Before Christmas

I feel like Christmas started way early this year. I debated about putting up a Christmas tree this year since I knew Alice wouldn't be able to keep her hands on it, but in the end I ended up putting one up. The only problem was I never finished it. In fact the tree is the only Christmas decorating I did this year. I babysat my friends kid, Elle, one day while Kristine worked. When Elle walked in she asked Andy, "where are your Christmas decorations." Andy replied, "well, we have a Christmas tree." Elle then replied, "that's just a tree where are the decorations. We have tons of decorations." Andy being the funny guy that he is replied, "that is all we could afford." All Elle could say was, "Oh." Poor kid. She actually believed him. I planned on

decorating more, but things just got to busy and next thing I know it's Christmas eve. Alice loved the Christmas tree. Each morning she would wake up and say Christmas tree on, she would then proceed to climb on whatever so she could reach the switch to turn the tree on. We then had to keep it on all day long. Alice also loved to take off and rearrange the ornaments. Another reason I didn't feel bad about not finishing the tree.

Alice had fun getting ready for Christmas. Grandma Rachel let her help make sugar cookies, a tradition in Andy's family.

Grandma also bought Alice a Santa hat. This kid had to wear it all the time. Pretty much for the whole month of December anywhere we went in the car Alice had to wear her Santa hat and read her book that Santa gave her.
Two weeks before Christmas I was able to go on a daddy daughter trip to Nashville with my dad. This is something I used to do with my dad all the time growing up and I loved it. When he would go out of town for work, every once in a while he would bring me or one of my sisters along for a daddy daughter weekend. Before I had Alice I used to be able to go all the time, but I haven't since she was born. This trip was also my first time away from Alice. I thought I was going to be sad, but really I just missed her a ton, but I had a great time. The reason for out trip to Nashville was for my dad's work Christmas party. It's a big deal to get invited to and usually my mom goes, but for some reason they booked my mom's trip to Utah during the party so I got to go in her place. It was great. The first night we went to a dinner party at my dad's bosses house. It was fun meeting all the people my dad works for and also the food. It was great. It was also cool driving through the neighborhood in Nashville where his boss lives. They just happen to live in the part of Nashville where many of the country artist and there agents live. Talk about some big southern homes. That night I slept through the night for the first time in 2 years. Not only that but I got to sleep in. It was heaven. That next morning my dad and I went to the temple. It was wonderful. I haven't been to the temple since this summer (we live about 5 hours from the closest temple). It was so peaceful and it definitely rejuvenated my spirit.
After the temple we went for a little shopping trip and then it was back to the hotel so we could get ready for the party that night. The party was at the Country Music Hall of Fame. My dad's company rents out the hall of fame for the night. They set up tables in the hall of fame solarium and you also get to tour the museum privately. It was awesome. Never had a museum all to your myself before. Or at least that's what it felt like since there where only a few of us walking around at a time. I loved seeing Elvis' car with the "portable" tv in it. It cracked me up. My only complaint was that there wasn't enough stuff for Dolly. I love that women. Not only is she a great artist, but she is a great person. Just wanted to see a little more tribute payed to her. During dinner we were treated to hear from a few song writers and there band Kent Blazy and Cory Batten. Kent Blazy has written music for artist like Randy Travis, Billy Dean, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Diamond Rio and Chris Young. Not to mention Garth Brooks. I was super excited to hear the songs he had written for Garth Brooks. Some of the songs were; If Tomorrow Never Comes, Shes Gonna Make it, and Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up). I loved Garth Brooks in middle school and high school, so when they started singing it was like being transported back to my adolescence. I want to stand up and scream like I was at a concert, but then I had to remind myself I was at a business party so I just settled for tapping my feet, dancing in my chair, and clapping really really loud. It was also fun to hear the stories behind the songs like when they wrote ain't goin' down. Garth Brooks called him up and asked if he would write him a machine gun lyrics song. Kent asked him what that meant and Garth replied, "I don't know, but I'm sure you will figure it out." That was how the song was born. The other songwriter Cory Batten was a crack up. He has helped write song like "she wouldn't be gone" by Blake Shelton and "gettin' you home" by Chris Young. He is also working on his own album that will be coming out this coming year. After they sang there songs we were able to actually go talk to them. it's weird to think these people that have written these great songs for some super famous artists are just normal people. It was cool. Ok, that is enough about the music. It was just so fun having a private concert. Nashville was awesome and I'm so glad that I got to go. After day two I was ready to go home and see Andy and Alice again, but I'm not going to lie the uninterrupted sleep and sleeping in was awesome.

While I was in Nashville Andy and Alice were having there own father daughter weekend together. The first day Andy, Alice, his parents and his Aunt Dee Dee all went to Roanoke for there traditional Take Alice to Toys R Us Christmas shopping trip (a tradition from when Andy was a kid). I hear it's crazy. Alice runs around the store and when she stops and starts playing with something they put it in the cart for Christmas. Not sure what the limits are since I have never gone, but I know they all come back super happy and excited about christmas. This year she picked out a foam bowling set, a dora backpack (she had no idea who dora was), some giant ball that you blow up then sit in and people roll you around and a giant crayon piggy bank. Not sure if I missed anything, but it always cracks me up to see what she picks up (I don't find out until christmas day). oh, and Andy always sends me pictures of her playing with things, that are probably not my favorite, so I worry about what she is getting. The next day they went to a Santa Brunch. Look at this cute outfit rachel got her. So cute.

