Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot ... whatever that means

Last post of 2009! Wow! How time does, indeed, fly. I'm looking forward to a new year and making new goals and moving forward. Being stagnant is no fun, and I never want to feel like I am being that way. Yeesh.

Mom and Craig Christmas morning

Christmas was pretty much awesome. What made it even better was that I didn't have to wait four days to fly out of Salt Lake! My flight to Portland was delayed a bit because of the lovely weather in the midwest making my plan late, but I'll take an hour delay over a four-day wait any time. I came home to intense fog! Has Portland always gotten that foggy in the wintertime? It cleared out on the mornings it dawned foggy, but I was kind of amazed. Oh, well.

Dad opens one of his many (extremely unexpected) P90X presents

In terms of presents, wow. I think my family and friends get the idea that I like to read. (gee, i wonder where they got that idea!) I got a whole bunch of books - all ones that I have read before, but I have wanted them for my personal library. It was exciting to keep on opening up all these books! (my carry-on the flight back was just a bag filled with books) So now I've got some more reading material if ever I'm in the mood! I'm a tad disappointed I didn't get to see Kelly's family open the presents I got them, but I sure hope they liked them. And Mom was sure happy to get her Cuisinart from her children.

Isn't she adorable when she's dirty?

What a funny cutie-pie.

I loved seeing my family. Jack is getting easier and easier to understand, which makes me happy, and Lucy is walking! Wow! How are these kids managing to grow up so quickly? Sometimes I wonder how Tom and Lisa manage to keep their cool when dealing with their kids, but they're pretty amazing in that they do. Will I be such a patient parent? I sure hope so. Tom and Lisa are my models for that. Oh, well. I thought Jack was adorable when he kept talking about the Baby Jesus and when he tried on my stocking as if it were really a sock to be worn. Christmas Eve was spent at Tom and Lisa's, then Christmas Day was at my parents' house. The Tom Kellys came up from Salem, so we had a good time together. A couple days later, we went to lunch with Sean and Kristina and their kiddos, and later that day Sam and Beck showed up at our house for a quick visit. Hooray for my family!

World Tour!

I could have easily spent a couple more days in Oregon, but it wasn't a horrible experience coming back, even if it did start to snow the instant Mom was supposed to drive me to the airport. Another delay, but I still made it back. And I knew someone on my flight, too, so it made the waiting and actual air-time a heck of a lot nicer than it would have been had I been surrounded by strangers. So now I'm back and life will be going back to normal. Whatever that is.

Something tells me I wouldn't fit under the tree.

-Me

"An optimist stays up to see the New Year in. A pessimist waits to make sure the old one leaves." -Bill Vaughan

Soon It Will Be Christmas Day

There are some times when I just love being an aunt. Saturday morning brought on one of those moments. I visited Kelly's family for a few hours, and when I arrived, Nicole and Jake answered the door, calling to rest of the house that "Megan's here!" Andrew came barreling down the stairs like he normally does, yelling my name excitedly. These three I expected. Then another voice screamed out my name! No, it definitely wasn't Kelly or Nate; it was Ali! I've been certain in the last year or so that she definitely knows me, but this was the very first time she ever said my name totally voluntarily (and excitedly, thank you very much). And it completely made my day. It even topped the moment she hugged me around my knees during Thanksgiving, because she wasn't saying my name then. Looks my quest for the title of Favorite Aunt is being handily won.

Not only did I visit Clinton on Saturday, I paid a visit to Temple Square with Betsey and Lisa that evening. I haven't gone to see the lights for several years, so I was pretty pumped to see them, even with the cold. The price you pay. We had a good time walking around, and of course it was two minutes after we talked about the possibility of seeing people we may know when, shockingly enough, we ran into a family I know from back home! (and it's never me that is the lucky one to run into people, really.) So that was a fun incident, but we moved along, thinking it was a one-time thing. It wasn't, to my utter delight. Twenty minutes later, who should get in my path but the Swensons?!?!? It was the most unexpected thing to see Uncle Brad walking right at me, but I was totally excited to see Camille, Brad, Dane, and Aimee, barely a month later than the last time I saw them. Lisa and Betsey were both kind of astounded at my small-world happenings, but they were good sports about it.

Aside from running into the family and friends, I've got to say that one of my favorite things about walking around Temple Square was when we watched the presentation at the Nativity scene next to the Tabernacle. There was quite a crowd gathered to listen to the narration, and it was kind of a chore to try and see the figures as they were lit up (thank goodness i'm tall), but I think my favorite part of watching it was seeing all the little children up on their parents' shoulders. It's a small and simple thing, but it's sweet. We all wanted to see the Baby Jesus. Joy to the world, for sure.

