Dicey December

I'll be honest, December was rough. There were definite highlights, like Christmas, and parties, and movies, and friend time. And yet it was all clouded over by the whole "you're alone AGAIN for the holidays this year" reality. I had a couple pity parties. There were a few times I wanted to clobber some clueless lovey-dovey folks in my circle. And some of the Facebook posts with the happy families forced me into a short FB break.

On the bright side, I'm about 15 pounds lighter than I was last year. That's nice. I can handle channeling my sometime loneliness through aggressive exercise (relaxing yoga is good, too). It's all about balance.

Anyhoo, here are some December highlights!

I made some major progress in two of my long-term projects at work. Then I took 12 days off for the holidays. What can I say? I hoard vacation time.

Just thinking about my Is He Dead? friends. "I've never seen such a long dog. That dog's not right!"

I hadn't seen any snow at the beginning of the month, but the rain and cold gave me hope!

I made my peanut butter cups for a Relief Society party and a Star Wars viewing. They are my faaaavorite!!

The Relief Society party included a cookie-baking demonstration, and some tips on how to make my cookies look extra impressive (especially when I'm in a hurry). There was also a raffle for prizes. Through a mix-up, my name was entered twice and I won twice. Mortified, I only accepted the first. Lemon cookies. They were AMAZING!

December 14: The first snow day of Winter 2015. We have had a TON of snow so far. Such a nice change from the previous two years!

I love receiving Christmas cards. I love seeing my friends' families' smiling faces and receiving something in the mail other than bills :)

I  saw Jason and several of my other friends in Babes in Toyland at CenterPoint. Rumor has it the theater won't be doing it again, so I'm glad I can say I saw it. Lots of great moments and comedic timing. The sixties scenes and music were a little odd, tho.

My ward had a goal for a sister in each Relief Society and an elder in each Elders Quorum to pick a night in a 30 day period to attend the temple so that someone was there for all of the 30 days. I picked the 16th and did initiators at the Salt Lake Temple. Afterwards, I walked around the grounds to look at the lights, but I was concerned about poking someone with the umbrella I'd brought with to shield me from the snow so I didn't stay very long. The lights never disappoint, and neither does time in the House of the Lord!

Liz's birthday party is always a highlight! I pieced together a cute cocktail-type outfit, at a bunch of chocolate strawberries, and talked about Star Wars and Christmas with a lot of terrific people. Already looking forward to next year!

With the birthday girl

Chantryce and me

One of my days off work, I spent a day at the movies and saw Spectre, The Peanuts Movie, The Good Dinosaur, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (for the third time). I managed to get my 10,000 steps in anyway by walking around The Gateway between showings.

The picture cut out during The Good Dinosaur and we spent 10 minutes hearing the movie without seeing anything. Fortunately, management rewound the film so we wouldn't miss anything. Afterwards they gave us movie passes as an apology. Oddly, the night before the sound cut out during a big-screen viewing of the Doctor Who Christmas Special "The Husbands of River Song." They also rewound the movie, thank goodness. After that, I'm a little worried something else might go wrong in the near future. Doesn't bad news come in threes?

My mom makes fantastic sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies. I couldn't get enough of the gingerbread this year. They're cute AND tasty!

Couldn't resist a few "End of the Year" apps. Here are what the internet deemed my most significant photos from the year:

Three years ago, I went to Disneyland for New Year's Eve. Two years ago, I attended a dance and an after party. Last year I played games with my best friend and her family.

This year, I had a quiet night at home in my pajamas, watching Lawrence of Arabia and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and eating popcorn and chocolate cake, and reading The BFG and Imzadi. I needed some "me" time. It was great. (I did have to ask my downstairs neighbors to turn down their music around 2 am so I could go to bed. They were very nice about it.)

Calm before the storm, maybe? Who knows. But I'm looking forward to the new year!

Spring weather in February

The groundhog saw his shadow, but the "six extra weeks of winter" doesn't seem to apply to Utah. We barely had six weeks OF winter!

