Christmas Morning.....Didn't quite Start Out the way it was Supposed to.

In our family, we all line up and enter the Family Room together, at the same time, on Christmas morning (no one is allowed to go in there on their own before the agreed upon time).
First, everyone kind of just looks around, and finds "their" spot where their things have been left, and then they sit down and soak it all in.

 

Then, everyone is free to leisurely go through their stockings and see what is in them - and act ALL excited AND thankful AND jubilant!!!  :)
After that, we start opening presents, in turn, one by one.

So....we all got seated, AND BEFORE WE'D OPENED EVEN ONE PRESENT, all of a sudden, Kyle says, "Look, I cut my hand!" as he holds up his hand in front of Matt's face.

From across the room, in my dazed state (very LATE nights/mornings for the previous few nights), I look over and I can't figure out WHAT he's talking about.  I mean, we've literally ONLY been in the family room a couple of minutes TOPS, so HOW do you cut your hand by just sitting there or pulling things out of your stocking???

Did Santa put something sharp in there?

Since my mind was running so slowly, I was just staring and thinking, but no words actually made it out of my mouth.  (I know - shocker, huh?!?)
Matt, on the other hand, immediately asks, "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" 

Apparently, Kyle had wanted to open up some socks that he got, and he took Matt's Swiss Army knife (without him noticing) to cut those plastic barbs that hold new socks together.

AND he missed or slipped, and got his finger.

Matt informed him (& everyone) that ONLY HE should touch the knife!

So, then Kyle started to bleed pretty good, so Matt told him to get over to the kitchen, so we could get a towel to put pressure on it (and so the blood wouldn't drip on the couch/carpet!)

But, then he started to get freaked out by the blood.
Side note: he has a history of this - NOT doing well at the sight or thought of blood. ;)  In fact, earlier this year, when all the kids had to go in for labs, Kyle about passed out and was given a ice pack and had to lay down.  Katelyn locked herself in the bathroom, crying.  And Brookelle was totally calm and fine and cooperated perfectly and was done in 20 seconds.  Hmmm....what is wrong with this picture?!?  ;)

But, when Kyle got up to move to the kitchen, he started to feel faint, so we had him sit down in a chair.

And then his face got all white.

And he started to sweat.

And breathe irregularly.

And was demanding to know how bad it was bleeding, as he was bouncing his foot up and down and putting his head down on the table and groaning.

Meanwhile, Matt & I are playing nurse/doctor.  I go to get or look for cloths and gauze and Neosporin and antiseptic spray and butterfly band-aids (couldn't find a single one!) and Matt applied pressure and performed all the treatment.  And the girls just continued to look through their Christmas stockings - No, I'm sure they were worried sick about their brother instead!  ;)

It was difficult to ignore the mayhem going on in the kitchen!!

Well, Kyle was feeling sick - that was for sure - he thought he was going to throw up, so I went looking for our bucket.  It wasn't in it's usual spot, and I was told to go look in Katelyn's room since she had felt sick in the middle of the night.  So, I go up to her room, and I found it......WITH vomit in it already!  So, then I go to the bathroom and rinse it out, then run back downstairs with the clean bucket for Kyle.  Luckily, he hadn't needed it yet.

Then Kyle says he can't feel his hand.
Or his arms.
And his head hurts.
His skin looks kind of gray, too.
And then he starts to apologizing for taking his dad's knife!  (His form of "death bed repentance?")

I get him a drink of water and a cold washcloth, his sister comes to his side and rubs his back.
Matt stops the bleeding, and dresses the wound after multiple attempts on the tricky finger bends, but Kyle doesn't even want to lift his head up to look at the damage.

We finally get him back to the couch, and laid him down, put his head on a pillow, feet elevated, and cover him with a blanket.....because NOW he has the chills (and he wants the cut hand to be out of sight!)
His face was still super white (it was funny/not funny)...and his previous enthusiasm for Christmas morning had disappeared!

So, not the way we normally start out Christmas morning.  ;)

So, about an hour later than intended, we resumed our stocking discovery and eventually started opening gifts, too.