The brunch was at the country club. They ate and then the kids all got to go and sit on Santa's lap. I later found out the kids also received a random present from Santa. Alice got some number game.
This was the third Santa Alice saw so she was a little friendlier and I'm sure it didn't hurt that he gave her a present.

Ok, this part is out of order. This should have come after the decorating of the christmas tree, but I'm too lazy to move the pictures. Our ward Christmas party was super early this year. The first thursday of the month. Of course the Relief Society was in charge, which meant that since I'm the Enrichment chair whatever, I was one of the people in charge. I thought the night turned out fun. We had a great dinner, a super short program, Santa came and then we had two different photographers taking pictures. One was a family picture and the other was a picture with Santa. When Santa came in the room of course all the kids started screaming and jumping around. It was funny. Santa then proceeded to hand out candy canes to all the kids. Well, Alice thought this was awesome. From this point on Santa has become an obsession of Alice's. Alice asks about Santa all the time. She says, "hey santa whatcha doin'," "santa clause candy cane," "santa claus sleigh," and "santa hohoho." Oh, and for some reason she thinks her new big girl bed is called Santa bed. Go figure. Alice also loves to sing Santa Clause is comin' to town and we have to sing it with her. The thing that cracks me up is that in this picture she doesn't look like she likes Santa, but before and after this she kept screaming "hi santa" over and over again.

We also had an interesting family photo taken. It cracks me up. I love it.

Since we were one of the last families to have there picture taken (since I had to stay and clean everything up) we thought it would be fun to take a family picture with our friends the Andersons. We have way to much fun together.

We also thought it would be cute to take some pictures of Alice with her little friend Liz. Aren't' they so adorable. They love each other.

(shauna and linz, these are for you) I was proud of my parents. They even jumped in and got a family picture taken.

The weekend before Christmas we thought it would be fun to go to Myrtle Beach so we could have some fun time together as a family and so Andy could play golf with his Scottish friend Greig. We only get to see him a couple times a year since his work keeps him out at see for most of the year. He does something with oil rigs. The Wednesday morning before we left. The conversation went like this:

Andy: Hey, are you busy.

Jyl: Not really.

A: do you think you could bring my wallet to the hospital.

J: what?

A: I think I broke my hand, but I forgot my wallet. If you are too busy we could just stop by and get it.

J: Are you kidding me. I will be to the hospital in a few minutes.

Andy cracks me up. He likes to pretend that it wasn't a big deal. In fact I think if he would have never called and just shown up with a cast on his hand. I guess he was on a lift helping guide a giant 300 pound piece of precast in when a metal rod on the lift got stuck on a beam. Some how they got it loose, but since there was so much pressure on the rod when it became unstuck it whipped down across andy's face and smashed into his hand. He was super lucky he stepped back at the last minute so the rod just grazed his face but he said when it hit his hand he thought he had actual lost his hand. He said he was shocked when he looked down and his hand was still there. About that time blood started streaming out of his nose. That's when he realized that the rod had hit his face. On the way to the hospital of course andy set his fingers. Heaven forbid a doctor ever do that. I kept thinking what are we going to do if his hand is seriously hut. He is a mason/welder. He has to be able to use his hands. Luckily nothing ended up being broken and they ended up just putting his hand in a splint. I truly believe Andy had someone looking out for him that day and that he we are super lucky nothing super serious had happened. I just kept thinking what would have happened if he hadn't stepped back and the full force of the rod would have made contact with his head. Scary, but besides that fact that his hand was swollen to the size of an orange and it was black and blue and he had a cut that ran across his face he was fine. Since he couldn't work for the rest of the week we decided to head to the beach early. The bad part was no golf for Andy and Greig. We ended up just getting together and having dinner together. Well, I didn't take a ton of pictures at the beach, so here are the ones I did take.

Our trip was super relaxed. Lots of playing around, a little shopping, some swimming and some really good food. One of the days we were there we decided to eat at Nacho Hippo an awesome mexican restaurant. We chose a seat outside. As we were sitting there I realized, we are sitting outside, 65 degrees, in our tshirts and christmas is only a week away. How crazy was that. It was great. While at the beach we also decided it was time to try Alice in a big girl bed since there was no way she was going to sleep in a pack and play. We dragged the twin mattress into our room and wedged it between the bed and the closet. Alice loved it. She thought it was so cool. Besides the fact that it took forever to get her to go to bed, she stayed in bed and slept really well. We couldn't believe it. In fact she did so well the day we got home we took her crib down and drug in the twin mattress. She now sleeps in a big girl bed full time and it's been great.

The beach was awesome. I am super sad that Andy got her, but so glad that we were able to spend some care free days together as a family. I feel like life gets so crazy sometimes that we forget to make time for one another to just hang out and have fun. It was nice to be reminded of it and I love the memories we created. Ok, so that was the weeks leading up to christmas. Next the week of christmas. wow. I'm tired it's 12:30 officially 2012. Happy New Years Everyone. Time to go to bed.