I want to be thrilled that Utah is having an inexplicably warm winter. In the part of the Salt Lake valley that I work and live in, it's only snowed once and that was serendipitously on Christmas Day. I want to be thrilled that I don't need to wear a scarf, or a coat, or earmuffs when I go for a walk.

But we had a snow-lite winter last year and I'm worried Utah won't have enough water for the summer and fall... or next year if the east coast continues to steal all the Utah-like storms. The whole "I like snow in the mountains but not in the valley" line of thinking is obnoxious. If we get snow in the valley it means we're getting quality snow in the mountains, too! Good for the economy, good for our health, good for the environment. 

I'd be thrilled if this amazing 60 degree weather were happening next month instead of in February. I like experiencing all four seasons. It's unnatural not to see snow in the winter, especially in Utah, "The Greatest Snow on Earth."

(And I think that "I hate to drive in snow" is a terrible reason to hope we don't have any. News flash: NO ONE --  including an otherwise lover-of-snow like me -- enjoys driving in the snow. Get over it.)

Fortunately, I'm hearing that we're doing ok in the mountains, so I'll try not to stress too much.

Meanwhile, the trees and flowers are starting to bloom. This means that my allergies are starting to flare up. Allergies that haven't had time to recover from last year. For the first time ever, my eyelids itch. A lot. What the heck does a person do to keep her eyelids from itching?! Some kind of topical cream? The anti-histamine isn't cutting it. Boo.

And you just know that in about two weeks we'll get a freak cold snap, and all the flowers and tree blossoms will die. That's going to mess with Spring, and then no one will be happy.

I will admit that I do NOT miss the inversion that comes with cold air. But with my allergies I avoid leaving the windows open anyway... guess I can deal with that sacrifice.

You can't tell me Global Warming isn't real. 

Christmas 2014

I didn't take many photos over the holidays this year*. I just enjoyed being with people I adore and drinking in the future memories. Christmas Eve and Day were two lovely, peaceful, happy days. Just as they always should be.

Christmas Eve

My mother's brother and sister-in-law returned from their mission this year, so they reinstated the combined Christmas Eve celebrations. I'd missed my cousins, and it's so fun to see how our family has grown in the three years since we last celebrated together. Two new spouses and four new babies! Thank goodness the new house accommodate everybody!

I love that we have an actual kid-sized kid's table!

The G-unit plays "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" while his sisters sing along

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus

The Nativity -- we almost have enough kids to do it without making the adults dress up, too...
Almost. (Thank goodness for cool uncles)

Having a real baby sit in for baby Jesus makes the whole thing that much more poignant

My darling sisters-in-law

Adam's family sang a song they had made up about Zonks's stuffed unicorn, Uni. Here, Dave and Aaron model the Uni decals the Jr. Smyth's wore while singing.

Best cousins talk about their respective medical school experiences

Christmas Day

Extended-family schedule juggling was complicated as usual (thank goodness there were no conflicts for Christmas Eve), but we all came together in time for my sisters-in-law, mom and I to help out with Christmas dinner prep while the boys distracted the kids. We opened presents in shifts based on when people arrived -- before dinner and after. This turned out to be nice because it didn't go on too long and no one had hurt feelings if they had fewer gifts than others. That night, the adult siblings and the G-unit played card games and laughed a lot. Oh, and there was plenty of traditional junk food. 

It was a great day.

Finally snowed in my and my parents' neighborhoods. It was a Christmas miracle and wonderful surprise!

My nieces and I with Corni the Unicorn (Uni's new big little sister)

Once again, Adam and Lindsey came up with a brilliant idea for gifts from their kids to the aunts, uncles, and grandparents: 

Family portraits crafted from beads. 

They are just about the best things ever. 

