Christmas activities so far

We've been keeping busy, lapping up the Christmas spirit wherever we can. I seriously love this time of year, and thankfully my excitement for the holiday has rubbed off on my kids. Here's some of our favorite traditions, some of which we've done and some we're hoping still to do:

* Seeing the lights at Temple Square -- check! I don't have any pictures of the actual lights but the evening itself was quite the happening, as my mom would say. We rode the train downtown (an exciting event in itself) and then managed not to lose any of our kids in the crowds. Success!Elle and her 2 boyfriends, Jack & Luke, all bundled up.

* The Festival of Trees -- check! Our kids love going to see the trees and gingerbread houses. And this year, Paige was part of the entertainment, too. (The child loved being on a real stage.) * Making gingerbread houses -- check, twice! We made one gingerbread house on Thanksgiving and had our annual gingerbread house party with Preslars the other night. Rachel and I fight the urge every year to decorate the houses ourselves so they'll actually look cute and encourage our kids to play elsewhere. But where's the holiday spirit in that? * Having hot chocolate by the fire -- check! Aahhh, the simple pleasures. * The Polar Express on the Heber Creeper -- not this year. It's worth it, if your kids are young enough but not too young. We went a couple of years ago, the kids clad in new fluffy robes and totally believing they were headed for the North Pole. Next year, I'll have 2 non-believers on my hands but I'm sure they'll enjoy the ride anyway.

* Going to see the Christmas Village display at Modern Display -- hopefully this weekend. Our kids ask to go see the villages every year and would happily spend hours looking at every detail if we let them stay that long. Combine it with a trip across the street to Hires Big H and you've got yourself a festive outing.

* Scones and hot chocolate at Winder Dairy with cousins -- never again, apparently. The dads all decided that this activity was not worth the crowd and inconvenience. Lack of seating for a large group added to the non-appeal. Someone teach me how to make my own scones, k?

* Zoo lights -- haven't ever gone, actually. Someone tell me ... Is it really worth the freezing temps?

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year with the Blakes and Grandma Farley. Fairly small gathering but it was fun. Brett started out the festivities with a craft for the kids (yes, Brett organized the whole thing -- he's not your typical guy).After all of these pictures, you'd think I'd have one of the finished products. They made turkeys with many, many feathers. Before dinner, each person wrote something they were thankful for on each feather and then we went around the table and read them to each other. Afterwards, the kids taped the turkeys to the window. Way to go, Brett!

Dinner was incredible, thanks in part to Si's amazing recipes for stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. Seriously great food.

After dinner, the Sharples came over. We played Nertz (I'm guessing a Blake-original game but I don't know ....) where Maddie & Ali kicked Grandma's and my behinds, made gingerbread houses, played the piano, talked and hung out. Having grown up myself without family nearby most of the time, it's so fun to see cousins hang out together and enjoy seeing each other. Here are the almost 2 year olds, Elle & Simon:...the 4th graders, Emmy & Christian:...the Sharples, Connor & Emmy:....the only 2 dads represented that day, Brett & Mike:....and cute Maddie with 2 of her cousins who adore her.

Interrogation

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:30
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds, hands down.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Twilight (I won't admit to how many times I've seen it)
4. What is your favorite TV show? Lost.
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? cold cereal of any variety
6. What is your middle name? Dawn
7. What food do you dislike? Cottage cheese
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? James Taylor Christmas
9. What kind of car do you drive? Ford Expedition
10. Favorite sandwich? Philly Cheese Steak from Vito's (a street vendor here)
11. Favorite item of clothing? jeans
12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Spain, for Mike
13. Favorite brand of clothing? Eddie Bauer (they have tall skirts & pants)
14. Where would you retire to? Someplace close to our kids
15. What was your most recent memorable birthday? We spent my 34th birthday at Disneyland
16. Favorite sport to watch? Synchronized swimming
17. When is your birthday? March 26th
18. Are you a morning person or a night person? Kind of both -- therein lies the problem.
19. What is your shoe size? 10.5
20. Pets? I just killed our only pet.
21. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? My older sister is pregnant!
22. What did you want to be when you were little? An airline stewardess
23. How are you today? Great.
24. What is your favorite candy? Snickers
25. What is your favorite flower? Gerber daisy
26. What day on the calendar are you looking forward to? 12/25
27. What are you listening to right now? music from my blog
28. What was the last thing you ate? Homemade tomato soup
29. Do you wish on stars? Not really.
30. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Crimson red
31. How is the weather right now? Cold but clear
32. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? My mom.
33. Favorite soft drink? Diet Coke, no contest
34. Favorite restaurant? Paradise Bakery
35. Your hair color? Dark brown with some red highlights
36. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies
37. Summer or winter? Winter (skiing, Christmas ....)
38. Hugs or kisses? Kisses
39. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate
40. Coffee or tea? neither
41. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday (but it had been awhile before that)
42. What is under your bed? dust bunnies
43. What did you do last night? Went to 2 late movies with fellow Twilighters
44. What are you afraid of? Something happening to my kids
45. Salty or sweet? Both. Together.
46. How many keys on your key ring? 4
47. How many years at your current job? 10 years and 40 days. That's when I first became a mother.
48. Favorite day of the week? Friday
49. How many towns have you lived in? 10
50. Do you make friends easily? Yes