And then took a break when a special Skype call came in:

It ended up to be just what the doctor ordered.  Because Kyle was able to perk back up for that! 

Big Shot Treatment for Being just Run-of-the-Mill?

We got this flyer in our email last week:

Does anyone else find it odd?
There's a "National Eat Dinner with Your Family" Day???
Since when did that "special day" start?
Since when is eating dinner with your family a big deal?
(Ya gotta have dinner, don't ya?)
AND it's FREE?
It was put on by Davis Behavioral Health - Are they so desperate to get families to eat dinner together, that they will feed the masses (because if it's FREE in Utah, people will come out in droves!) to make it happen?!?  And they're luring you to come even further by offering discounted swimming afterwards!
Apparently so.

Hmmmmm.

I said, "Let's go!"  (Kyle gets out of planning/making dinner for that evening, and I don't have to buy the groceries for that day!)
My husband said, "What's the catch?"
Here's the thing; there really wasn't one!  They are just trying to inspire families to eat together!  As part of the ParentsEmpowered.org initiative, they have done studies that prove that The family that eats together, beats underage drinking together.

So, we went to the event (again, no biggie, we have dinner anyway, last night was just a different location), and there was a line, but not nearly as many as we'd anticipated - maybe it really did reflect what they're so worried about; people can't find the time to have dinner together as a family!?! 
(Matt, who can't bear to miss a meal, couldn't quite grasp WHY families are not having dinner!)  ;) haha.
There was a huge committee of people who were serving at this event, and the very first one we came in contact with (the lady who gave us our plates) said [very sincerely], "THANK YOU for coming to dinner with your family tonight!"   
And I'm thinking, Why are you thanking ME?  We're eating YOUR food (for FREE!)   
Then, as we moved down the food line, practically everyone else else thanked us or said some other encouraging words about us and our actions.  It seemed strange that they were treating something SO NORMAL, as dinner with your family, as a huge accomplishment.  

They even gave us a "gift bag" for coming.  (It had a spatula, hot pad, snack bag clip, and a sticky-note pad, plus a informational brochure in it).  
 Then while we were eating dinner in the park, the youth volunteers came by and gave us another gift.
THEY GAVE US GIFTS FOR COMING TO THE FREE DINNER?!?
The second gift we received was a "Chit Chat" card game for parents and children to play together.

 Do some people have trouble with "stale dinnertime conversation?"  

Come on over to our house!  You'll learn/hear more than you ever bargained for; the boy who's been 'in love' with our [elementary school] daughter for 5 years, personal hygiene issues, their latest Halloween costume ideas, inappropriate bodily noises, complaining about the food, the awkward/stupid/hilarious/outrageous things that happened that day, the "Remember When" conversations where all the past "scandalous" acts of the siblings are brought up, teasing/taunting/trash talking, the weekly haircut/style change of someone we know, the teenage drama of who's asking who to the high school dances, the misbehaving kids in their school classes and what the teacher does about it, the history of one child's "crushes" - all this while usually talking over one another, laughing out loud, then someone else calling out for everyone to be quiet and listen to them!

Anyway, the game had some good topics, too - perhaps more proper than what we're talking/not talking about:

 {The top row was from the "Ask a parent" stack, and the bottom row was from the "Ask a kid" stack.}

That first card makes me snicker - I just don't see my children voluntarily coming up to me and asking, "How can I help you at home?"  ;)

We had an entertaining speaker, too, who ALSO commended us for having dinner with our family that night.  What?!?  It's very natural and ordinary!

At any rate, they treated us like VIPs! 
I'm still taken aback that they have to practically beg and bribe us to have dinner with our family - but it also make me sad if it is (and it appears it has with all these programs in place to bring it back) a disappearing tradition.

But it still doesn't seem that hard to me to eat dinner with your family - what would be hard is listening to the 6 other humans in my home whining because they are hungry, and badgering asking me WHAT there is to eat, all night, if I didn't feed them any dinner earlier.
(And that's not even taking into consideration all the facts and tips that the professionals are giving IN FAVOR of this bonding time called "dinner.")

