I know, it is February and I still haven't posted about Christmas! January was absolutely nuts with my Resident Manager job, so I've been strapped for time and energy.
In January, we have to do "safety checks," meaning we have to inspect every apartment for safety hazards, lease violations, etc. It is extremely time consuming and really awkward since you have to look in every room of the apartment, including bathrooms and bedrooms, even if people are home. I have a talent for finding myself in awkward situations and safety checks are a perfect venue for awkwardness.
Yes, I walked in on a man sitting on the pot. His wife told me that I could go on back and when I asked if anyone was back there, she said, "No - you're fine. Go on back!" She didn't speak great English, so perhaps she misunderstood me. I knocked first on the bedroom door and opened it, then on the bathroom door and opened it...and there was an elderly Chinese man just sitting there. You think he would have yelled when he heard me come back or possibly when I knocked, but no...he just let me walk in on him. We both kind of screamed and I slammed the door and got out of the apartment as fast as I could.
Then, I ran into a guy who had just gotten out of the shower. Why you think it is a good idea to open the door while dripping wet with a towel draped loosely around your waist is beyond me, but this guy didn't seem to mind too much. That made me even more uncomfortable. I skittered out of there yelling that I would come back later. Yikes! I'm glad I had another Resident Manager with me on that one. Oh, the joys of my job!
Now, here are a ton of pictures from CHRISTMAS IN UTAH. We had such a great time!
Sam getting excited for Christmas in his cute Santa hat.
Don and I drove to Utah right after the huge Family Housing Holiday Party which was on the morning of Saturday, December 19th. We spent the night with Don's sister and brother-in-law in Vernal, UT and had a great time playing games. It is so nice to get to see them each time we drive to see my family.
We went to church and then got ready to go. We got in the car only to realize that the battery had died. It had been viciously cold the night before so we thought it must have just been so cold it died. The engine wouldn't even turn over. When Don turned the key...nothing happened! We had blocked Christine and Josh's car in the driveway so we couldn't even get it turned around to give us a jump. We were looking up mechanics in town, knowing full well we could be stuck there since nothing is open on Sunday. Don and Josh were leaning over the engine poking around trying to see what they could do. I called my parents and told them we were stuck and wouldn't be able to get there for another day. We were all disappointed since we were going to miss my niece and nephew's birthday party.
As I watched from the window of the house, I saw Don get in the car again and suddenly the car started. I rushed outside to see what he'd done and he told me sheepishly he'd left the car in Drive and that is why the engine wouldn't turn over. We were lucky it didn't roll down the street during the night! He was so embarrassed, but I thought it was really funny. We got on our way and made it in time for the birthday party.
Monday morning and afternoon, I helped my mom finish up her shopping and got the family cookbooks printed that Don and I had slaved away on. In October, I emailed all of my family members and asked them for their favorite tried and true recipes. Just before driving up to UT, we furiously compiled them (Don did all of the Word formatting stuff and made it look amazing!). They turned out so well!
On Monday night, we went to In-N-Out Burger, which is new in Orem. The entire time I was pregnant, I craved In-N-Out. It was a good thing we didn't have one here! We have been in love with these burgers since we lived in Tucson and made frequent visit to the local joint. Unfortunately, Don got really sick pretty soon after we ate the burgers. I don't think it was food poisoning, just the effects of eating greasy junk. So, I think In-N-Out is on the food black list for us for a while.
When we got home, we decided to tackle our artistic Christmas endeavors. Don grew up making gingerbread houses with graham crackers and wanted to make one. I had only seen lopsided shanties made with graham crackers, so I wasn't convinced that this was worthwhile. I grew up making "real" gingerbread houses with my grandma, and so I was a purist.
As you can see from the picture above, these were not graham cracker shanties. Yes, Don made the Notre Dame Cathedral. He even looked up photos to ensure he was accurate. He is so precise! Definitely has that engineering brain. We melted white sugar and used that as the mortar. It was amazingly strong and would be ridiculously dangerous for kids, but it was fun for us.
See the famous Rose Window? Don wanted to make the flying buttresses but he started feeling pretty sick, so he ended up skipping them.
Look at that, it even has the accurate cruciform nave. Wow.
Here is my lowly gingerbread house. I just stuck with the classic style. This is what I grew up doing with my grandma, so it was fun to relive the good memories.
Tuesday, Don was really sick. We went to the temple in the morning, which was so nice. It was fabulous to have family willing to babysit Sam so we could do things! I always feel stressed about him being fussy when I leave him with other people because I don't want them to have a miserable time. I know Sam will be ok; I just worry the people watching him will be miserable (and believe me, we've burned some babysitting bridges because he's been so difficult to take care of.) With my family, I know that if he is fussy, they'll still love him and me. It was so nice to go and do things (like go the temple) and not be worried.
After the temple, we had planned on going and meeting up with Don's sister Wendi and Aunt Jini, but Don was just too sick. I read and he rested nearly all day. It was actually really relaxing to just have some time to read and to watch Sam interact with his cousins.
