Mid-Winter Musings and Holiday Remembrances

This is a crazy, mixed up, and way too long post! It covers a period of time from Dec. 20th until today, January 24th. I got a lot of it done last week but didn't post it because I still needed to add some pictures. The first pictures aren't in order because I'm still kind of struggling to find my way around the whole blogging thing. Oh well. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you enjoy this.

Abbie's sixth birthday. This is about 11:45 on New Year's Eve.

Okay . . . are these not just the cutest kids?

Erin and Annie flying down the sledding hill

Mike and Landon also flying down the sledding hill.

Abbie and Landon taking a tube ride.

Mike opening his oral surgery textbooks . . . his big present on Christmas morning.

Ella Enchanted! Abbie was very excited to get this movie.

Santa Baby

Erin and Noah

Christmas morning explosion

The "before" picture on Christmas Eve

A venerated Hale family tradition . . . looking out the window for Santa and his reindeers

Christmas Eve after reading Luke 2

Christmas morning again.

Great smile, Erin! You're just happy because the kids are in bed!

Lots of snow for Christmas. Back view of Mike and Erin's home. It was below zero this particular day.

Snow angels!

Making frosting for the Christmas cookies. Yum!

Making Christmas cookies with two kids up on chairs! Please just don't chop off your fingers in the beaters!
New Year's Eve after getting back from the Great Mall of America. Landon is basically asleep on his feet! It's just a few minutes until midnight

So here it is, January 18th, 2009. Christmas has come and gone, Annie left for Israel, Steve and Kalli came for a week's holiday and the "winter doldrums" have definitely set in! I'm looking out my office window at the inversion induced haze and thinking that this would be a good time for a big snowstorm . . . a real howler to chase away the smog. After a snowstorm, when the air is crystal clear and the snow is still clinging to the tree branches, the view of Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake is something like enchanting! Today I can't see Antelope Island at all and a few more days of this inversion will make it so that I can't see past the field below our house. Sigh. Okay, enough of that

Brent, Annie and I had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season in Minnesota with Mike, Erin and the grandkids. The night before we left (Dec. 20th) we did a "Christmas Eve" dinner and gift exchange with Laura & Jordan and Scott & Rachel and Annie. We were kind of in a hurry during the gift exchange because we had tickets to see Natalie McMaster (a fantastic fiddler and step dancer from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) in concert that night in Park City. Laura and Jordan made us calendars from the photos we had taken throughout the year and had included all important dates for the upcoming year. We were looking quickly through the calendars and they told us to slow down and look at all the birthdays. Jordan said something like "did you notice the August birthdays"? I turned back to August thinking "we don't have any August birthdays" and there, on Aug. 14th was a hand written entry that said "Laura's due date"! I was just stunned. It didn't even register at first. I did what I do best . . . I started to cry! Such exciting news. Unfortunately, so far, Laura's pregnancy has not been too exciting. Lots of nausea, throwing up, and sciatic nerve pain that makes it so she can barely walk. She looks forward to better things!

Brent, Annie and I left for Minnesota on Dec. 21st and didn't get out of Salt Lake any too soon. The monster snowstorms started pretty soon after that so we were greatful for relatively good traveling conditions. A few delays here and there but mostly okay. It was so fun to be with little ones at Christmas again . . . all the magic and wonder AND Santa Claus. We took Abbie and Landon to the mall to visit with Santa the day after we got there.

During the few days before Christmas we played in the snow, made cookies, shopped, played "monster" (Abbie and Landon's favorite!), played card and board games, watched movies, and did lots of snuggling with the new baby, Noah. On Christmas Eve we did the traditional steak and crab dinner. Well, almost. It was way too cold to drag the barbecue grill out of the garage so we did prime rib instead of steak. Then Mike read out of Luke 2 and the kids did a kind of spontaneous nativity scene for us! Papa read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and Abbie and Landon looked out the window, with Annie, to see if they could see Santa's sleigh or Rudolph's red nose. Abbie was fairly skeptical as Annie kept pointing out different red lights. She wasn't so skeptical, however, that she didn't dash off to bed when it was suggested that they might get passed over if they weren't asleep! Christmas morning was a cornucopia of wrapped and bagged presents from Santa and the rest of us (it's a good thing you went to bed when you did, Abbie!) and then sticky buns for breakfast. Mmmmm. We watched the movie "The Nativity" (not the five minute short film by the LDS church) after breakfast and really enjoyed it. Whoever produced it did a beautiful job . . . it's very moving.