This Weekend:

* While the boys were at Youth Conference...

*The rest of us headed down to Zion National Park for

a Brenchley family reunion in a 7,000 sq. ft. "cabin."

*We hiked the Riverside walk (the trail that leads to The Narrows)

 and had a sack lunch at the end, while some of us played in the water,
then we went back down to catch the shuttles to our cars in the parking lot.

*Some of the ladies stayed up way late talking.

*On Saturday, after our boys arrived (they drove down separately after YC),
we went to another part of Zion's where there are some hieroglyphics

 & more hiking...

*That night we all went to the Ponderosa Ranch for a buffet dinner put out just for our group.

*We moved from the restaurant to the playground. 

{How many grandkids can get on ONE jungle gym?}

Some of the older kids started having a swing contest - to see who could jump out the farthest.

{Kyle won}

*We played the "Loaded Questions" board game - there
were so many people, we only did one round and it still lasted hours.
There's always some real funny answers!  :)

*Some of the ladies (& Ryan 'til he fell asleep on a bench) stayed up really late talking again!
(Even usually-in-bed-by-9:00-p.m.-Julie!!!  Woo Hoo!)

*On Sunday, we drove to a small town, Orderville, about 30 min. away to attend church.
  Interestingly enough, their program was made up of a dozen or so
youth who were reporting on their youth conference they had gone to recently.
There's was called, "Journey to know Him" and it sounded like it was
similar to ours in that there was reenactments and a Christ experience, but
there's covered scriptures in the Old Testament, New Testament, & The Book of Mormon.
(All scriptures about Christ).  My boys were saying they wanted to do
that Youth Conference, too!!
(Except Ryan has run out of "youth" years.)

*Nicole brought us all a "4th of July" craft for the ladies to do.  (Thank You!)
We painted, papered, & mod podged together in the afternoon.

{Here is the finished product on my shelf at home now.}

*Later the USA soccer team was playing their game in the World Cup.
In honor of this, and the fact that the Brenchley's are such a "soccer family",
the reunion "T-shirt" this year was actually a Team USA soccer uniform!

{The Matt & Suzanne Team}

Then we all (well, not all) thought it would be a 'Ton of Fun' to build a grandkids pyramid....


Step 1: Organize the rows by child's size

Step 2: Build it one row at a time.  Base row hold very steady!!!

Step 3: Ta-Da!!!  Hold & Smile until we can get a picture!  (While still pleading the "unsure" stragglers to join the human grandkid [+ a few parents] pyramid.)

Step 4: AND THEY ALL FALL DOWN!
(You knew it was going to happen!)

*I made dinner and I'm proud to say that ALL the food & supplies for dinner made it safely to our cabin at Zion's.  And the 42 peeps were happy they got to eat!  ;)

*Each family took some time to give "updates" on each person,
then we opened it up to questions from the "audience."

*The couples played "The Newlywed Game".
There was some heated "discussion" amongst the players about what was a "correct" answer or not.
If the answers of husband & wife were NOT an exact match in wording,
but kind of meant something that resembled the answer, according to that couple's inside knowledge - was it correct?

*Some of us stayed up semi-late talking.

*On Monday, it was time to pack up and go home,
and say good-bye to the cabin.

EXCEPT WE DISCOVERED WE HAD A FLAT TIRE!
(There was a nail in it.)
We got air put in it at the nearby Ponderosa Ranch - just enough to get us to Orderville again.
WELL......funny (or unfortunate?) thing, when we'd been at church the day before,
we'd heard them announce a funeral of one of the members - and that's where the owner of the service station WAS, and the teenager left to man the place didn't know how to fix our tire.
So, we went down the road to another station.  Well, that guy was way backed up
with so many jobs (because of the overflow coming from the other low-staffed station?) that he said he didn't have time for us.  And that we'd have to move on to the next town!
So, we drove another 50 miles on borrowed air & prayers to Panguitch.
There was a REAL tire shop there, and no line!
A guy came out to help us, got down on the ground by our tire with a couple of tools,
and in no time at all he was all done and said, That'll be $20.
What?!?
We were all thinking we'd have to get a whole new tire and that it would run us
HUNDREDS of dollars!  Instead....Bang, botta, boom - same tire and it's all good!
What a BLESSING!!
Then we felt like we had $$ to eat lunch at Henrie's Drive In which was great
since we were quite hungry (& stressed) by then.