Tribute to Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

By Special Guest-blogger Mike


A great man passed away last night.

Elder Joseph Wirthlin died peacefully at his home in Salt Lake City at the age of 91. Elder Wirthlin was an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve in the LDS Church, which is the highest Quorum in our Church.

Misty and I first met Elder Wirthlin while we were attending the University of Utah. I was serving in a bishopric with his son-in-law, Dan McConkie. Elder Wirthlin liked to attend church with his daughter and on a few occasions, when he was not on assignment in other parts of the world, he came by our worship services. On one such time, I was asked to give the closing prayer at the end of the service. When I finished the prayer and started to walk away from the pulpit, Elder Wirthlin stopped me. I waited for what I was sure to be some word of counsel--a nugget of wisdom regarding the eternities. He inspected me closely and appeared to be looking deeply into my soul.

"You look like you are a great football player!" he said breaking into a grin. "I would have loved to follow a big blocking back like you leading the charge."

I know it sounds funny, but part of the kinship I felt with Elder Wirthlin was because I share his great love for the University of Utah, and especially its football team. He was nicknamed "speedy" while playing running back for the Runnin' Utes. His most notable achievement as a football player was a kickoff return for a touchdown against Colorado at Boulder in 1936.

Elder Wirthlin sometimes traveled with the Utah football team on road games, even when he was well into his 80s. Former Ute Coach Urban Meyer loved Elder Wirthlin, and invited him to stop by Ute practices to give the team a "pep talk."

Occasionally, well-meaning members of the LDS church have questioned my devotion to the Church, or suggested that I have deep issues because I love the Utah Football team and cheer for it over the team from the Church owned school, BYU. For me, a good response has been: "Well, I suppose I suffer from the same deep issues that plague Elder Wirthlin."

Over the years, Elder Wirthlin has taught thousands of sermons. In my mind, one of his best was called "Sunday Will Come." After describing the agony Christ suffered on the cross late in the day on a Friday, Elder Wirthlin explained that two days later, on Sunday, all was made well through the resurrection.

Elder Wirthlin concluded, "Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come."

We're looking forward to Sunday, Elder Wirthlin.

Dead fish

It was a sad day at our house last weekend. Our one pet, a beta fish that the kids named Prince Blueberry, finally died. The worst part is that I killed it. Let me explain ...

A fish was as much commitment as I was willing to make for a pet, so the kids relished in the fact that they even had a pet at all. Haley was pretty good about feeding it but I was usually the one who had to scoop the thing out of his smelly water to clean the bowl every so often. Not a job I enjoyed, necessarily. And who wants a smelly fish bowl on your kitchen counter, anyway? I wasn't overly fond of the thing -- can you tell?

On the morning of the "murder," I scooped the fish out with a measuring cup and put him in the sink so I could change its water. Just then, I looked at the clock and realized we needed to be heading out the door for school. So I left the fish in his measuring cup and thought I'd finish the job when I got back. But, of course, I forgot. About 3 hours later, I saw a dark thing lying in the sink and wondered, "What is that?" I picked it up (eeewwwww!) and screamed when I realized what it was. I practically threw him back into the measuring cup and waited to see him float to the top ... but he started swimming again. Seriously! I was so relieved that I wouldn't have to admit my part in his death to my kids. I cleaned the fishbowl, put the fishy back in and thought I had dodged a bullet. That night, however, Prince Blueberry bit the dust. (Instead of floating to the top, he sunk to the bottom. Who knew?)