The rest of the holiday is a blur now . . . sledding, eating, playing games and just being together. Mike actually had most of Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and "Boxing Day" (Dec. 26th in Canada) off, before he had to report back to residency. He also had New Year's Eve and New Year's day off which was perfect since Abbie's sixth birthday was on New Year's Eve! We went to the Great Mall of America as soon as Mike got home from work (about 3:00 PM) and rode the rides at the indoor amusement park. Abbie and Landon are game to ride on ANYTHING that they're officially tall enough to be allowed on. I do as little riding as possible (barf) so I got to hang around with Noah while everyone scurried from this ride to that. The only break that we took was a little over an hour for dinner . . . we didn't leave until almost 11:30 PM! I was sure that the kids would fall asleep on the way home but they were determined to have birthday cake and ice cream, count down to the New Year and do "cheers" with Martinelli sparkling apple juice! It was 1:00 AM when they finally went to bed. I don't know how they did it. AND they were up at 7:00 the next morning! I'm sure that Erin was grateful to get them back on schedule after the holidays.

We left on Jan. 2nd to come home and as usual I left with greatly mixed feelings . . . so sad to leave Mike, Erin, Abbie, Landon and Noah and so excited to see Scott, Rachel, Laura and Jordan! I'm so thankful that I can travel around and see my far away kids and that they can come and see me and I'm so glad for cell phones and email and blogs, etc. But in spite of all of that I always feel a little fragmented . . . a little like I'm all in pieces. Hello and goodbye. So good to see you. I miss you. Can't wait to see you. Didn't we have fun? When will I see you next? Are you happy and well? There simply isn't enough time on this earth to spend with everyone that I want to . . . family or friends. I find peace in the belief that that's why there's such a thing as eternity. All the "time" I want with all the people that I love and all the people that I wish to get to know and love. Yeah.

About 2:30 AM on the day that Annie left for Israel. We were up packing for half the night. Very tricky to condense everything you need for four months and two seasons into one bag that can't weigh more than 50 lbs.!

Curbside at the airport. So excited for Annie but don't let my smile fool you . . . this is the longest we'll ever have been away from her. Sigh.

My niece, Erin, enroute to BYU-Idaho. She stayed the night with us after flying in from Vancouver the day before and she was catching a shuttle to Idaho from the Salt Lake airport. We love it when Erin comes and visits.

We had three days to get Annie ready to leave for Jerusalem after we returned. She's there doing a semester of study abroad with BYU. Three days is simply not enough time but it had to do. We had a few little things out of the way, but we still had hours of shopping and packing to do. We took her to the airport on the morning of the 6th and she was off on a great adventure. She's sent a couple of fun letters detailing her first couple of weeks there. I'm happy to share her letters with anyone who'd like me to forward them. We miss Annie but we're so glad she's having this experience. Are we concerned about the political situation? Perhaps, a little, but the BYU Jerusalem center is on Mt. Scopus very close to the Dome of the Rock which is the 3rd holiest site in Islam. The site it's built on is considered holy by the Christians, the Jews and the Muslims so everyone seems to leave Jerusalem alone. The West Bank is another matter and they may not be able to do their field trips to Jericho and Bethlehem. We'll see.

Day one of snowboarding/skiing on Steve and Kalli's vacation

Day two of skiing/snowboarding . . . the guys.

Rachel and Kalli slept in a little on day two of snowboarding/skiing and went up to meet the guys

later in the morning.

I interrupted a game of five-handed Rook to take this picture. Don't let the smiles fool you . . . they were not pleased to have their game messed with!

This was taken just before Steve and Kalli left to go back to Arizona. Don't let my smile fool you! I was feeling pretty sad.

The day Annie left, Steve and Kalli arrived for a week of snowboarding and holidaying. It was so great to have them here. They got in three days on the slopes, and Kalli, Rachel and I were able to do some shopping, lunching, etc. It was like having the Christmas holidays extended! As a matter of fact, Brent and I finally got the last of the Christmas decorations put away just yesterday. Yikes! Anyway, Steve and Kalli are both in the process of applying for graduate school and it looks like they could end up in Boston, Chicago, or even here in Utah (I don't dare hope). We said goodbye (again) and put Steve and Kalli on a plane home on the 13th.

Today (Jan. 18th), we went to our Stake Conference where Elder Dallin Oaks was the main speaker. Our Stake Presidency was released and a new one put in today. My niece, Erin, is visiting with us for the week-end from BYU Idaho and we love having her here. Even if she does give us a shellacking at five-handed Rook every time she comes!

This post got pretty long. For those of you who are still with me . . . see ya next time!