It's Late, I Know...

I REALLY WANTED TO DO THIS BUT OBVIOUSLY WITH THE MOVE AND NO INTERNET IT WASN'T REALLY POSSIBLE. SO, HERE IT IS, LATE BUT STILL FUN TO DO.

Here are a few things that I love about Christmas...
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love to wrap presents but if the shoe fits and I am lazy enough, then the gift bags work great!

2. Real tree or artificial? Growing up, always artificial. Since I have been married, ALWAYS real. It is a very big deal to Josh to have a real tree. Christmas is so special to him and I love how passionate he is about having a real tree. I love the smell of pine when you walk in the door. We almost didn't have one this year, thanks Gary for being so sweet and bringing us one from SLC.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the day after Thanksgiving but with the move in the middle of everything, we didn't get ours up until December 18th. Sad, I know.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually around the 10th or so of January but this year it has to go like today. In the midst of all the chaos here, we forgot to give the tree water and is now a nice fire hazard.

5. Do you like eggnog? Not until this year when I actually gave it a try. Josh mixes his with milk to make it last longer and so that the taste isn't too strong. The things he gets from his mom, just kidding Kathy. He loves it though!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My parents gave me a life size doll when I was little. Oh, how much I loved her, her name was Krystal. It wasn't even a present I asked for.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, we want to get a big one but he have to save up for the one that Josh wants.

8. Hardest person to buy for? I would have to say the absolute hardest person to buy for is definitely my father-in-law. I would say it would be a toss up between him and my mother-in-law but I think he takes the bait.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My dad, by far.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can't think of one! :)

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, I got them out early this year, with the move and all.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Not really a movie. My sister, Annie made a Christmas DVD a few years back of pictures of Christ and music by Amy Grant with it and I watch it every year.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Towards the first of December but this year I got it done a little bit earlier, once again, because of the move.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No, but wedding gifts are a whole different story. Christmas gifts are too personalized, I could never give it away because it came from someone I love.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ham. Josh and I just started a new tradition. On Christmas Eve we made a big dinner with spiral ham and lots of other great stuff. I always remember us having ham and a huge breakfast Christmas day when I was growing up.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored, I can't stand when people think they have to doll their tree up to be a fashion statement and don't let their kids decorate it. It always seems that way when it is only white lights. Colored gives it more character.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Mary Did You Know?" by Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? When we were first married, all we did was travel on Christmas and we hated it. We went to my parents (in the same valley) and then after a little bit we went to Josh's dad's house in American Fork, then to his mom's in Riverton. It was way too much traveling, it felt like we were in the car all day traveling and usually not in great weather. We stay home now and don't try to hit all 3 families in one day, it is much for relaxing and less stressful.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Of course, do you know my dad? He sings Christmas songs probably year round.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have an angel now but all growing up we had a star. Either one works for me.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open up one gift on Christmas Eve and then rest in the morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? I don't ever feel like people will be happy with the gifts we give them and I HATE when people cannot or do not say thank you. That just really, really bugs me. Especially after you spent a lot of time and effort into their gift and they can't say those 2 simple words. (Ok, I'm a little obsessive about this one)

23. What I love most about Christmas? My husband. He is so adorable about Christmas, he loves it so much. I love how into it he gets and how he doesn't care that the people at work make fun of him for listening to Christmas music. He loves having everything just so and perfect, he makes it all the more fun. He reminds me a lot of my own dad this time of year.

24. Do you buy gifts for your pets? No pets, but I'm sure we would if we had any. Actually, we gave Josh's mom's cats a Christmas present. Long story.

25. Have you ever been Christmas caroling? Yes, only once though.

26. Hot chocolate or hot apple cider? Both as long as they are not too hot.

I tag anyone who wants to do it. It's really fun to reminisce!

Still Alive!

For the record.... We are still alive. Well, I almost died not having the internet for the last 2 weeks. It was awful, I felt like I was shut out from the outside world and shopping.