I broke the news as gently as I could to the kids, but weeping and wailing ensued anyway. Paige was especially upset and sobbed while having the following discussion:

Paige: "But there isn't any water in heaven! He won't be able to swim!"
Me: "Oh honey, there is definitely water in heaven. Prince Blueberry will be able to swim all day long."
Paige: "But there isn't any fish food there!"
Haley: "Beta fish eat other fish, remember? He can eat those for dinner."
Paige: "But then a bigger fish will eat him!!!" (sobbing, sobbing ...)

Haley finally gave up trying to convince Paige that the fish would be fine. And you know what? My kids are still unaware of my part in his death. Does that make me a bad mommy?

Utah fever

Last Saturday was an important day at the Mayfield house. Mike had been talking about the big Utah/BYU game and prepping our kids for it the entire week previous. We put our big block 'U' in the window, Mike put his Utah flags on his car, the kids decked themselves in red and Elle ran around yelling, "Go Utes!" And that was all the day before the big game. When we woke up Saturday morning, this is what we found...Mike and I enjoy a good prank and we laughed when we saw our new decorations. We mused about who was responsible (was it the Blakes? the Hess family?). We think it's a teenage friend of ours (yes you, Jonathan Z.) but time will tell. What Mike and I didn't expect was Paige's response to the BYU balloons. She took one look and burst into tears, crying between sobs, "Now ... everyone will think ... that we like ... the COUGARS!" We assured her that we would get the guilty party back by initiating Operation Ute Fan prior to the next Utah/BYU matchup. She's gathered as much red paraphernalia as she could find and is ready to deface his front yard when daddy gives the word.The game itself was so fun. Mike was a nervous wreck beforehand but I was just happy to be there in person. That was my first time seeing the Holy War in person. And it proved to be quite the game.Mike could write a great post, I'm sure, about the details and highlights of the game. We'll save that for another time. One of my highlights was watching Mike and Rob rush the field at the end of the game, along with all of the 30,000+ other fans.

Life has been good at our house.

Look what I did ....

Birthday butterflies

Paige turned 5 last week. She keeps saying, "I just can't believe I'm 5!" Any of you who know her know that she has an attitude far beyond her years. Major sassiness, this girl. Loves to cock her hip and watch herself in the mirror. We are in serious trouble.

We opened presents at home in the morning, .... handed out treats at preschool,... went to Build-A-Bear in the afternoon,... and had a butterfly birthday party the next day.We painted fingernails, put butterfly stickers on our faces, colored butterfly pictures and ate butterfly cake. Paige was in butterfly heaven.Can you tell she likes to be the center of attention? :)Paige is spunky, funny, tender-hearted, loving and absolutely wonderful. She makes life fun on a daily basis. Happy Birthday, Paigie!

Just a little obsession

I spent the weekend at the movie theater. Literally (well, almost). I went to the midnight premier of Twilight (I'm only slightly obsessed) and dragged these 5 ladies with me. A few of them came willingly -- the others I had to coerce. After a couple of hours of waiting in line, the movie began. I was almost giddy with excitement. Would it live up to my expectations? Could it ever be as good as the book?

Honestly, nothing can compare to reading Twilight for the first time. And, let's be honest, the second, third or fourth times either. But I'm happy to say that I really did enjoy the movie. I liked the actors cast and thought the movie was fairly true to the book. Some in the audience laughed at parts that weren't supposed to be funny but it didn't ruin it for me. I left the theater with a smile on my face.

Went to bed that night/morning at 3am, only to be awakened by Elle 3 hours later. We were up for the day -- no nap for me. It was a Twilight weekend, though, and I was still on a high. That afternoon, I went with Mike and 6 other friends to go see the movie again. And this time, the viewing experience was amazing. The audience cheered, sighed, ooh'd and aah'd at all the right places. Even the other guys we were with liked it so that's a good sign.

