Watch Out!

So, my watch has been trying to escape from me all year.  I wear it everyday.  I have worn it everyday since my 20th birthday really (gift from my mom).  In the past year, the watch has fallen off frequently.  At Youth Conference this summer, it came off while I was horse back riding, and I thought-well, that is the end, a horse will step on it and I will be so sad.  But, one of the Young Women saw it fall, and though neither one of us could do anything at that moment, she helped me retrace steps and find it after the ride was over.(thanks Paisley!)  It was fine, laying there on the ground.  Other times I find it on the floor after I have been playing with the kids.  Or at the bottom of my purse, must have come off while I was rummaging.  I have had this watch for more than twelve years, I like it, I don't want to lose it.

Nate has had more watches than I can remember.  When we first married I bought him a really nice watch, in a few months-gone.  He told me he was always having to get new ones on his mission because they were constantly dying.  I thought-yeah, cheap watches, so over the years I have bought him, and he has recieved as gifts, many watches.  They all stop or disappear.  The batteries die within a few weeks, the movements go bad, all sorts of weird things.  He even seems to have an ill-effect on stopwatches.  Needless to say, I do not buy him expensive watches any more.

When we were first married, I always interrupted Nate, not out of intentional rudeness.  You see, he used to pause in the midst of his sentences because he wants to be clear and understood.  I am always ready to get my word in, so as soon as he would pause, I would start talking.  Now, I pause and he interrupts me.  And my watch had tried to run away all year long.  I am sure there are a list of traits we have adopted from one another.  Moral of the story-I am blessed to have married someone whose qualities I love and wouldn't mind having myself.  But I still love my watch and want to keep it. 

Tis the Season...

...to be busy.  I decided to download pictures from the camera today to find I have taken only 7 since mid-November.  Sad.  And, my best picture from Thanksgiving, is this one:

So sorry Roger and Jack, you both look great in this shot.








Despite their apparent giddyness, Thanksgiving was really good.  Everyone brought something and we hung out and played games and talked all day long.  It was more relaxing for me than it has been in the past, and that was nice.

We went briefly shopping the day after Thanksgiving, but not first thing in the morning, and the crowds were not big.  Nate and I were sorely tempted to buy a giant TV at Wal-Mart.  They had TV's sitting up at the front of the store with really low prices.  It has been a long time since we looked, so we have no idea if they were good prices, and really we aren't impulse buyers, so maybe next year.  Then over the next few days I buckled down and finished all the Christmas shopping.  Finished.  What I couldn't find in stores, I ordered online.  Everything has arrived, yay!

However, I have a few birthdays in December I have yet to really take care of.  So technically only the Christmas shopping is done.

We have had some snow here this past week.  We have all had our turns shoveling and I can tell you, I am a bit sore.  Sunday morning I took a turn and the snow was really really wet, and I regretted even starting about halfway through.  It was wet and heavy, and it got warm enough to melt the snow into great lakes all down our street and at the the end of our driveway.  Then it gets cold, and we have big icy ponds.  The kids did play outside Saturday.  I was at the church putting together the gifts from the Relief Society, and when I came home they were making forts in the back yard.  Nate gave them my bread pans to make bricks for the forts, I was alarmed at first, but Bella brought them back in reasonably good condition.

Now we are just in the swing of holiday activities.  The kids are getting really excited for Christmas.  Sophie is a little confused about it all still, she seems to like Santa, but keeps telling people "Trick or Treat!"  I am sure in a few weeks it will all be clear to her.