Dave says he needs to buy a pink shirt now

Dad and Breezy show off the portrait of the grandkids for Grammy and Papa

I adore this Megan portrait, especially the tiara

Aaron and Heidi's family would not be complete without their kitty, Hal

Peter, Jordyn, and baby PJ

I took a photo of the gifts from family. My friends were also generous this year. I am grateful!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, too!


* I borrowed all but those first two Christmas Eve photos from Aaron. Thanks, bro!

Making rather merry in December

Oh, December. You were so good to me! Due to some rewiring at the office, I worked from home for an entire week (not usually my favorite way to work, but I'm proud of the fact that I showered and got dressed every morning regardless of whether I saw anybody). I also relished at 12-day vacation from work wherein I mostly read The Wise Man's Fear (an excellent fantasy novel), watched various movies and a lot of Doctor Who and Sherlock episodes, ate delicious food, and slept as much as possible. I also taught my last Relief Society lesson (in this ward, at least).

Carrie moved to Las Vegas and a bunch of us threw her a surprise good-bye party. I'm very proud of the fact that I didn't ruin the surprise, especially since it was my job to get her there and let everyone know we were there so they could hide (seriously, how did we function before cell phones?). She was definitely surprised, and we all had a blast. I miss her. I'm glad she's going to visit from time to time!

Carrie is in the middle, holding everyone's arms/hands.
Yes, most of us girls are wearing tiaras. Yes, three of them are mine :D

Phil was a wonderful Phil Davis in CenterPoint's White Christmas

His dancing was gorgeous, as one would expect from someone who has competed in ballroom competitions!

Kate was a sweet, strong, loving Mrs. Cratchit in HCT's A Christmas Carol.

No wonder they keep inviting her back year after year!

The office Christmas party was at Tucanos this year. YUMMMM!

This chocolate cake was as big as my face, so of course it was photo-worthy.

Ginger Dudes from Les Madeleines 

(I put the bobby pin there to show you how tiny they were!)

Kristen and I had a fun time shopping and supporting our friends at The Dickens' Christmas Festival. We started off speaking with British accents... and then forgot about them. Oh well, next year, ok Kristen?

I also had the pleasure of hearing her and our friend Stephen sing Christmas carols at This is the Place a few weeks later, but sadly none of my photos turned out.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens
He was taking a break from writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Can't wait to find out how it ends ;)

Lovely Andrea. I didn't get to see her perform, but her direction for Scrooge was wonderful!

One of several crazy snow storms. I feel pretty lucky I only had to drive in one.

(I have new tires now, so hopefully future snow driving won't be as frustrating or scary.)

Larissa's annual A Christmas Story pajama party is always a highlight!

Wendy invited me to see A Christmas Carol with her, and I jumped at the chance to see her again

BTW, this is what I look like with straight hair :)
Look as much as you like, 'cause I don't know when I'll do it again...

Fun socks and cute boots are two of my favorite things during winter

(the other is warm scarves)

Liz's Black-Tie birthday party

The birthday girl

So fun to see Maddie and Connor there. It was like a tiny Little Women reunion!

I lit a fire in my fireplace for the first time since I have lived there.

It never did blaze. It burned so slowly that the coals were still smoldering the next morning.

I discovered this during a post-Christmas visit

Cookies, M&Ms, and a cheese plate for a girls' night/sleepover 

Trust me: the cranberry cheeseball was delicious. We tried it on celery and it was amazing!

Possibly my last Butterbeer of the season. It's been really fun seeing the barristas's reactions when I ordered it.
I might swing by Starbucks on Saturday to see if they still have enough toffee nut syrup for one more...

 I made myself go to the mid-singles dance at Rice-Eccles Stadium for New Year's Eve.

I even went to an after-party and met some new people. Are you proud?

Katie and Kirsten made sure I didn't feel lonely!

 

We had the best view of the fireworks :)

Happy New Year!

Ring out the old and on with the new. January is likely to be a somewhat quiet month, since I'm saving money and rehearsals may or may not keep me busy. That's okay. I wouldn't mind some time curled up with a book and another attempt at a fire on the next snowy day!