The Christmas Miracle

Loyal readers may remember items #1&2 from 100 Post-iversary, which mentioned the unexplained loss of my wedding ring. The plot thickens. Christmas morning, I videotaped the kids opening their gifts, but I was at the end of the tape. I hurried to get a new one out and put it in the recorder so I could record the kids' reaction when the saw the Wii that Santa had brought. About a half hour later I got around to taking the old, full tape back to the video camera case to find a plastic case to store it in.

I picked up the empty cartridge case and let out a shriek, followed by a shout of, "Oh my gosh! NO WAY!!!!!" My original wedding ring, which had been lost for almost exactly 2 years and 1 week was sitting in the bottom of the camera case, underneath the extra tapes. My jaw dropped and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as I grabbed it, ran downstairs, shoved it in Nathan's face, and yelled, "LOOK AT THIS! I CAN'T BELIEVE I FOUND IT!" I wore it for the rest of Christmas day and the following week.

I am not surprised in the least that I didn't find the ring at first. Who's going to think about looking in the camera case? I don't even remember doing anything with the video camera the week that I lost it. Now that I know where it was, I don't feel bad at all for not finding it. It was gonna be found when it was good and ready. It is odd that it took two whole years. We are not major videographers, but I used that camera Last Christmas, at Cassie's school play, to tape at least two soccer games, and many times to record 2 year old Rebecca singing. I suppose I'm lucky it didn't fall out somewhere along the way!

Of course, it would happen that I find the original 1 year to the day after I received a replacement ring. Nathan jokingly asked if I wanted to "pawn" the new one I got...but since it is nicer and has a more modern setting, I'm definitely keeping it. A true miracle would have been for us to find the ring before shelling out the bucks for a replacement...and I asked Nathan, "Why do you suppose, after praying to find it, that it didn't happen until after we spent all that money?" His response: "Maybe God wanted you to have two wedding rings." Riiiiiiiiight.

Though the ring has been found, I still have no idea how it got into the bottom of the video camera case. It could be that 15 month old Rebecca put it there instead of in the trash like I had originally thought. It could be that the case was sitting on the floor near my dresser and the ring fell into the case somehow. I'm just glad I found it, mostly for sentimental reasons. I may choose to wear my new one more often, but I'm glad to have my ring that 21 year old Nathan chose for me that was paid for with his hard-earned-at-Bailey's-Moving-and-Storage wages. I cried tears of joy when I first saw it, and I'm glad to have it back.

The whole family knew The Saga of the Lost Ring, and it was a hot topic of conversation on Christmas Day. I asked Nathan's Grandma Neilson if she had heard about my "Christmas Miracle," and recounted the story of how I found it. Braden was in earshot, and he slid closer to me. He tugged on my hand during the last half of my story, whispering, "Tell her about the other Christmas miracle, Mom. Tell her about The Wii!!" A miracle is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

I reiterate my statement in #2 of 100 Post-iversary: I don't lose stuff. At least, not permanently. :-)

Nathan gets one, I don't

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while.  I have been rather busy playing my new Wii Fit.  Oddly enough, it gets me sweating and breathing hard more than doing a half hour workout on my elliptical trainer, so I'm pleasantly surprised!  When I set up my profile and did the initial body test for the game I got to choose between a male or female trainer to instruct me during the game exercises.  The whole family was watching, and I joked to Nathan about choosing between "the Hot Man, or the Lady."  I chose the lady, but now every time Rebecca sees the man on the others' exercise programs, she exclaims, "Look!  It's the Hot Man!"  She thinks that is his name.  The take-home message:  watch what you say around a bright three year old.  Nathan has suggested that I put a BMI tracker on my blog so you can all track my progress, but I don't want to, because that also means you will all know if I fail.  :-)  

Nathan took 12 consecutive days off work to stay home for the holiday week (the 12 day count includes the weekend days - don't get too jealous.)  This has helped me realize more than ever that moms don't get days off.  I was so looking forward to at-home relaxing with the family, and that part has been nice.  However, my responsibilities have continued as normal:  full day of laundry yesterday, still responsible for making dinner nightly, the need for putting away Christmas decorations hanging over my head... Don't get me wrong, I do not begrudge Nathan his at-home vacation, and he HAS helped both entertain and manage the kids.  I just wish I could have a real vacation from my work like he has from his.  (He turned his email server off so that he doesn't even get his work email.  I haven't figured out how to turn off the kid cry/fuss/whine-mail server.)

And I also think that a nursing mother shouldn't have to breastfeed on her birthday.  But the baby didn't agree.

Beware of goofiness.  The following video is one that Nathan took of me playing Super Hula Hoop on the Wii Fit.  When he converted it from QuickTime format the aspect ratio changed so I looked...chunkier than normal.  He knew the first thing I would say was that I looked fat, and he spent 30 minutes trying to fix it, so I feel guilty not posting it.  And no, he wasn't able to fix it, so I admit to chunkiness, but not as much chunk as you see in the video.  (When Rebecca asks in the video if my 'eyes' are getting tired, she means 'thighs.')  Here's to you, Nat!

What-ish?

Nathan and I were laying in bed relaxing this afternoon, and the kids woke up from their Sunday naps. They came into our room and Nathan pretended to be asleep. Cassidy and Becca tried everything they could think of to revive him, from hugs and kisses to pokes and tickles. The last resort was a doggie-pile, and even that didn't work. Finally, Rebecca said to Cassidy, "Nothing works. Daddy's not ticklish OR doggie-ish."

