Jeeping is a Verb

So, last year Joe got a new toy. A Jeep Cherokee. He has a good friend at work (yes, he actually made a friend) who's really into Jeeping (a new verb I learned). Joe's always loved cars, and working on cars, and driving cars, and all the car things. But it can be an expensive hobby. Older Jeep Cherokee's, though, are pretty cheap. And if you have the expertise to do all your own work on them (which Joe and his friend do), and your favorite place for parts is the local pick-a-part, then you'll be in pretty good shape. So Joe has been Jeeping a lot, and in February I finally decided I'd go with him for my inaugural run. He was very excited. We went to Toquerville Falls in Utah, and his friend went with us. This was a beautiful drive, not too high of difficulty (Jeep trails are numbered according to their difficulty level), and the Falls are a great payoff.

On the way there it had been nice and sunny, but on the way back it started raining, then snowing, and then hailing for a bit. It got really muddy really fast, but it was still a fun drive back.

I probably won't be going Jeeping as much as Joe does, but I'll definitely be dipping my toes occasionally.

A New Year, The Same Us

This year I told Joe that he was in charge of our anniversary. I told him that I wanted to be completely surprised. He did not let me down. I mean, as he said, it's really easy to plan an anniversary in Vegas. We stayed at the Mirage, and never left the entire time. I was really excited he picked this hotel, because it is closing later this year (and becoming the Hard Rock hotel), and we'll never have another chance.

We had dinner at El Diablo, which was delicious.

Joe had been telling me for a month that he was going to take me to see Magic Mike (which is a male strip show, and which Joe would obviously never take me to), which was his way of being funny and trying to give me a hint. What we actually saw was the Shin Lim magic show, "Limitless".

It was so much fun, I highly recommend it. Actually, I loved the other magician too (Colin Cloud), maybe even more than Shin Lim. We grabbed a late night treat, and had a delicious breakfast in the morning.

He's really my favorite. I can't wait until it's his turn again.

Happy and Merry

This December turned out to be quite the production. First of all, it's been a while since I've done the Christmas Advent calendar.

It used to be one of my kids' favorite things. And I'm not just talking about an advent calendar where they get a little chocolate or other treat each day (although that's part of it). I mean an advent calendar with a Christmas-themed activity for each and every day of December. It's a lot of work, and it's WAY easier to come up with when your kids are little and easy to please and don't have schedules or agendas of their own. This year, though, I was determined to bring it back, and I wanted to replicate it for Cora and Andrew so that we could all do it together, even though we weren't together. When Lorraine was here for Thanksgiving, I gave her a box to drop off to Cora that covered the first part of December. I don't remember everything we did, but here are a bunch. We strung popcorn and cranberries for the tree. The bottom string was chewed up by Bo.

We lit a candle for the first Advent Sunday and watched the First Presidency Message. The wreath for the candle was my mom's.

We made paper snowflakes, and snowflake ornaments.

We made a Lego nativity scene, but we could only use Legos from an old Lego Starwars advent calendar that we got years ago.

We drove around and saw Christmas lights in our neighborhood, and others close by. We got a real kick out of this Buckee's blowup near our house. If you know you know.

And we drew Christmas pictures.

Obviously there was more. It was actually a lot of fun, and I think all the kids appreciated it. Joseph and I also went to see the Christmas display at Bellagio Conservatory. I think it was the best one I've seen so far.

Alex was Joseph in our ward's Christmas party nativity re-enactment.

We had a fantastic Petersen Christmas party. We had a big dinner and lots of treats, we did a white elephant exchange, we each came prepared with a different game to play, and we laughed so, so, so much. Can't wait until next year.

We went to a fun Christmas market in Orem.

Finally came Christmas, and we decided to spend it in Manti again, per Cora's request, because she wanted Andrew to experience a Manti Christmas for their first Christmas together. One tradition that Eloise has done on and off for many years with many of her grandkids, is to make them pajama bottoms, and then have them color their own top. This year I bought everybody's bottoms, but we all had fun making our own tops, with Alex putting us all to shame with his talent (and yes, he worked on his the longest.) I also really loved Joseph's version of himself as a Peanut's character. SO creative.

I wanted to have another German-inspired Christmas, like last year, so I made all the German food. But my favorite thing was ordering these custom made mugs as a surprise gift for everyone.

But I think this is the last year I'll be doing that. Trying to recreate a German Christmas in any way just makes you realize how much your missing an actual German Christmas. Boohoo, right? Well, that's just how it is. Regardless, it was a wonderful Christmas together. The whole month was great. I love Christmas! We're going to need a bigger couch for these traditional Christmas stocking photos on Christmas morning.