LMP

 Closer...  Closer...           Christmas was so amazing this year! I just love Christmas time and I'm so glad I got in the spirit right in time. I got a snow globe, cute 'New Yorkie' jacket, pointe shoes, raspberry-filled Girhadelli chocolate, a Kindle Fire HD!, a toaster, mini-blender, ballet leg-warmers, Sephora makeup, a ballet book, hot chocolate and some jewelry and a sweater and a scarf. Santa is too nice! From gma and gpa I got a cute shirt and jacket, lotion, the softest mink blanket ever, a pillow grandma made herself and a cute shirt from Neeley my secret elf. Coco had the cutest gifts! It was all Paris-themed and adorably wrapped. I got a pretty necklace with a little rhine-stoned bow, Monet stationary, Eiffel Tower sticky notes, and a Paris bag. Trajan even gave me a camera and a colorful tote from Turkey! Christmas Eve was magic as always. Downs

Well, if you'll notice what time this post was published, you might get an idea of how long we've been up. Ruby woke everyone up at 5:20 am which was okay since Santa came and it's Christmas!! This was Tizzy's first Christmas and I think she liked it. Last night I showed her my special Nutcracker pop-up book I got from a little book store in Paris and also showed her some of my favorite snow globes. She was too excited to go to sleep! :) She loves when I make the snow globes "sing" as Tolly says. Like always, all the kids sat on the steps to wait to go into the TV room and find our treasures that Santa brought. Finally, this year everyone was on the steps. All seven of us got here thank goodness! Well, Santa sure as holly came! I got everything I could have wanted and asked for and more! This is the best Christmas ever! Merry Merry Christmas!

I  Can. Not. Believe. It's. Christmas. Eve. What the?! Where does time go? Well, we have been doing lots of fun holiday things like The Nutcracker (Performing and watching), Music and the Spoken Word, Stake Night of Music, caroling, seeing the lights, flute concert, Christmas movies, given gifts, gotten gifts, and gone sledding. It's so exciting for Santa to come tonight and I am so excited to do our Eve traditions!

Yesterday I went caroling with some friends then went back to Sara's house for doughnuts and hot chocolate. Today the ward choir sang and it turned out really well. I had great church lessons, then the Kings came over for lunch. I started an ornament project that I should probably finish right now, so we'll see how that works out. Then we went to Coco's and she made me french toast with yummy jam and we watched my favorite movie; The Sound of Music. I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve!! I'm so excited!   DeBry Pics... Awwww! There goes Santa up the "chimney" Going to be Tizzy's first Christmas! Mark, Jim and Bob   Anthony and his dad Stewart. Anthony is waiting for a heart transplant and is an amazing example for all of us! Jessie, Eliza, me and Rubes. It was so fun to see them! Especially Eliza who came all the way from Tennessee!

I did #3 Cobalt, ivory and a mysterious gray streak the landscape in a precise, water-colored shot. The cold dawning air stands still and rests on the smooth surface of the water, While the Sun begins to rise over the towering mountains who are layered with snow and shadows. The reflection in the lake is almost as clear as the real thing. It is an icy image of the massive and serious image it reflects.  Clouds lazily glide through the sky, barely avoiding mountain tops And giving the marine-like mood of this wonderland A golden streak of illumination. I wish I could trap this place in my own personal snow globe And keep it to swirl the snow around its wintery contents And let the snowflakes fall where they may on the frigid sapphire setting.

Holiday Cheer! This is what Christmas is about...

On Monday we celebrated  Josh and Traj's birthdays. Trajan just got back from Paris (I know! I'm so jealous!:)) and so it was perfect timing! We had Papa Murphy's pizza, Sam's CLud chocolate cake, icecream, veggies, and a whole kadoodle of beverages. They are my favorite King uncles! Happy Birthday! Tricia also came from Florida! It was so fun to see her and we had a little early Christmas with her and Jim. Thanks for the cute gifts!

Ruby had surgery on Thursday morning 5:30 AM on her knee in the LDS hospital in SLC. They thought it was some extra tissue that hadn't disinegrated like ot should have, but it turned out to be that her ligaments were just too short. So they made some slits in them to lengthen them and then smoothed out the bottom of her knee cap that had been slidin around in her knee. She is a little worse today, since she's getting off some of her medication, but she's really positive and good at using crutches! Thanks everyone that came and gave her some treats and everyone who signed the cards I took to mutual and modern.

Last night I went with my mom and Ari to see the lights at Temple Square and see a Ririe Woodbury performance in Salt Lake. The lights were beautiful and the soft, slowly falling snow was gorgeous. The performance was good, but I decided I much prefer ballet. I'm really glad we went though. Thanks mom! Today I went to the Music and the Spoken Word special Christmas performance. My dad, Free and Ari and I went. We didn't have tickets, so we went to the Tabernacle in the stand-by waiting area. Luckily, we got in! We were excited to see grandma and grandpa in action fulfilling their calling. Their mission is at Temple Square as ushers and they love it! They do a great job! The performance was absolutely amazing! They had Alfie Boe and Tom Brokaw were guest artists. Alfie Boe played Jean Valjean in London's 25th Anniversary production of Les Miserables and he sang Bring Him Home today. It was so amazing! My dad cried, a lot. Another guest arrived after Tom Brokaw told a