* We got home with just enough time to unload and head over to Katelyn's
primary class SHAVE ICE party that her teachers were having for Family Night treat.
She even put vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the shave ice cups!
{YUM!}
It's good to be home again.

Let it Be Known - Round 2

My 2nd boy has now passed me up in height!

He's definitely feeling pretty good about himself.

And by the way....doesn't his [shorter] hair look GREAT?!? ;) 

 {Here's closer proof!}

Although, he IS proud of this milestone -- passing me up alone is not what he considers his greatest victory. (After all, I'm only [a very unimpressive] 5'3".)

What he is MOST proud of is that he did it at age 14 yrs. and 2 1/2 months.........
STILL, not that impressive alone.....BUT consider THIS:

Ryan did not accomplish this until he was 14 yrs. and 7 months!!!

So, therefore, Kyle WON!  :)
(It's another one of those ongoing, unofficial competitions these boys have going between them!)

Now, Kyle has big aspirations to pass up his [6' 3"] dad, too!
{Ha!  With ME in his genetic make up?}

A boy can dream, can't he?!?  ;)

All it Takes is 1 Song to Bring Back 1,000 Memories

There was once a magical time, when no one knew what song they would be listening to next. We got our music from the radio.  (I still do!)  Songs are like sign posts in our memory. They point us back to particular points in our lives.  When I tune into "80's night" on the radio, within the first strain of the song, I think of, or remember, a specific time/place/person associated with that song.  And in that spirit, with a Christmas twist, I'm going to fire up FM100 this afternoon and play you the next ten songs (so to speak).  There used to be a time when this station played Christmas songs sporadically in between their regular music in December, and it was just  the 100 hours (get it?  FM100) leading up to Christmas that they played continuous Christmas songs, NOT the TWO MONTHS leading up to it.  (My pet peeve.  It's not allowed until after Thanksgiving in my home/car.)  But, I digress.  Back to my experiment: listen while I spin the Christmas hits....and I'll see what comes to mind.

1.  Angels Among Us

I first heard this song performed at a Homemaking Night I attended in my ward when I lived in North Salt Lake.  (1995-96)  A lady who lived in my same apartment complex was one of the singers, along with a bunch of kids singing with her.  I can still see them standing together on the stage.  It wasn't at Christmastime, but the message of that evening was, "THERE ARE ANGELS AMONG US" helping us, serving us, being [sometimes unknown] answers to our prayers - which is a wonderful Christmas message, too.

2.  Frosty the Snowman

This takes me back to another magical time when all the Christmas TV specials were actually on NETWORK TV (as opposed to cable).  At the beginning of the season, the TV schedule would be printed in the newspaper and we would cut it out and hang it on our fridge, underlining the "must sees" in our opinion.  Frosty the Snowman came on every year - it was one of those underlined ones we made sure to watch.

3.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

This has "Elementary School" written all over it.  I sang this during music time at school.  It's where I learned all the great "echos" such as:
"Like a light bulb"
"Like a flash light"
"Like Pinocchio"
"Like Monopoly"
"Ho Ho Ho"
"Yippee"
"Like Columbus"
How FUN it was to sing it with all my other classmates!

4.  Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

I'm sitting in the multi-purpose room, as a 3rd Grader, at Valley View Elementary watching the 6th Grade Christmas program. (1978)  With Dr. Tak (pronounced "talk") at the piano, the [big, cool, head-honchos-of-the-school] 6th graders started singing this song.....AND THEN started "rockin' out" up on stage, too, while they acted out the song.  And I sit there thinking, They are SOOO cool!

