Pray For Easton

Colton's childhood friend Easton was a passenger in the car accident in Provo Canyon this morning. His injuries are very, very serious. Please remember Easton and his family in your prayers.

Christmas Tag

Thanks for the fun Christmas Tag, Marci:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper and ribbon!! I tie GREAT bows
2. Real tree or fake tree? I have one real tree and one fake. But I prefer real trees.
3. When do you put up your tree? I try to put it up the day before Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take it down? New Year's Day
5. Do you like eggnog? I hardly ever drink it, but, yes, I like it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? When I was about 6 or 7 I got a Baby Chrissy Doll. She had red hair that could be made longer or shorter by turning a knob on her back. She was pretty tight.
7. Easiest person to buy for? Brian. He may not seem easy to buy for, but he has lots and lots and lots of hobbies. Like motorcycles, peddle bikes, guns, guitars, hunting, cooking, tennis, golf, singing, 4 wheeling, boating, skiing, hiking. His interest in his hobbies don't always last that long, but he usually times it so I can buy him all the accessories for his current obsession and then by the next holiday he has moved onto something new.
8. Do you have a nativity scene? I have the Lladro "Joyful Event" with a gres finish that I love and Brian gave me a Jim Shore nativity set last year. My kids favorite is our "ghetto" nativity that only has 2 wisemen.
9. Mail or Email Christmas cards? Mail!!! If you can not hold it in your hand it is not a Christmas card.
10. Worst gift you have ever received? One year Brian decided I needed a Victoria's Secret Christmas and I had about 8 VS Boxes under the tree, another year he bought me a pistol and he is still mad that I have never let him shoot it.
11. Favorite Christmas movie? My favorite is "Heidi", Brian's favorite is "It's a Wonderful Life", and my children love "Elf."
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? You know, it doesn't really matter when I start, because I am NEVER finished until Christmas eve.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas gift? Yes. I am not a regiver, but one Christmas Brian got this hiking thing from IHC that we would never use. We had some friends that we thought would really like it, so we gave it to them. It still causes me stress to think about it.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Hershey's Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate Bells, Fudge and Reese's Peanut Butter Trees
15. Lights on tree? Is it an option to not have lights?
16. Can you name Santa's reindeer? No, but I can make up the ones I don't know.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Winter Wonderland by Annie Lennox
18. Travel or stay home? Stay home.
19. Angel or star tree topper? I'm really not a tree topper kind of person, we have neither
20. Open presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? Christmas Eve we open jammie pants, everything else Christmas morning.
21. Favorite Christmas tradition? My family does chinese food on Christmas Eve
22. Favorite ornament, theme or color? We have one tree that is all white. The tree is flocked, the ornaments, ribbons, lights and trim are clear or white. Even the presents are wrapped in white paper with white ribbon. I like to think of this as our "celestial" tree. We collect ornaments from places we go and my mom gives the kids a "special" ornament each year, so I have a lot of favorites. But I think the best is the 1/2 Doctor 1/2 Mermaid that Lance gave Brian. It is legendary.
23. Favorite Christmas dinner? Turkey, Rolls, Potato Salad at my mom's house
24. What do you want for Christmas? I'm hoping for a diamond bracelet like the one Boozer was wearing at the jazz game tonight.
25. Best Christmas present you have ever given? One year we surprised Brian with spinners on the Yukon.

I tag Cassidy, Megan, Jamielyn and Amber. Have Fun

Celebration of Life

For the past several years Brian and the Central Utah Cancer Center sponsor the "Celebration of Life - Kurt Bestor Christmas Concert." Each year they buy tickets for Cancer Survivors and their families to attend the concert.

We attended this year with Colin, Kim, Colton, Grandpa, Morgan and Grandma. This year, before the concert ,they showed a video where several cancer survivors shared their cancer experience. It was very touching. Central Utah Clinic gives out flashlights to the cancer survivors and during the performance they are all asked to turn them on. Again, very touching and quite inspirational.

The highlight of the show was Brian performing "The Night Before Christmas" with Kurt and the orchestra. Kurt was making jokes about how boring Dr.'s are and telling Brian to try and have a little personality. So, of course; Brian, using his hidden thespian talent, stole the show. He was great.

I think the best part was hearing so many people thank Brian for "saving my daughter," "giving me one more Christmas," "making the cancer experience more bearable." It is nice to be reminded what an important role he plays in so many lives and how many people depend on him.

Our Christmas Tree Has A TuTu!!

Saturday morning I asked Colton to set up our Christmas Tree. OK, I told Colton that he was going to put up the Christmas Tree. After several hours of, "Moooooomm, this is to hard., Moooooomm, look at all the scratches on my arms., Moooooomm, I can't get all the lights to work." we finally had the tree up and running (ok, we still had 3 small branches without lights working. But, in the words Brian Regan: That area represents the dark time in our life.) So, as we were fluffing up the branches, I noticed the tree looked a little off. After closer examination, I realized Colton had switched the #9 row with the #6 row! So now instead of a nice cone shaped tree, our tree has the largest row of branches right in the middle, giving the appearance of a tree with a tutu. Now a "good" mother probably would have made their son change it, but Christmas trees drive me crazy. I have often considered converting to Judaism just to avoid the Christmas tree tradition. (Menorahs are very pretty!) Rationalization allows me to believe that I was actually building my childs self esteem, by encouraging his creativity. And it was time to add another story to our: "Remember the year the Christmas tree..."