I Have Magical Clocks

It's true! The clocks in my house are magic! They like to move in fast forward, and magically they make the rest of the world move at the same pace! Watch, I'll prove it... I will spend only a half hour working on my new found addiction of digital scrapbooking, but the next time I look at the clock, it says that actually two hours have gone by, and the rest of the world seems to not notice the time skip. See??! Magic clocks!
Okay, okay... I confess... I'm just oblivious to time when I'm working on this new scrapbook stuff. It's so addicting! Especially because now I want to scrapbook all of 2007 so that I can have it printed and bound into a cool book, so I try and do as much as I can before Dixie makes me stop... and by "makes me stop" I mean that she is probably crying because I missed her lunch time or haven't been paying enough attention to her or something. Oops! Shame on me! So now I'm going to have to limit myself to only playing with my new hobby to when it's nap time or bedtime. :) But here's an example of what I've been up to...

Well, I have neglected to post in a long time since we were in California for two weeks for Christmas, and since we got back, I've just been trying to play catch up with house work and what not... but let's take a quick review of the past month...
December was a fun, but way busy and crazy month! On the 17th, we had an early Christmas with the Roberts side of the family. I was in charge of the activities, and I thought something fun to do would be for us all to have a gingerbread house making contest. Each family got a kit of gingerbread house pieces and had to make a house and decorate it. And of course, instead of going the easy route and using graham crackers for the houses, I decided to test out my baking skills by making my first ever gingerbread. I used a recipe off of Martha Stewart's website, and it actually turned out really good, but boy oh boy does that stuff SMELL when it's not baked! Pee-ew! I about gagged on the smell of it! (That's my bit of encouragement for anyone who wants to try making it themselves as well!) :) But the contest was a lot of fun, and when all was said and done, Rona and Ken took the gold medal since their house actually stayed standing. :) Mental Note: Make frosting THICKER next year! We had a Merry Early Christmas.
My next December adventure was to make matching Christmas pajama pants for me, Jim, and Dixie! (Who DOES this during the crazy month of December??!!) But, I was able to finish them the morning we were leaving for Cali (actually, I finished the hem of Jim's in California)... but don't we just look so super cute?! :)

And then we headed out to California on the 21st for two weeks of sun and fun with the Packard side of the family. Here are some highlights of the trip:
-Going Christmas Caroling. This is always one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I'm not sure there's a better way to feel the Christmas Spirit than singing songs about the Savior's birth with a huge group of beautiful voices. There were probably about 40 of us there (we went with the extended Packard family) and it is just magical.
-Watching Santa come on Christmas morning. This is a fun tradition from my childhood. Every Christmas morning, my parents would wake us up at some time around 5:30 AM with "Santa's Here!" and we would bolt out of bed and run to the top of the stairs and then wait in painful silence until we could hear Santa leave the house, and then we would race down the stairs and dive into our previously established hiding spots (which we had created the night before with afghans and blankets draped over piano benches and couches pulled out from against the walls...) ...and then we would sit in anxious silence and wait for Santa to come back in and bring in our presents while we "secretly" watched from our hiding spots. So this year, it was fun to share the childhood memories with my own daughter. And although she didn't quite get the concept down that you're supposed to be quiet while Santa is in the room (come on... she's only 7 months! Not to mention, she was objecting to the fact that we had woken her up and still hadn't given her a bottle or changed her diaper! :) ) it was a lot of fun to pass on the tradition.
-Attending a family wedding in the San Diego Temple. My cousin PJ got married over the break and I was able to attend the sealing in the temple while Jim had baby duty. I wished he could have been in the temple with me, but let's face it... everything is different once you've got kids. But it was a beautiful wedding and good to see a bunch of family.
-Birthdays! Both Jim and I had our birthdays over the Christmas break! I'm now 29 and Jim is 31! HOLY COW... WE'RE OLD! We were treated to a fabulous dinner at Claim Jumper's with the family and this is also when I got my new addicting digital scrapbooking software. (Thanks Mom!!) :)
-Family Fun and Games. As always, there was a ton of fun to be had. From playing Bang, tennis, Make-A-Million, Liar's Dice, etc., to the beach for family pictures, to the football bowls (YEA FOR BYU!!!), to the good conversations... I just love being with my family. It was especially nice to just be with Jim for two weeks without him having to go to work or take care of other obligations. We were able to just spend precious time together. It was a fabulous time! Thanks to Mom and Dad for taking care of us all while we were out there and putting up with the insanity in order to allow us that fun time and memories.

Well, that about wraps up December. And now we're back to the daily to and fro of life. Hope your Christmas was just as wonderful! Love to you all!