-Me

"A turkey never voted for an early Christmas." -Irish Proverb

C is for Cookie . . . but B is for Burn!

I love Christmas. So many happy things to be doing and listening to and participating in and enjoying. It's wonderful. Even houses look friendlier at this time of year, thanks to snow and lights. What happy feelings prevail. I've really enjoyed finding gifts for family, friends, and roommates. My home looks like Christmas, with our pretty tree and poinsettias and nativity. And on Saturday, it even smelled like Christmas!

Lisa and I pose with our masterpieces.
We were both pretty proud of the gingerbread house we decorated together.

How does Christmas smell? Like hidden kisses and chocolate diamond squares and sugar cookies. That's right. It smells like sugar and chocolate. Both of which are important ingredients in the cookies I made Saturday afternoon, when the intense desire to bake seized me with a vengeance! My roommates didn't quite know what to make of me, but I didn't care much. I was just happy, jumping around the kitchen, all excited to be making hidden kisses. And all the cookies I made turned out quite nicely. They were enjoyed both at Becky and Noah's Hanukkah party Saturday night and at the dessert night our neighbor Tyler hosted on Sunday night.

Becky and Noah preparing for their Hanukkah party.
Yes, they are still Mormon. They just wanted to make latkes.

Since several cookies of mine were consumed over the weekend, I needed to make more, so I could share my culinary talents and Christmas cheer with my co-workers. However, yesterday's experience wasn't nearly as happy, all because of the clumsiness of me. I somehow managed to burn both my thumbs while getting out a pan of cookies, even while using pot holders! I don't know how I wasn't positioning the pot holders correctly, because heaven knows I've used them many times in my life with success, but twice within about thirty seconds, I did not. 'Twas a painful experience, and Lisa was a tad concerned when she walked into the kitchen to find me crying with the cold water running over my thumbs. I laughed a bit as I told her what happened, but I was still mainly crying because it just hurt so badly. Oh, well. An hour later, I was calling Mom to amuse her with the tale of my woe, so I don't think I was in a horrible mood. But that sure killed my cookie buzz. ;) Oh, well. I survived, and my thumbs shall recover, I'm sure you're all glad to know.

Noah shares the joy of "Calvin and Hobbes" with Brandon.
(the gift i gave to becky and noah)

Hope Esther likes her "Vicar of Dibley"!

Preparing to play the dreidel game.

-Me

"I don't want to live in a world where I have to eat sugar-free sugar cookies." -Takayuki Ikkaku

'Twas the Morning of First Snow

'Twas the morning of first snow, when all through the townhouse
The girls were all stirring, not quite like a mouse.
The socks on Megan's feet were fuzzy with care
In hopes that no cold could reach her down there.

She wished she could stay all snug in her bed
With visions of heaters dancing in her head.
She wore many layers (but don't worry; no cap)
And was already longing for an afternoon nap,

When the alarm clock started and rang with a clatter
She sprang from her bed and knew nothing was the matter.
Away to her window she flew like a flash
Seeing snow outside, she felt her hopes dashed.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Was quite beautiful, yes, but she knew deep below
That, to everyone's eyes would very soon appear
Her snow-driving skills, that could hit a deer.

She's a pretty good driver, lively and quick,
No accidents, no pull-overs, no nothing, no tick(ets).
More rapid than eagles, her shower she took
Because to be slow would be cold--not fun in her book.

"Now socks, now shirt, now jeans and a sweater!
On boots, on scarf, on mittens and hat (er. . .)!"
She was dressed all in warmth, from her head to her foot,
But stepping outside . . . well, there's no good rhyme here.

She spoke not a word, but went straight to her work
And scraped the snow off her car, then climbed in with a jerk.
And laying the key in the ignition, she froze,
But the car started fine and out of the parking lot she rose (kind of).

She sprang to her job, as fast as conditions allowed,
And checking the windows every half hour, she bowed
To the inevitability of Utah and snow
And said, "Tomorrow . . . I'm working from home!"

