This is one way to do Christmas cheer

Yes, that is a Christmas tree perched a top an SUV. It's even got Christmas lights that are working. I feel like this is an appropriate time to quote my favorite character from 30 rock, Jack Donaghey who would feel a kinship with SUV Christmas Tree man, "Only terrorists say Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas."

By Candlelight....

everything is supposed to be more romantic, right?

Behold:

Not using the toilet. If you ever had musings on how the mood would be by effectively peeing in the dark-- let me enlighten you: it's creepy. There's a scene in the movie, Elizabeth, which is about Queen Elizabeth the 1st, and at one point, all of the people who oppose her and make her life miserable in court are killed as they go about their business everyday. One of them is on the toilet at the time. I always thought-- Sheesh, that was awful-- they couldn't have waited, like a minute or two?
No. I understand why. After peeing in the dark, you should know that is this is the most vulnerable place you could possibly be. Nothing could stop anyone from harming you. You're peeing, for goodness sake. It's all you've got on your mind. You aren't thinking a medievil assassin is lurking behind the shower curtain.

The lights are back on now, and we're safe using the toilet, fyi.

(For the record, they inexplicably went off--everything electrical in our bathroom just stopped working. I had to call maintenance, and they took their dear sweet time getting here.)

O Christmas tree!

It is that time of year again. Christmas. Joyous!

There may not be presents under the tree this year, but that's because we gave ourselves a Wii. And we're playing with it already. It was an easy way to cap spending on Christmas this year. One gift, one purchase. Loads of fun.

One of my favorite things about Christmas in my home growing up, was that my mom always had our table set in Christmas plates, with special napkins and a special tablecloth. We ate with those plates the entire month of December. This year, I decided that it was time to invest in some Christmas tableware for the same reasons-- it really makes it feel like Christmas, and that every meal is special when you come home to a table that is fancy and already set. (Although I have yet to find goblets that go with the whole table. The Kate Spade drinking goblets that go with our china really don't match, they're too dainty. I was thinking something clear with big heavy cuts in thicker glass. Anyone have any suggestions?) A special shout out to my friend Krystle who was more than happy to give me (although I heartily protested) her red chargers.

But I did have to do a new centerpiece-- the simple white candle has moved to the bathroom. And so I made the above tree by following this really easy tutorial that I marked a couple of months ago in the blogs I read. It was so simple that I assembled it on a sunday afternoon, while still combating the aftereffects of some benadryl (generally cantankerous mood, sullen stares at one or more family members at any given time, barbed half-mumbled sentences... it was a pretty sight).

The view over all of our dining nook. Merry Merry Merry.

I also might add that in efforts to eventually use my desk and office space, I got around to buying a chair, at the good old Ikea, and brought it home, and amongst all this Christmas splendor, screamed like a Scandinavian power-lifter, attempting to "easily snap in" the plastic chair to the metal base. Arthur was lost in the space time continuum gap known as "finals week," otherwise I would have put his manly man muscles to work. It struck me as particularly funny. Nevertheless, please hold me to my purchasing power, and anytime you see me, ask me if my butt has been sitting in my Scandinavian power-lifting chair. That is the goal-- because when I sit in the chair, I should be writing my little heart out.

Hold me to it blog friends, hold me to it.

New Callings!

Well, the year is over, and we've changed callings!

For our non-mormon friends, a calling is a responsibility within a mormon congregation that typically takes place on Sunday or during the week. Since there are no paid clergy in the mormon church, most mormons happily volunteer for callings and often get assigned callings by the congregation's leadership that they might find challenging or difficult, or in some cases, easy and enjoyable. The idea is to serve others in the congregation and develop new skills in areas where you might not be so comfortable. Most of the time it means teaching a sunday school class on sunday.

Which is what we've been doing all year-- except our sunday school class was made up of children from ages 18 months to 3 years. In other words, it was about a five minute lesson and 1 hour 55 minutes of managing toys, potty breaks and learning baby talk. I won't lie-- it was hard. In July, I thought December would never come! Most callings don't have a time limit on them-- you serve until a different calling becomes available and your time and talents might be used better elsewhere. Uniquely, our congregation gave us a promise when we agreed to teach Nursery, that we would only serve for 1 year. How smart! I've never looked so forward to the new year!

But I have to say, I will miss it just a little. We've become friends with our little people-- they have such distinct personalities and they are really fun. I was going to post some pictures and a hilarious video from our last day-- but then I realized that they are not my children, and I don't have the right to post their images on the internet. :(

Our new callings? Our congregation's leadership seems determined to keep us together (I'm not complaining at all!)-- Arthur and I will be jointly serving as the young single adult advisors. Basically we'll be teaching a sunday school class aimed at young single church members in our congregation from ages 18 to 30.

Rock on, rock on.