Gingerbread village

On Sunday, we sat down at the table as a family and built a Gingerbread village. Everyone struggled and it wasn't easy. Olive ended up making the playground complete with some marshmallow/toothpick contraption. My contribution is the "City Hall" on the left.

My Canadian friend

I was trying to figure out but I think Derek was the first Canadian that I met and became friends with. The Hollingsworths lived above us when we lived at Wymount. He was (and still is) a very funny guy. He's now a doctor and lives back in Canada. He and his family were in town last week for their oldest daughter's (Kelsey) wedding. Clark, Sandy, and I met them over at Maggleby's for dinner. It was really cool to see them. A couple of memories that I have a Derek: sleeping on his balcony on a mattress in the summertime, his alarm clock that would always go off and piss of the neighbors, and watching him the first time skating on rollerblades. I can't help but think he was part of my inspiration to learn how to skate and play hockey.

Look, Dad!

Olivia was so proud of her skyscrapers of boxes.

Merry Christmas

I took this picture of the kids just after Church on Sunday. Don't they look great?

ClustrMaps

I saw this earlier today and I thought it would be a cool thing to add to the blog. Down at the bottom left hand corner of the page is a world map. Each day it will update and show locations of why is actually reading this blog. Yes, it will be quite sad if there only ends up being 1 small red dot in Highland, Utah (me). It actually only updates once a day so there isn't anything there yet. You can learn more about it here.

More Happiness to me

My wonderful sister threw a great b-day party for me. Very tasty Pico (that my brother almost ate ALL of) and yummy porkos. I'm so blessed to have such a great family.

Happy Birthday to me!

The day before my birthday I spent lunch with 4 of my best buddies. We laughed so hard and not only had a great lunch at the Left Fork Grill (sorry no website) but the pies are quite tasty.

I'd like to return this....

For some reason I was thinking this afternoon about a favorite Seinfeld episode. It goes like this:

Jerry: "Excuse me I'd like to return this jacket."

Teller: "Certainly. May I ask why?"

Jerry: "........For spite..."

Teller: "Spite?"

Jerry: "That's right. I don't care for the salesman that sold it to me."

Teller: "I don't think you can return an item for spite."

Jerry: "What do you mean?"

Teller: "Well if there was some problem with the garment. If it were unsatisfactory in some way,then we could do it for you, but I'm afraid spite doesn't fit into any of our conditions for a refund"

Jerry: "That's ridiculous, I want to return it. What's the difference what the reason is."

Teller: "Let me speak with the manager...excuse me .............Bob!"

(walks over to the manager and whispers)

Teller "........spite....."(Manager walks over)

Bob: "What seems to be the problem?"

Jerry : "Well I want to return this jacket and she asked me why and I said for spite and now she won't take it back."

Bob: "That's true. You can't return an item based purely on spite."

Jerry:. "Well So fine then ..then I don't want it and then that's why I'm returning it"

Bob: "Well you already said spite so......"

Jerry: "But I changed my mind.."

Bob: "No...you said spite...Too late."

O remember, remember

At the last October LDS general conference, one of my favorite talks was the one given by President Henry B. Eyring. He talked about the importance of writing down how he has seen the hand of God blessing him and his family. I really felt like that was important. After thinking about it for over a month, I purchased a simple paperback journal from the grocery store. Each night I write just a few sentences about gratitude. It is a bit harder than you think. The first few days are okay, but after that you have to think. What it has done for me is to think, listen, observe throughout the hours of the day looking for the Lord's hand in my life (and the life of my family). It's been a cool experience. Now, I may not be able to write everyday for the rest of my life, but that is my plan at this point in my life. I remember back when I wrote EVERY day on my mission and then thereafter for a couple of years after I was home. After I got married it got more difficult to write. Now, I'm starting again. I'll let you know how it goes. A couple of days ago, I read an article called Catch some joy tomorrow. This is on one of the blogs that I follow. I recommend that you take 30 seconds to read it (especially, if you are in a grumpy mood today). Another article about the importance of gratitude that was in the Church News a couple of weeks ago. A study done by the University of Davis discovered that those that wrote in gratitude journals each day were 25% happier than others! Thankfulness is a choice. "Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done".

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman...

Okay, Olivia has NEVER built a snowman before. I find that hard to believe but maybe that is true. So, on Sunday after church, she and I built one in the backyard. Pretty fun!