the Graham Cracker House

Top 11 of Christmas 2011

1. Moose hollow condo!  They just keep getting bigger and better every year!  Probably 'cause our family is exapanding.  My parents and 2 sibs drove down from Washington and the rest of us Utah folk met them in Eden, utah.  This location was chosen based on its proximity to all 3 ski resorts in ogden canyon. Which, as it turned out, was not that crucial this year due to our lack of snow.

2.  Snowbasin!  Still one of my favorite resorts. Even if the snow was a bit icy in places, and the snow-making machines were quite loud (when you skied right past them.  I love the gondolas and the super awesome needles lodge for even brown-baggers to lunch in.  We enjoyed the family runs together.

3. Teaching Maddie to do loop-de-loop!  A classic Murray ski trick. She was scared but I convinced I learned when I was 10 (she is older than 10). I'm 94% sure this is accurate.  Don't worry- she didn't fall,  I did.

4.  the FOOD!  My wonderful chef of a husband make "steak and taters" for our assigned dinner night.  Compliments all around. Good job honey!

5.  the GOODIES!   Everyone  brought their extra cupcakes, homemade marshmellows, chocoaltes, toffees, etc. to share.  We were swimming in goodness.

6.  Getting to know the SIL and BIL's.  I appreciated the time everyone took to play a game to get to know the in-laws.... and enjoyed learning new things about the ones I'm not married to.

7. Meeting Dad's crazy friends from High School.   This comment exemplifes the adequate depth of the misconceptions I have been led to believe my whole life.

DAD:  remember that Sunday my parents were away you had spent the night at my house and we were just waking up...
DAD's FRIEND: ... and then the Bishop knocked on the door with the whole priests quorum...
DAD:  and you were in the shower and I was telling you to hurry!
ME:  but you just slept in on accident right?  you meant to go to church... right?

8. playing tag with the whole family on wolf creek mountain ski resort

9. the hot tub! (okay, not really... more on this later)

10.  second  Christmas!   We opened all of our family presents once all of the family arrived, giving everyone another day of presents a couple days after Christmas

11.  Charades!  And Rollick.  playing games with my fun family.... and my supportive husband who shakes his head and puts up with us.

Around moving time, many thoughts, expectations, promises, and hopes arose. Here is an accounting of what I thought would happend, and which of these ideas actually did come true.  

There will be less dishes in the sink, dishes will get done a lot faster and sooner, now that we have a dishwasher.  FICTION

If anything goes wrong with the plumbing or elelctricty or other construction attributes of the house my amazing hubby will fix it.  FACT.

I will love sweeping our wood kitchen floor with my new Lysol super swiffer broom/mop and make them sparkling clean.  FICTION.  (it doens't work as well as I had hoped, but it is fun to use- light and airy)

I will finally get organize and condense my boxes of junk from college.  FACT (it was grand.  They are all nicely labeled in the garage, and the camping tubs are all nicely labeled in the shed. *sigh of happiness*)

I will be able to sleep better after a night shift in our new home, where the bedroom doesn't share a wall with the kitchen..... TO BE DETERMINED

I will get a wreath for our door just in time for Christmas and love it.  FACT

We will set up the tree in time for Christmas, and even get a few present under it.  FACT

We will get our mail key reasonably soon after moving in.  FICTION (the short saga is: we did finally get our mail key, but nobody told us what box # is ours.  Yes, I did try every box in the whole big metal thingy. None work with the key given to us)

I will be able to orgnaize and clean out the garage during the day while B is at work.  FICTION. 

We will have nice neighbors that come over and introduce themselves.  FACT

I will love making nice meals for our family in our newly-ish applianc-ed kitchen.  FICTION (Bjorn still does most all of the cooking)

We will make time for making holiday treats and cards to give, share, and send. FACT.  (I'm so proud of myself for getting this all done! It made me happy to do it too.)

the "kids room"  will stay reasonably empty until we actually have chidren.  FICTION (it's full of gun stuff currently) 

I won't have my share my desk anymore.  FACT

So far, we love owning a home.  It is spacious and roomy and somewhat decorated.... it is ours. 

As one may guess, there are many ups and down to moving. Even if it is only 20 minutes accross town.   Change is not  always easy for me, and making lists helps. Lists are the cure for lots of things actually.  Let's see:

Things I will miss from our old apartment:

1. fireplace
2. built in display shelves
3. proxmity of washer and dryer to closets
4. the random cats wandering around the complex (okay, not really)
5. the closet of shelves in the bedroom (read: a place for Bjorn's clothes without us actually buying a dresser)
6. our ward

1. tiny hot water heater (read: hot water available for very short amounts of time)
2. no grabage disposal
3. no dishwasher
4. the random cats jumping on and off my car as if they owned it
5. the bright light outside our bedroom window (in the back alley of the apartment complexes) 
6. our six foot square kitchen where my 2 people can't even cook together