Amidst the move and Christmas and Qwest not being able to get their behinds out here and do their job, we have been without the internet and I have so much to post. There is much to come but in bits and pieces when I can sneak a moment between taming my daughter and trying to get the rest of the boxes out of the house and to make it ours!

I just wanted to write a brief post to let you know that we are still alive (I'm so sure most of you were honestly wondering that). Like you have absolutely nothing else to do with your lives but wonder if the Adams family is alive and kicking! Well, we are!

Snowbird

We went to Snowbird this weekend for Josh's company party. They pay for a nice dinner, entertainment (which was hilarious) and a night stay at the hotel. It was really nice except for a few things. Bad, bad snow, very scary getting up there and my wonderful friend that comes to visit once a month showed up in the middle of dinner (that made for a very sick night)!

No Chloee screaming at the top of her lungs, that was nice but she was very much missed. Thanks mom for taking Chloee for 24 hours plus, we know she is a lot to handle. Actually, she didn't want to leave grandma's house, she screamed and threw a fit when we showed up and tried to take her. Oh, gotta love that!

We had fun overall. The food is SO expensive up there, breakfast for just the 2 of us came to $40. Ouch! Afterwards we went Christmas shopping and had fun together even though we were so tired from waking up at 6:30 am to the snow plow in front of our room and the avalanche thing they do. It sounds like a cannon or dynamite going off outside. We had fun and are very thankful for the chance we had to just be together.

I thought everyone would enjoy these next 2 pictures.

This is what happens to a man when you don't have cable, satellite or whatever at your house and the hotel does!!! I'm even taking the picture holding my hand out and he's thinking, "Hey, why not look at the TV, no one will know." Well, the picture doesn't lie sweetie!!!

Josh, after I scolded him about watching TV. Come on hon, give me 5 seconds. He was happy when shortly after this picture my batteries died and I couldn't take any more.

Bad, bad morning!

WOW, to top it all off, I just got done writing a 5 paragraph description of how awful my morning was and my stupid computer died and didn't save a thing. I picked it up to throw it against the wall (which you would have done after a morning like mine) but realized I was loosing it and gently but not happily set it back down with out shattering it into a million pieces. Seeing as how I don't want to write that all again, here is a BRIEF overview of what happened today that led me to wanting to destroy my laptop.

Chloee got up at 6:30 am instead of the regular 7:30 - 8:00 am routine. Chloee had shots yesterday for her 18 month check up, very ornery. I think, get a start on the day and make sweets. Chloee gets a hold of sugar, pours it all over the carpet, tile, her face and anything else you can think of. Me: mad as can be, Chloee: laughing hysterically. She eats the cookie dough (with raw eggs), very smart of me. Can you see my intelligence dropping as the time goes on? Chloee mad that I won't hold her and give her more dough so she takes the cinnamon sugar and dumps it on the floor. I suddenly realized that she is being very quiet. I look for her and she is on the counter in the spice cabinet. She dumps out whole cloves all over the floor. She is holding PEPPER and blows on it and it all comes up in her eyes. She screams, I scream. Her eyes instantly swell up. I'm trying to get cold water in them to get it out, she won't let me touch her. I am crying, call my mom and she says to hold her over the tub, try and pry her eyes open and put water in them so that it will flush the pepper out. What I do: hold Chloee over the tub, she won't hold still, trying to get water in her eyes instead accidentally drop her in the tub, water everywhere but her eyes. More screaming on both parties ends. Finally get her to open her eyes, she is mad at me and hits me profusely. I cry thinking, "what was I thinking trying to do all of this before 8 am". And thus the orneriness continued with Chloee and I until she finally went down for a nap at 10:00 am.

Oh, the joys of an 18 month old that just had shots, has no patience and a very good set of lungs. What was I thinking? What an awful way to start any poor sucker's day, especially mine!!!