-Me

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." -Carl Reiner

And On That Farm He Had a Chicken

Good thing I don't live in Quitman, Georgia. Well, it still would have been all right for me, but it sure wouldn't have been for the chicken I saw today as I was driving home from work. Apparently, the city of Quitman has an ordinance that prohibits chickens from crossing the road. (why? because they don't want the chickens to see what happens on the other side . . . whatever that is, i sure don't know.) Yes, that would have been one sorry chicken, had I been living in Quitman and observed the "criminal activity" the chicken was engaged in. Fortunately, I live in Orem, and the chicken was not violating any city ordinances by crossing the road. Good thing for me, too, because it completely and totally made my day!

How many people have really observed a chicken crossing the road? I sure haven't, especially not in a suburban neighborhood a block away from an elementary school! But that's what happened today. From a distance, I thought that maybe someone had been careless and left a decorative chicken in the street. It wasn't until I reached and passed the chicken (had i been another foot to the right, i would have hit it . . . and the car parked on the street, for that matter . . .) that I realized it was real! It turned its head and, as soon as I passed it, started crossing the road! I observed it as long as I dared in my rearview mirror. I tell ya, it was awesome.

So, if you're a chicken-lover or just an average person, don't move to Quitman, because it's probably strange to see a policeman giving a warning to a chicken for jaywalking.

-Me

"Big nations are like chickens. They like to make big noises, but very often it is no more than squabbling." -Dr. Albert Schweitzer

There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters . . .

Okay, this sentence is going to sound really redundant, but I'm saying it, anyway: my sister and I are soo related. I know that goes without saying (see, tom? i'm not adopted!), but yesterday just reasserted to me that, despite the eight-year gap between me and my sister, we're quite a bit alike. My great-aunt Lillian passed away last week, so my dad flew down for the funeral in Spanish Fork yesterday, and Kelly and I went, as well. Well, she and I had a really good time trying to find the correct chapel (dad came down earlier than we did with his bro), and when we finally pulled into a parking lot with a hearse, we were both pretty happy that the search was over. To which Kelly said, "Kind of morbid to be happy to see a hearse." How true that is.

Anyway, after the funeral and seeing the extended fam, Dad hung out with us, his beautiful daughters, until it was time to go to the airport. So we hung out and chatted a bit before heading over to the music store. It was pretty darn laughable. Dad said he enjoyed seeing us so animated, but I'm sure it looked pretty funny to the outside observer, seeing three people just hunched over the choral music, saying, "Oh, I found this!", "Oh, you like this? Me, too! Grab me one!", and "Dad, go grab us this" (okay, dad didn't say that; we said it to him). What a good sport our dad was to put up with our antics. With probably two exceptions, Kelly and I got the same music (made for a fun time when we stepped away from the choral music and then had to go back to find duplicates). Even after we had definitely decided we were done (after . . . an hour? maybe more?) and Dad was graciously buying the music for us, Kelly and I were still having a grand old time seeing different sections of music and getting a little too excited about them.

Then we headed back to my place and played through all of the music we had purchased, with the exception of one of the four (that's right--four) versions of "Silent Night" we got. Dad says he wants us to move up to Oregon, but I think that he only wants us to do that so we'll sing in his ward choir. So, yeah. Maybe our excitement over finding music is kind of silly, but I think it's a good example of the similarities between me and Kelly. There are more, but this one is easily the most . . . observable. I wonder what it would have been like had Mom been there, as well. hmm . . .

-Me

"It is true that I was born in Iowa, but I can't speak for my twin sister." -Abigail Van Buren

You Had a Bad Day

In the words of Alexander, work today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. After the two days last week when I left feeling like a hero who had accomplished something good, I was not expecting to come crashing down by 3 pm this afternoon. I won't get into the details; it's not really worth hammering out. Suffice it to say that I was feeling pretty dang cruddy most of the day, and was frustrated enough to burst into tears a couple of times in my cubicle. Granted, that's not entirely unheard of, but usually there are other forces at work to make me do so. Not today. Today was all work-related crumminess. I've had those days that drag on, that I'm counting the minutes to the end, but I had never been so happy to leave the office as I was today. -sigh- I sure hope tomorrow is better.

Yep. This is pretty much how I felt.

Fortunately, I have friends that are willing to change their plans around to comfort me in my moments of personal crisis. Okay, maybe "crisis" is too heavy a word to describe today. But I was not in a good place, and I was in desperate need of a hug. So, after texting Esther and giving her a reader's-digest version of the day's events and how I was feeling, she was kind enough to "comfort those that stand in need of comfort". We went to dinner and watched Kung Fu Panda, and it was a good release from the day. Sometimes you need "the big, fat panda" to brighten your day, and Po came through for us.

At least I know that these days come to everyone, even in Australia.

-Me

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." -Charles M. Schulz