Home for the Holidays

Christmas came and went…it happened so fast I almost missed it. Recaps…Okay we went to Utah for Christmas-Surprises? Probably not. Before we left we had a little Christmas in South Carolina. Santa knew we were going to be out of town so he obliged us and came early. What a trooper. He brought us a trampoline. We put it up just in time to leave for Utah, because heaven forbid we leave the neighborhood kids with nothing to do. It has since come to my attention that your insurance carriers in fact frown upon Trampoline ownership. I wonder if Santa covers injuries sustain by neighbor kids while owners are away? Maybe that’s what I’ll ask for next year. All joking aside the kids love it. Kaleb gets off the bus and he doesn’t even pause inside to do much aside from grabbing something to eat before he heads outside. Lest you concern yourself with Kaleb being outside so much in January I guess I ought to clarify while those we love are covered in snow--we are suffering through the sixty degrees it has dipped to over the last few weeks.
We had a lot of fun in Utah my entire family came down and we got to meet David’s new wife Suzy, very nice. Plus, it can’t hurt to have a heroine addict councilor in the family. We went to the children’s museum and saw my cousin Lisa and her family. It was so fun to see how big her girls are getting. Becky and I had lunch with our girl cousins and we chatted about old times. My top two favorite Bloomington Idaho stories involving me were:
We smuggled chips up into the tree house—for those who don’t know my Grandma Hart had a major aversion to junk food—we ate through a majority of the chips. Only as we got to the bottom of the bag did we notice it was filled with earwigs.
Next when we went down to the creek and were swimming without the proper attire and the Idaho fish and game patrol came over to see what we were doing. Becky was stuck in the brush yelling at me to get her clothes while I was trying calmly to explain to the nice officer that we were not fishing, but it would be terribly gentlemanly of him if he could just leave and not verify that at the moment. The man gave me a very knowing smirk and told me I ought to go help my sister. Ahh is childhood really complete without a Bloomington? My favorite story not involving me was when Becky, Tara and Tiffany had heard my Uncle Win complain that he had moved to Bloomington, but the sign still read population 197. My sweet relations felt this could obviously be rectified by a human latter and some scotch tape. My uncle's hand crafted 198 stayed posted to the sign for years.
Although I can’t say the Hart clan kids aren’t getting any excitement right in Kaysville Utah. We had a visitor Christmas Eve; Santa came to my parent’s house with Chad’s mom Grandma Babs. It was fun to see Kaleb look at him and then do a double take. He took his candy cane and talked to Santa for a while. Octavia would have nothing to do with him. She stood at the top of the stairs and watched him. When he finally left Octavia turned to Grandma Bab’s and with the most stern look on her face she asks, “Grandma Babs, why did you dress your husband up like Santa?”
I’m sure that at some point someone would have tried to express some kind of deniability, if I hadn’t burst out laughing and couldn’t stop. Tavi was so disturbed by this sacrilege, and it showed in her very stance, her little hands on her hips and her head cocked waiting for someone to explain—I couldn’t help myself.
The next night we hung out with the Petersen’s playing Taboo. It is a game in communication. You can’t say a certain word, nor can you say words associated with that word. I think anyone planning on getting married should play this game with their intended spouse just to see what they are really getting into. If you walk out on the game while everyone else is still playing because you need some space from your fiancé—there’s your sign. I wonder if some marriage councilor was listening to her client’s talk and her mind wandered just enough to have this great new idea about a game. She probably wanted to call it marriage in a nutshell, but it was too long so Taboo was born—Jokes! It was a really fun night and I learned to play the Wii. I got a really good arm work out for a game consol and considering I won a few times—yah YMCA—I actually felt a little warmth toward gaming systems. It was kind of like having a way to get your child to exercise and have fun at the same time—oh wait trampoline! Christmas over all was great, New Years left a little to be desired as one of the twin’s swallowed a marble and poor kid had a bad night trying to pass it. I got back to SC on New Years Day and fourtunaitly had numerous phone messages waiting for me due to the fact that we have the South Carolina's Lottery Commision's old phone number. I feel quiet popular and am fighting off the post holiday drop extremely well--someone always wants to be your friend at 2AM when they've just realized their lotto ticket is a winner!
Seriously though I am very grateful for the season and all of our families. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for my Savior--his birth, his death, his resurrection and everything in between. I love him. I am grateful for everything in my life that brings me closer to him no matter how painful it seems at the time. I think Christmas is a wonderful season to reflect on his birth, but also for recommitting to looking to him, living rightously, and feeling the power that accompanies this.