If anyone else out there wants to go see it, call me. I'd go see it again. I'm a giver like that.

Crazy 8's Tag

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:
*Lost
*Most shows on HGTV (Designed to Sell, House Hunters, Divine Design ....)
*The Office
*American Idol (although this past season was really my first time watching it)
*So You Think You Can Dance (again, I've only watched it the one season but I liked it -- having someone on the show that we knew was pretty cool)
*The Today Show
*ER
*House

8 Favorite Restaurants:
*Paradise Bakery
*Plates & Palates (great sandwiches, salads -- smaller than Paradise but similar)
*Biaggi's (their lobster fettucine is to die for)
*Market Street Grill (crab, crab, crab)
*Costa Vida (love the mango salsa with sweet pork)
*Bajios (love the sweet shrimp tacos or salad)
*The Mandarin (Honey Walnut Shrimp and the best creme brulee around)
*Royal India

8 Things that Happened Today:
*My baby threw up
*Reconnected with 3 friends from the past on Facebook
*Made a Costco run for 2 things and came out with 20
*Debated whether to shower or just wear a baseball cap (the cap won)
*Talked to various friends about our plans for the Twilight midnight premier
*Took the kids to piano lessons (my son complaining about it the whole way)
*Washed and folded a mountain of laundry
*Made chocolate-covered caramel apples

8 Things I Look Forward To:
*Twilight! Only a few more days :)
*Christmas -- the whole season
*Snuggling with our kids in our bed every morning
*A few moments to read a good book
*Date night
*My pillow every night
*Our next trip (wherever it will be)
*Mike walking in from work at the end of the day.

8 Things on My Wish List:
*My dad's health
*For my kids to be happy, healthy and successful at something they love
*A gazillion dollars
*The right house or building opportunity to actually materialize -- we've been looking for so long! I want to get settled and be where we're supposed to be.
*To have my skinny self back (I'm getting there....)
*A personal chef
*A Mini-Cooper (I fully plan on trading in my ginormous car for a cute little thing someday)
*Many travel opportunities throughout my life

Deep thoughts

"Paige, what are you going to ask Santa for this year?"

Long, thoughtful pause ....

"Goodness."

"Excuse me?"

"You know how I'm bad sometimes? I'm going to ask Santa for goodness."

I'll be excited to see Santa's face when she sits on his lap at the mall and asks him for that. Kodak moment, I'm sure.

Christmas has arrived

My good friend, Krista, is a part-owner & designer of Modern Display. For those of you non-locals, Modern Display is a huge seasonal decor showroom. Beautiful stuff. They have a great Christmas village display with multiple tables and sets that my kids love to ooohhh and aaahhh over every year. But I digress ....

I mentioned to Krista that my Christmas ornaments are a modge podge of little pieces that look fine but are far from great. She excitedly said that she would help me redecorate my tree. Ummm, let me think about it ..... Yes, please! So, a few weeks ago, we went to the showroom and looked at tree styles and colors. Then we went down in the basement where there are rows and rows of ornaments, garlands, ribbon - you name it. We ended up with boxes and boxes of beautiful ornaments; things I never would have thought to use (and on a larger scale than I would have thought) but it all looks amazing. Then a few days ago, Krista came over and created this ....This picture does not do the tree justice. It's really stunning. And it's mine. :)She also worked her magic on the mantel and the banister.I have yet to put up the rest of our Christmas decorations (it's still a little early for my taste) but this tree makes me happy. Krista, my friend, thank you. I love it.

My 2nd mom

Today is my stepmom's birthday. It always feels a little awkward to call her my stepmom because that title tends to carry a slightly negative connotation. Thankfully, that was never my experience. Dad and Shirlee were married when I was 4, so I've pretty much grown up with 2 wonderful moms. I always felt loved and accepted by Shirlee, right from the get-go. I have so many wonderful memories with her, as a young child, through adolescence and now as a mom. I couldn't have asked for a better 2nd mom and I'm so glad to have her in my life.Happy Birthday, mom/Nana. We love you!

Halloween 2008

Elle (almost 2), Paige (almost 5), Christian (10) & Haley (7)With cousin Sydney.At the library for Toddler Time.Extended Mayfield family (and Grandpa as Moses).At Paige's preschool.