Happy Birthday Brynn!

Brynn has the unfortunate drudgery of having her birthday the week between Christmas and New Year's. For the record, I believe that all birthdays that week should simply be outlawed. We should close down the maternity ward at the local hospital for the week "for cleaning" or something of the sort. Kids born during this week just get shortchanged, plain and simple. Now before you start bellyaching about how unfair a "before Christmas" birthday is or the disadvantages of a "summer birthday when nobody is in school," let me just remind you that Christmas STILL takes precedence for the "betweeners" as I'll call them, and that "nobody is in school" the week between Christmas and New Year's either. And any semblance of a real birthday party (with friends, invites, etc.) has to take place two weeks before its real date, or two weeks after.

I know, I know, who cares? Well, a kid for one. I'd just as soon skip my birthdays altogether, but there's a lot to consider when you're "almost eight." I'll freely admit it, poor Brynn has perhaps the dumbest parents on the planet. At the time, we felt that a tax write-off sounded pretty wonderful. Well yah, for that one year's tax purposes everything was just dandy. I just don't see it helping us any now.

But lucky for her, we DID get to celebrate just a little. We made a cake at the cabin (wrong color evidently. Since when doesn't she like pink anymore?) But she DID get to blow candles out..... and she DID get to have a song sung to her (the memory of which still hurts my ears)....... and she DID get some birthday presents to open. Grandma and Grandpa Allred gave her perhaps the cutest cowboy boots I've ever seen (I'm going to start buying everything red so she can wear them everyday).

I know that I've written about Brynn before in a previous post, so I won't wax sentimental, but we DO LOVE HER and we're so grateful that she's ours! Happy Birthday Brynn!

Go Tell it on the Mountain

For some strange, strange reason, my mom was bound and determined to spend part of Christmas at the cabin this year. Some things you can wage a pretty good fight against, but this wasn't one of those things. It was pretty much understood that we were going to "holiday" in snow and 4-wheel drive. And I'm so glad we did. Don't tell her I said this, but she was right on this one. We had a blast.

We enjoyed MORE CHRISTMAS. What's there not to like about more Christmas? We pulled the kids around on sleds behind a four-wheeler, went sledding, some went snowboarding, found an even BIGGER sledding hill and tried it, made Grandma Tingey's toffee for old time's sake, played bingo (again for nostalgic reasons), ate until we were miserable, and slept in as late as we could. It was GREAT!

Christmas 2008

I hope everybody had (and is continuing to have) a wonderful holiday season. I know that we've had a great Christmas break so far. The parties have been fun and festive and it's been so great to reconnect with family members that we don't get to see too often. Christmas continues to be a special holiday for us. Thank goodness for Brynn and her energy and determination to keep Christmas alive with stories of Santa and visions of reindeer-drawn sleighs and endless letters to the North Pole, stuffed with trinkets and love letters and tiny surprises.

We spent Christmas Eve at Brook's parents and then returned home early enough in the evening to celebrate with our own traditions. When we lived in Colorado we didn't have any family to spend Christmas Eve with and so we created our own Eve. It's pretty standard fare..... dinner, a gingerbread house decorating contest between two teams, fake champagne, new pajamas, and Christmas stories. This year Zach didn't want to be on Brook's team again for the gingerbread contest (why not is up for debate), so Caitlyn agreed to pair up with him. Big mistake. I think he just ate candy and talked and talked and talked. In the end, Brook and Brynn had a carefully planned masterpiece and Caitlyn and Zach had a house with an upside down roof and candy haphazardly smashed onto one side. Brook and Brynn were unofficially declared the winners which made Brynn very proud. Maybe next year Caitlyn.

Multiple Collage Warning: I thought I'd throw some collages at you just for fun, but I'll understand if they give you a headache and make you want to throw something at the computer. Try to steady your breathing and think happy thoughts.