At least I didn't have to go to the mall

That's the good news. I took all four kids over to the church Christmas party 20 minutes late, since I had to shovel the 4 inches of snow off the driveway and feed the baby first. The bad news is that there were 160 people packed in the church's Cultural Hall and the line for the dinner took like 45 minutes to get through, at the end of which Rebecca made a panicky announcement that she had to go the bathroom. I left her standing there nervously holding herself, power-walked our plates of food all the way back to the table, navigated my way through the billion people in my way back to where she was standing, and threw her over my shoulder to get her to the facilities in time. By the time she was finished my food was cold, so I took it into the church kitchen and microwaved it. Yum.

By this time Nathan had arrived even later (l-o-n-g drive home from work due to the snowstorm)- his timing was impeccable, as it was decidedly AFTER all the children had food and were seated at the only remaining table that didn't even have space for us in the first place. (Thanks for letting us crowd you out, Abercrombies and Phillips!)

Next we were treated to what Nathan called "the Primary song version of the Twelve Days of Christmas." It was long, and had more verses than I knew existed. Our poor song leader, I can't imagine trying to teach it all to them! Cassidy told me on the way home: "Bishop Brown is entitled to his opinion since every gets to think what they want, but I don't think we sounded much like angels like he said. We didn't do too great on that song."

Props to the Activities Committee though - even with all those people (plus some members of the ward brought extra friends and neighbors) they didn't run out of food. In addition, it was the first time I have ever heard Nathan (a notorious church party-hater) ask me to find the recipe for the food they served. That is an accomplishment in itself! The bonus for me was that even after all of 'that' at the party, in the end they saved me a trip to see The Fat Man (Don't worry children. Go sit on that strange old man's lap. Eat his candy and tell him your personal information! He won't touch you inappropriately...) No, I'm not being a Scrooge, and no, I'm not a Santa-hater. But seriously, don't you ever stop and think about what our parents told us to do, and what we keep telling our own kids to do out of a sense of tradition?

I love you Santa. Please don't hold my blog against me.

Wardrobe Ideas

I know it says a lot about Nathan and me that we would deign to frequent a website called "Think Geek," but we do. Like me, you're probably over it by now. I don't know if I would pay $20 for any of these t-shirts, but I'd totally put them on my blog for free.

For me.

For Nathan. (How true it is.)

For anyone. I wish I could really do this.

This says 'Beware of Perverts' in Japanese. It makes me chuckle.







You will not be surprised that this website also sells a real working R2D2 pepper mill, Stuffed Yoda backpack, Tetris block shaped ice cube trays, and a SuperMario 1UP Mushroom growing in a pot that looks like a green sewer pipe from the video game.

A Thursday Night on Temple Square

I actually took a camera to Temple Square and the ward Christmas party this year, which I have never done before. Blogging probably had something to do with it. (Am I becoming a Fame Floozy just like Cassidy? Perish the thought...)

Who invented the wearable blanket? Someday, I will make him pay.

I hate you people. I hate you all.

We're wearing pretty much everything we own...

We rode the Trax train to Temple Square since we had to park far away.

Traditional hot cocoa on a bench by the manger scene.

We got to hear Aunt Katie's Show & Chamber choir give a concert in the Church History Museum and play in the children's area of the museum afterwards. Since it was a weeknight it wasn't very busy on the square while we saw the lights. We only misplaced Braden once, but we didn't have to panic because there weren't hordes of people to search through and his Grandpa Belliston was misplaced right along with him. The only downside of the evening was that we missed the lights that the church used to put on the giant oak trees. For us grownups who remember them, it made the trip to see the lights a little disappointing and 'meh'-inducing. Perhaps the Church is temporarily feeling the effects of the recession as well? I hope so, because if they've stopped lighting my big pink tree forevermore, I'm gonna be pretty bummed. One of my favorite parts: hearing both Cassidy and Braden say, unprompted, "Thank you for letting us stay up way past our bedtime and taking us to see the lights!"

Shameless attempt at fame

Yesterday the three kids and Harrison, Braden's neighbor friend, spent the whole afternoon playing in the snow in our backyard. They created a Nativity Scene, which would have been better captured from 8 feet high, but I was not about to tromp through the snow from the garage and haul a ladder all around the backyard just to get the 'money shot.' As peeved as I was to honor Cassidy's request to hurry and get on my snow boots and go take their picture -- I had sticky coconut candy all over my hands from rolling homemade Mounds centers -- I was glad I did, because their Living Nativity was pretty funny. Here is it below. The children are playing the characters of the Holy Family, and if you look closely, you can see they made an outline of a stable above them in the snow. Rebecca is at the top, playing The Angel within a snow angel she has made.

It was confirmed by all three children that Harrison insisted on being Mary in their live nativity, and it took convincing to get him to agree to his role as baby Jesus.

If you look closely you can see the outline of the Christmas star above Rebecca's head.

At the end of the brief photo shoot I told Cassie I was glad I came out to take pictures because their idea was really funny. She replied, "Are you going to put it on your blog? That is the whole reason I even did it." Shameless publicity seeker. She's become the Paris Hilton of my blog, minus the trashy outfits and mindless prattle...