Sam hanging out with his cousins Brianne, Jesse, and Bradley. Bradley and Sam are just a couple months apart and will be the best of friends and cousins. I know they'll be busy little boys. Yes, Sam weighs more than Bradley even though he is younger. He is a tank!
Sam thought Jesse was the funniest person in the world. He would just laugh his head off any time Jesse was around. And yes, that wet spot on Sam's shirt is drool. He was and still is teething like mad and has nothing to show for it. I, on the other hand, have bags under my eyes to show for it. Sam and I have given up many hours of sleeping and napping due to teething pain. Poor us. :)
Tuesday night, I got together with Jan and Brett Andrus and Bryce and Paige Mackay, our best friends from our BYU ward. Don was still feeling miserable, so he stayed home and rested, but I went out to dinner with them anyway. Jan, Paige and I served in the Relief Society Presidency together and became fast friends. It was so strange to see them again because everyone looks the same, sounds the same, etc., we just all have kids now! If the kids hadn't been there (and Don had), it would have been just like before! It was so fun to be together again and to meet their little ones.
The ladies!
L to R - Paige holding a hidden CJ, Bryce holding Mattie, Bryce, Jan holding Isabella, Me and Sam.
We had originally planned on going downhill skiing on Wednesday for our anniversary date (our anniversary is in November. We decided to save the money we would have spent on a nice date and use it to go skiing while my family watched Sam. We love skiing that much!). Since Don was still feeling sick, we decided to go cross country skiing instead. I didn't mind; I was just dying to get out in the snow.
A golf course in Midway, UT becomes a nordic center in the winter and we had such a great time practicing our skate skiing. I didn't realize when I bought our cross country skis several years ago that they were not, in fact, "cross country", they were skate skis. They don't have the metal edges that are necessary in the back country, but they glide so smoothly on groomed trails. This was the perfect place to perfect our skills.
Hot date indeed!
Don's cheesy face makes me laugh.
As you can tell from the picture below, I was not a great skate skier, but it was so wonderful just to get out and enjoy the fresh air and time together. It is amazing exercise, too!
Being in the snow makes me so happy!
On Christmas Eve, Don and I finished up on our pinata. It's a Conkey family tradition to make a pinata every Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Don's family makes authentic Mexican style enchiladas, and breaks their homemade pinata. They put so many layers on last year, it took all of the adults 2-3 turns each (hitting it 3 times a turn) before breaking it. We were hoping to make our pinata this year tough enough to last through the grandkids and give the adults a chance to seriously whack it.
We started making the pinata on Monday night as we were working on our gingerbread houses. We took a large balloon and began covering it with layers of paper mache. We did this several times a day until Christmas Eve. We had put 7 layers on and Christmas Eve morning, we painted it. So, here is our wonderful Santa Claus pinata! Don was concerned that the twine wasn't tough enough, but it was the only twine they had at the store, so we used it.
Isn't that a great Santa! Don is such an artist.
Gluing on the cotton ball beard.
On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we convinced my mom and dad to take our snowshoes out while we went cross country skiing at Big Springs (just above South Fork). Big Springs is one of my favorite places. I can't even count the times I've been there skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, backpacking, and mountain biking. This place has afforded me an enormous amount of recreation and I love it. When Don and I were dating we went mountain biking there nearly weekly. It feels like home going there.
But, like I mentioned earlier, our skis are not made for ungroomed areas. So, as I was literally planting and pulling myself up this huge hill with my poles, I got so fed up, I screamed and took the darn things off and hiked up the hill. Don handles these skis amazingly well because he did a hut to hut trip on them with a 40 pound pack on his back last winter. I have no idea how he did it! Anyway, we had a great time and it was an absolutely gorgeous day.
My parents also had so much fun with our snowshoes, they went out and bought their own. I've heard that my mom has been having a great time getting out and about and has even been using them to get around the neighborhood when it snows.
Our view of Timpanogos. I love this mountain!
Don at the top.
Me with the padres. I'm so glad they got out and enjoyed the snow, too!
Then, it was time to head to Grandpa Brown's for our traditional Christmas Eve get together. I love this party with my family and look forward to it so much! All of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on both sides who are in the area come together for a feast, nativity, gift exchange, and other festive shenanigans.
Christmas Eve is my nephew McKennan's birthday, so he was blowing out the candles on his awesome racetrack birthday cake. My mom gave him a car race track and he carried it around the whole night and insisted on sleeping with it.
After our Cafe Rio inspired feast, we went outside in the 20 degree weather to hit the pinata.
Sam checking out the pinata with Grandpa.
The grandkids eagerly awaiting their turn.
My niece Camille showing Santa who's boss. Don was worried the kids would have qualms about smacking Santa in the face, but it didn't seem to slow them down. :)
A funny note about Boulder...it is almost impossible to find pinatas that you break by hitting here. The moms here are concerned about their kids developing bad behaviors through their pinata whacking, so they don't sell them anywhere! They sell "pull string" pinatas where each kid pulls a string and eventually the pinata breaks open. I don't know why I find this so funny. I guess I just think it is better for kids (boys, in particular) to get their aggression out by hitting a pinata than by hitting the neighbor kid. Maybe I just say that now but will change my tune once Sam goes through a hitting phase, which seems inevitable. You've got to love Boulder!
