Once we got there we decided we didn't want to go back outside so we watched some Food Network and Christmas movies and then ordered a pizza. After dinner we headed to the hot tub.

And then back to the room for more Food Network. As we were starting to get drowsy we decided to play Heads Up. It was probably the best decision we made all weekend. We played for almost two hours and laughed and laughed.

We had such a great weekend and I'm so grateful for these wonderful ladies who love me so much. I cried when they left and wish I lived closer to both of them. Lucky for me my sister is moving here in a couple weeks, even if it's only for a couple months, I'm super excited.

Touch

When it's Thursday and you're just feeling so down and you realize you haven't touched another person since Sunday. #failing I don't know if they are related, but I feel like they are. I've heard it before that we need human touch.
I found some things about it online here and here
Guess I better seek out a hug. Luckily I've got the temple tonight and haven't seen the sisters on my shift in weeks! I'm sure there are hugs in store for me there. :) Do yourself a favor and go give someone a hug.

St. George

I got to check something off my bucket list this weekend. I've been working on going to all the temples in Utah since I received my endowment 10 years ago. St. George was the last one I needed and it just never worked out for me to go. Every time I was in St. George it was closed for cleaning. Every. Single. Time. So my friend Jon decided I needed to make a trip just to go to the temple. He has a time share that needed points to be spent so he booked me a room in St. George and I invited a couple friends and we headed down.
It was such a relaxing weekend. We stopped in Cedar City for dinner and then headed to the resort. We got lost, but after a quick phone call made it there with no trouble. We watched a Christmas movie and headed to bed. Saturday morning I went for a run and then Aubrey made us some delicious omelettes.

 We cleaned up and headed out to the temple. I found myself wondering what it used to look like since it was the first temple in the west and it looks fairly modern inside with its tile ceiling and wall paper. It was so fun to finish my temple goal the same weekend as the anniversary of receiving my endowment. Definitely much warmer weather than when I went the first time. :)

 After the temple we grabbed some lunch and went to visit Aubrey's friend Janae, got a few ingredients for dinner and headed back to the resort. Camilla opted for a nap while Aubrey and I went for a walk in the beautiful 61 degree weather.

After our walk I took a nap and then we watched a Christmas movie and decided to go check out the hot tub. We lasted about 30 minutes or so and then went back to our room and started on dinner. Who knew you could make fajitas from canned chicken, but they were delicious. We finished the night with more Christmas movies and then went to bed fairly early.
Sunday morning we got up and made breakfast, packed up our stuff, cleaned up the kitchen, checked out and headed to church with Janae. The Young Women provided the program for sacrament meeting and it was wonderful. We ducked out after sacrament and drove back so Aubrey could make it to Relief Society in her ward. I took a nap, read and watched another Christmas movie before heading to bed. Overall it was a fantastic weekend. Very relaxing and so fun! Thanks so much Jon. You really are the best!

I miss you

Last night as I was driving to meet my cousin to do some Christmas shopping and get dinner I was reminded how nice it is to have someone to do things with. Largely due to the fact that I was driving alone looking at the Christmas lights I was passing and wishing I was looking at Christmas lights with someone. Then I got to thinking of all the other things that are better to do with someone. I don't mind being by myself, but there is something to be said for companionship. Someone to share in your excitement and wonder, someone to discuss ideas with, someone to just be there with.

A Christmas Gala

My calling at church is the Stake Mid-Singles Committee, specifically over institute.As part of the committee I give my opinion on activities that other people are planning and provide support however that might look. This year we decided to forgo what has become the traditional Halloween party and do a Christmas dinner/dance instead. The activities committee did an excellent job planning and working out the details and I showed up Saturday morning to help set-up.

We made center pieces

Made some Christmas ornaments

Decorated Trees

Made signs

And basically ran around like crazy people getting everything ready.

I left around noon with a massive headache. Still not sure what triggered it. I went home, took some meds and went to bed. It was not a very restful nap and I woke up feeling only slightly better. I took some more meds and lounged around for a while, accomplishing very little on my Saturday to-do list and then started getting ready for the dance. 

I headed over early and helped get food plated and drinks out. I was in the kitchen for a good chunk of the night which was fine with me. The party was a huge success and there were so many people. Way out of my comfort zone, so I was happy to be hiding in the kitchen. I did manage to make it out to get a picture with my roommates before I headed home early because of the returning headache. It was such a fun Christmas party and I'm so glad it turned out so well.