A Child's Mind

I recently saw a similar idea in Pinterest, and was very happy to see my mother-in-law had done this for Christmas. She asked each of the grand kids questions about their parents and then wrote them up as a gift. I think I might start doing this regularly with Will because I thought it was so funny. So according to Will, answers about me and Pat.

~What's mom's favorite food: tortillas and tacos with tomatoes
Dad's: ramen
(I do really like tacos, but I'm surprised even Will wouldn't say hamburgers for Pat)

~Where was mom born: Germany
Dad: Florida
(the funny thing about this one is that Pat's older sister was born in Germany and his younger sister was born in Florida. I was born in California and Pat was born in Massachusetts.)

~Favorite ice cream, mom: Vanilla
Dad: Chocolate
(not my favorite, I need stuff in my ice cream, but he did get Pat right)

~Favorite place to go, mom: Where Aunt B lives
Dad: England
(well I do enjoy that, although my dream is his answer for Pat)

~Favorite vegetable, mom: mom likes all kinds of vegetables
Dad: cherry tomatoes
(pretty close on that one)

~Favorite movie, mom: Don't know any movie she likes
Dad: Star Wars

~Does mom have a nickname: No (I really don't)
Dad: the kids in my class call him Pat (totally made me laugh)

~Pool, ocean or lake, mom: Ocean (definitely not)
Dad: pool

~Favorite snack, mom: tortillas
Dad: ramen
(apparently there isn't a lot of variety in our lives)

~How much does mom spend on food/week, mom: $20 (I wish!)
$40

~How much does mom's car cost? $200 + $1,000
(well that's just more than what I owe on my car...)

~How many flashlights are in mom's house: 1 or 2 or 3 or 4
Dad: 5

~Best gift mom & dad ever got from Santa: They never told me what they got from Santa
(I have rectified this)

~Favorite toy as a kid, mom: paper dolls
Dad: action figures

Christmas Wrap Up

One of the things about being so "involved" on Facebook is that sometimes I feel like there is no point in having a blog, because I can just post stuff there. So this ends up being a repeat for most people. Oh well. If Facebook ever goes the way of Myspace, I guess I still have this history.

Christmas is over and done with, although those things I needed to mail but didn't want to stress about so said they would be New Year gifts, guess they still need to be done. Overall Christmas was very good except for the fact that I got a 24 stomach bug and was sick all of Christmas day.

Maiken and Britta and I all made my dad Monte a set of the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments that we had previously made our mom. He's been revealing them online one at a time though, so I feel like I should do a separate post later to highlight some of those. I get Will an ornament each year and the last few years have tried to make one. With the exception of two years, they have always been related to his Halloween costume that year. So I was already planning on making him a royal guard when he saw me working on the ones for Monte and asked if I'd make him a royal guard. I will say the shirt took me way too many patterns, but I was happy with how it turned out.

On Christmas Eve we had new visitors this year, Santa, Mrs. Claus, a reindeer and Buddy the Elf thanks to some cousins and a friend. They were all really cute and I think the adults enjoyed the laughs as much as the kids did.

Will promptly told me this wasn't the real Santa because he met the real Santa at school. But I loved the look in his eye of curiosity that they knew his name and one of the presents on his list.

I may have been up a little too late last night having fun on Facebook. I'd realized that I hadn't gotten any pictures of Will in the beret he asked for, honestly it was lucky I got any photos taken on Christmas with the way I was feeling. So I asked Will if he'd put on the beret and a scarf I made him. While taking some photos he kept asking if the shirt he was wearing was French and if someone French would wear it. They like Lego Star Wars in France right? Sensing he didn't feel the ensemble, I went searching for a different shirt. Not finding anything I told him he should put on his coat. I will say this is probably my favorite photo of Will from the whole year. Well minus the one from the colors festival.

This led to a FB discussion about him needing a mustache to complete the look. He wouldn't let me draw one on, but said I could do a paper one. Man I love this kid.

I hope everyone had a good holiday and wish everyone the best as we begin a new year!

Blah

In case you didn't notice, I haven't been in a blogging mood. Honestly I haven't been in a much of anything mood. The time/weather change sucks. It takes away two things that honestly really helped me get through the last year, hiking and photography. I really miss being able to go for hikes after work. Not only does it give me a form of exercise I don't dread, but being out in nature is something I need to refresh my mind and soul. The last two months have been hard for me and I haven't found a good replacement.

(I have started going to Zumba with my cousin, which is a good fill in for the exercise part. And it would be more so if I ever get past the part where I mostly just stand there and go, oh wait, what was that, or we're moving on, wait how did you do...oh ok new thing...wait....this is hard)

As for photography, the only thing I really enjoy taking photos of is nature stuff. And yeah nature stuff still exists during winter. But it's all cold. And there is snow. And it gets dark early. And yeah. So instead my recliner and I have gotten to be better friends. And then I was going through my photos from the last year and realized, I don't really have that many that I'm truly happy with. I know that just means I need to practice more, but it was a bit discouraging.

A few months ago my cousin Katy passed along a thank you card she got from someone where they had printed a photo of theirs and attached it to a blank card. She suggested I should do something similar with some of my photos. I thought it was a great idea for a personalized Christmas card. And like most things, that I idea did not exactly go as planned.

I wanted to wait until their was snow on the ground to get a "winter" picture. But that created a situation of wanting to get a picture up high enough in the canyon to have snow on the ground, but timing that with the closing of canyons, finding a setting I like, and actually getting a photo I was happy with. Well what I ended up with was one last shot to get a photo, I either got it on that day, or I went to the store and bought cards.

There is a cool place up Payson Canyon called the Pine Forest. I hadn't been there since we had first moved to Utah 24 years ago (holy crap that just made me feel old!), but from what I remembered, I thought it had the possibility of a good photo. I got some directions and headed up there. I later realized what I thought might be the trail head was, but I doubted it and went a different direction following some tracks in the snow. Those tracks did eventually get me to the Pine Forest, but only after a 45 minute hike uphill, through snow, in uncomfortable boots. I spent at least 5 minutes just standing at a fork in the trail debating just turning around, but I'm glad I kept going and got there.

Anyone local that hasn't been up there, should go. It's such a peaceful, serene place. And I needed the time alone up there. Luckily on the way back I saw what I figured might be the real trail and was able to take the much easier, 15 minute way back. I have to say that on my 1" preview screen on my camera, the photos were much cooler looking. But I got something to use for a card, so not a waste.

Luckily I did get that one task completed, because 2 days later a wicked cold took over and claimed all of last week. Oh you don't feel like you will be able to get everything done for Christmas in the next two weeks? Ok, how about I just take away one of those weeks. Good luck! Thanks Universe. So some people are getting New Years presents instead.

(re-reading that, I'm not really as down as that all sounds, well maybe, but that's Christmas for ya.) Merry Christmas to all.