Proud parents watching their kids beat Santa to a pulp. No qualms about pinata whacking here...
As Don feared, the first good hit (by Madelyn) resulted in the string breaking and Santa falling to the ground where he happily busted open. All that time we spent putting layer upon layer of paper maiche...and the darn string breaks. Next time, we'll bring climbing rope!
Madelyn holding her prize.
Still smiling, despite having missed out on the whacking fun.
After the pinata candy was gathered, we went inside for our annual and very irreverent family nativity pageant. Every year my mom makes an attempt to try to get us to be reverent and respectful, but inevitably, my brothers, the "wise guys" (we have no wise men as of yet in our family) make it into a hilarious and sacrilegious event.
We were singing hymns this year to try to keep the right spirit, but as soon as the "wise guys" showed up with their gifts (Brian with the apple cider, Don with the chips and salsa, and Dave with the salad dressing) all hopes for reverence went out the window.
Favorite moments from this year's pageant:
1. McKennan (playing Joseph) giving Mary (Madelyn- who is a good foot and a half taller than McKennan) a hug and telling her, "MERRY CHRISTMAS, MARY!"
2. Jesse and Logan (sheep and shepherd, respectively) eating the tortilla chips that Don brought as a gift for baby Jesus.
3. Sam (playing baby Jesus) falling dead asleep in Madelyn's arms despite Jesse and Logan screaming and happily kicking each other and everyone else on the floor.
Don't you love Sam's humble swaddling clothes? I didn't help with the costuming this year (obviously!) Just kidding. I think this was one of my grandma's old bathrobes.
Then, we had the cousin gift exchange and sat around laughing and talking. It is so nice to be with family!
And you can see Jaclyn here perusing the cookbook Don and I put together. I think everybody loved them! I know I am loving it and putting it to good use!
After the party, we went home and watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which is requisite for a true Black family Christmas and played Settler's of Catan 'til 1 am.
Then, Sam had his first Christmas! It was very exciting! He had no idea what all the fuss was about, of course, but having a child makes Christmas magical again.
Does he look a little concerned? Probably because it was super loud and there was so much excitement with all the other grandkids screaming with joy.
He was a big fan of the tissue paper. He liked his toys, too, but the tissue paper was really novel.
My brother Brian's family was with us from Wyoming.
And my brother Mike's family from Spanish Fork. Doesn't Abby looked thrilled about her barbie?
It was a great day with lots of good food (turkey dinner! Yum!) and lots of family fun.
Here is a briefer synopses of the rest of our trip. We spent a lot of time with family, particularly on Sunday when we had an awesome Sunday dinner.
Here is Mike having a good "wrastle" (that's how you say it in Spanish Fork) with the kids. He is such a good, patient dad.
My cousin Rob holding his adorable son Jamison. The kid is so cute and looks so much like Rob did when we were kids.
Sam playing with his new toy with Grandma Black, Abby, and Madelyn.
Don's sister Wendi, her husband Ben, and Ben's brother stopped by to see us on their way home to Vegas. Sam was obsessed with Ben's brother. He just kept staring at him with open mouthed awe. It was really funny.
I also got to see my best friend from high school, Laura, and her little girl Tally. No matter how long it has been, seeing Lo is just like it always has been; so much fun! She is so creative and talented and just finished a book she's been working on for a couple years. I can't wait to read it and brag about her when she's famous.
I also got to see my best friend from college, Mary, who was 36 weeks pregnant. She's since had her little baby girl, Millie, and I'm excited to see her again soon. She will be a great mommy. She took good care of me in college, so I know. :)
While we never were able to get out day skiing, we did go night skiing with my brothers Mike and Brian and my cousin Rob and wife Meghan. It was ridiculously cold, but we had such a great time. Brian broke his binding on the second run (such a bummer!) and performed an amazing feat. He skied down the entire mountain on one ski. He was turning and everything. I could not believe it. That takes skill!
Don also got out ice climbing with my brother Dave and his brother in law, Jeff. They had a great time. I thought these pictures were pretty impressive. I'm not a fan of ice climbing due to my brother nearly killing himself several times doing it, but Don enjoys it.
The day we were planning to go day skiing, a huge storm blew in and we had to leave town so we wouldn't get caught in the blizzard. We weren't even able to go through Vernal as originally planned because the storm was bad on that route. We were bummed not to see Christine and Josh again, but we made it home safely, thank goodness.
On New Year's Eve, we had our friends in the ward, Tom and Siri, over for homemade pizza, games, and lots of sweets. We had some bubbly (or sparkling apple cider for us teetotalers). It was a good way to ring in then new year.
Happy New Year!
This totally looks like a drunk picture, which made me laugh. We are just getting too old to stay up this late. It's exhaustion, not alcohol.