5.  You Make it Feel Like Christmas by Neil Diamond

Honestly, I don't know if I've ever heard this song, but I HAVE heard Neil Diamond.  And whenever I hear ANY Neil Diamond song, I'm taken back to my childhood home.  My dad was a fan of Neil Diamond and we for sure played his cassette tapes (remember those?) on our family room stereo.  The most well-loved song of Neil's (we're on a first name basis!) has to be "America" which leads me to remember my first nephew.  Nick was just a tot - maybe 2 yrs. old - and we'd give him all these miniature American flags to hold in his hands, then turn on "America."  He would just stand there waving the flags enthusiastically the whole song through, with a smile on his face.  "Nick-a-roonie" is now 22 yrs. old.  My dad also gave me two tickets to a Neil Diamond concert after my mission - in hopes that I would invite a date, and get onto the next step in life, but I was too chicken to ask anyone out, so I took my brother, Mike.  Other songs I can't forget are, "Forever in Blue Jeans," "Heartlight," "Love on the Rocks," "September Morn," and "Sweet Caroline" which I saw him perform at a real baseball game this summer -- and it was AWESOME!!!

 6.  Sleigh Ride

I did hear this song when I was younger, but a more recent memory has taken over whenever I hear this song.  Ryan played percussion in the Jr. High band for three years (2008-11) and they would perform this song for their Christmas concert.  The percussion section worked extra hard adding all the special sound effects with their various instruments (glockenspeil, sleigh bells, xylophone, temple blocks, triangle, slap stick, timpani, snare drum).  Whenever I hear the "horse whinny" (courtesy of a solo trumpet player) and the "whip cracks" part of the song now, I think of Ryan's band group at FJH and I can see the view I saw from my seat in the venue of their performance.

7.  Have Yourself a Merry Christmas

For some reason, my oldest brother, David, sang this around the house.....not in a festive kind of way, but an "In-Your-Face, invasion-of-your-space" kind of way - just to bug us, and provoke us to start swinging punches at or shoving him.

8.  Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella

I think of the Kurt Bestor.  Back when I was pregnant with Haylee, my OB asked me if we had any Christmas traditions at one of my monthly appointments.  He shared with me that his family always went to the Kurt Bestor Christmas concert - and he raved about it.  From that moment on, I wanted to go, also.  It took several years, but one December, Matt informed me to "clear my schedule" one Saturday.  I didn't know what we were doing, but he arranged a babysitter for our kids, I got in the car and he just started driving me somewhere.  We ended up at Abravanal Hall in Salt Lake City for the Kurt Bestor Christmas concert -- it did NOT disappoint!  (Why my husband is awesome reason #148).  Kurt Bestor's percussion group were amazing!  During the concert, I remember thinking I hoped Ryan would continue on to that level, but then it turns out, he quit after Jr. High.

9.  Let it Snow

When I heard this song as a boy-crazy teenager (1982-1989), my daydreaming would kick in.  How could it not with lyrics that conjure up images of delightful fires, lights being turned down low, and being "stuck" inside with that special someone?!?  I would fantasize about whichever boy was on the top of my list at the moment and picture me in an actual future scene with him that involved "As long as you love me so" and "When we finally kiss goodnight" and "If you'll really hold me tight."  How romantic?  No?

10.  Up on the Housetop

Back in the day, as part of our family Christmas Eve traditions, we had a talent show.  One year (1978), my little sister, Michelle, and I made up a dance to perform to this song.  I dressed in a red leotard and we wore matching Christmas aprons and tights.  As part of our dance routine, we'd snap our fingers to the "click, click, click" part, and we'd "shimmy" on down to the "down through the chimney" part of the song.  We played the song on a RECORD PLAYER - yes, as in a vinyl record, on a turntable, and a stylus with a needle on it to run around the grooves.  (Any other "mature" adults know what I'm talking/writing about?)

I think I may have a photo in my archives......of us AND the record player......

 {Hey!  I want that red rocking chair in my home, now!}