Christmas

So Christmas is almost as much of a blur as almost all my days now. I didn't get Sam any gifts because I must have been going around like a chicken with my head cut off. He got me a microwave and some towels. Our microwave had been broken since last year/January 08. So a year without convenience foods (which could be a good thing, I guess) and popcorn was hard on him I think. The convience foods, not so much really, but the popcorn Sam really missed. That was the first thing we used the microwave for: movies & popcorn. Some habits die hard though. We'd been having some cocoa (pregnancy craving) for the last few weeks, about every other day, and using the stove to boil a saucepan full of water for a cup or two. That night for our cocoa, I habitually put on a pot to boil, made the cocoa, gave Sam his cup, and he said, "You know we do have a microwave now right?" Oh well.

We tried to get Melanie a tricycle for Christmas, but the company we ordered it from backordered it, then cancelled the order because they didn't know when they'd ever be able to ship it. Sucks for them. Besides, it may be better suited for her birthday present anyway. Melanie did get a tea set and a little computer. The computer was more for a distraction for when Sam uses his. She didn't let anyone else touch her computer after it was opened. Her aunts and uncles wanted to play and push buttons too, but when Melanie saw them with it, she started throwing fits. Sad day... The tea set was opened while we were gone in the hospital (Celia was born 12/26. See future post...). Since then, she's pulled it out to pour me several drinks, eat her snacks on the plates, but hasn't quite gotten to eating with the forks/knives/spoons. She's super cute though, she loves it so much. Those are the items she's played with the most, and seems to love most too. Oh, she did get 2 jackets. One from her aunt Michele, and one from my mom. It was raining over Christmas, or at least it was cold. She loves both her coats, and if she needs to wear one, loves going to the closet to get one or the other. They both have hoods, to which she refers to as hats. Such a doll.

November 08

In this photo, we're hanging out at M&D's, getting ready for dominoes (cuz I wanted something different than a card game). Sam had just set up a domino rally, Melanie was trying to help daddy put up another one, but knocked it down. This is the mini aftermath of that.

So for the month of November, I still don't remember what happened. Yes, there was Thanksgiving. We spent the Sunday prior to T-day at Sam's grandparents' house. It was his Grandma's birthday. Lucky for me, that meant that I could be with my family on Thanksgiving. His grandpa is good and all, but his grandpa's turkey dinner is NOTHING compared to my dad's. I hope we figure out how to do a smoked turkey before it's ever too late. Dad says it's easy, we just need to find the 10 hours (or so) to spend with him to find out how it's done. Anyway, so grandma Hinkson was down for Thanksgiving, and coincidentally, Billy & Jillian's sealing. Yeah, that was a busy week, as the memory is coming back to me.

So grandma H was down, and we totally planned the menu. Now, I don't recall every thanksgiving dinner, but I don't think we've ever actually sat down and planned a menu. This year, we did. We had the usual turkey, mashed potatoes, and the infamous butterhorns. I don't think Mom will ever forget to make butterhorns again (since that one time several years ago when we all complained about not having any--we Coleman's hardly forget things like that). The neat thing we had this time was mashed sweet potatoes. Yes, they were from a box (thanks to Betty Crocker), but with the embellishments Kristen made, they were fantastic. Just enough for everyone too...since Billy & Jillian, Bob & Emily, and Becky & Gary/fam, weren't there. It sure seemed like a skimpy Thanksgiving without so much family around. It was smaller than our regular Sunday dinners. The odd thing was that we had pineapple upside-down cake as one of our desserts. It's not often that we have something other than pie for dessert for T-day, so this was strange. It must have been a pregnancy thing for me, because I think I was the only one who ate a piece that day, and the rest was eaten on the following Sunday, I think.

Billy & Jillian's sealing the next day had the rest of the family together, though still without Becky & Gary (they'd gone to the Bailey's annual Branson T-day trip). Billy & Jillian were sad that they weren't there, but Billy had been forewarned. If Becky hadn't been pregnant with Scarlett last year, Becky & Gary wouldn't have been at their wedding either. Anyway, so Grandma got to be there for their sealing, which was fantastic. It was neat to be in the temple with so much family, as it should be. Afterwards, my family was trying to take pictures like crazy, and Jillian's family didn't make such a big deal of it. It was weird to me. So, yeah, it's not a traditional WEDDING-wedding, but it's still just as important. Her family did still help set up a reception luncheon thing, but they weren't around for any special day photo shoot. Billy & Jilly are broke anyway, so it's not like they had a professional photographer, fancy dress, or anything. I guess I'm just saying that her family could have acted more like it was a special day, rather than just showing up for the sealing and food. (But, with her extended family that did come down, I didn't see Billy for another week and a half because they were spending so much time with her family, so maybe they did do some celebrating?)

So yeah, grandma was in town, we had a great thanksgiving, and billy & jillian got sealed. Yay!

Halloween 08

I did tell you that my blog wouldn't be updated very often because I'm on facebook more than blogger right? That said, let me blog about the last three months...if I can remember it all.



So Halloween went well. We went trick or treating with Bryan & Tara, some of Sam's coolest friends EVER. If I had friends like that from High School, I wouldn't be so desperate to hang out with my family all the time, I think. (It's weird talking about Halloween when it's the middle of January.) Point is, it was great fun. Sam refused to dress up like a chef if I was to be an oven (bun in the oven. Get it?). He didn't like the inuendoes. I saw pictures on facebook of one of my friends. He dressed up like a chef, and his wife (due the same time as me) had the T-shirt with the oven & bun picture. It was so cute, and I showed Sam, but he still refused. He said Eric, the friend, was a brave man. When I mentioned it to Eric, he said that he had needed some convincing to wear it too. When I would suggest other ideas to Sam, he declined and didn't seem to understand that we're a family and it's utterly cute to dress up as a theme. Turns out, he did end up dressing like a bumble bee, I was a ladybug, and so was Melanie. Ours were hastily put together costumes from what we had. Sam had a huge yellow snow jacket, and Melanie had gotten some bug hats for her 1st birthday. She'd already torn off one of the antennaes, but Sam wore the hat and the jacket and made it work. I wore the ladybug hat she'd gotten, red shirt and some black pajama pants that were still kinda fitting. Melanie just wore last year's costume, and it fit much better and looked tons cuter when we stuffed the back with some grocery bags.