Beneath the Wraps

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Christmas Eve

When Carrie and Randy’s gift arrived at our house, Jenna decided it would be the first one which would be opened. We played a game of Monopoly though there’s at least 20 games in our possession that I’d rather play. After I lost and Jenna forfeited out of boredom, we turned on the Muppet Christmas Carol though we really don’t have a great copy. I fell asleep while it played.

We had planned to open our first gift on Christmas Eve after we watched “It’s A Wonderful Life” but since I had fallen asleep during Muppets, Jenna decided to open the gift before “It’s A Wonderful Life” started. It was a game!

Because of the time, we decided we would play in the morning instead of right then.

Jenna decided to go to bed after only an hour into the movie. Between 9:30 and 10:00 last night Roland retrieved the presents from my closet. I spread the gifts beneath the tree. We filled the stockings and finished with the movie. When “It’s A Wonderful Life” ended, I went into the bedroom, though I don’t remember Roland coming into the room until possibly an hour later. I don’t know why.
When he did get into the bedroom, he read a bit before turning off the light. At midnight Jenna opened her door and asked if it was time to open presents. She gets very excited. I think she must have left her room shortly after that as I noticed there were more gifts placed beneath the tree and in our socks. I love it when my children get into the Christmas spirit and each attempt to play Santa themselves.

Monday, December 25, 2017

Traveling Ornaments

Almost every Christmas tree I can remember being in my house had a wide variety of ornaments – not just colored baubles, but Santa Clauses, snowman, bells and stars – even partial nativities. It seems like there were some ornaments that made their way up and down and around the tree as someone would take it off to looks at it and hang it back in another spot, or parents would move clumps from one branch to even out the tree. I noticed that our tree this year had several bald spots - and I could sense that some of the ornaments had traveled throughout the tree once again.

On Saturday night, we watched the Disney’s 2009 “Christmas Carol”. Don’t much care for that particular version – though not my least favorite version of "the Christmas Carol". I did enjoy watching behind the scenes. It always amazes me how much time goes into each shot. With Disney’s 2009 “Christmas Carol”, there was also a lot of technology.

It was interesting to watch.

I had enjoyed the behind the scenes of “Elf” also.

Christmas Caroling

Jenna seemed quite excited when the Young Men and Young Women decided to go “Ding-Dong Ditching” rather than their usual caroling, but still wanted to go caroling. I have not had much of a singing voice this season and have missed singing along with Christmas songs because I don’t wish to risk making my throat sore.

Jenna finally found someone willing to go with her. On Saturday, I picked up her friend. They caroled to a few houses in her neighborhood. I then took them to the street where we used to live. They went to several houses. Surprised some people. Uplifted others. I was happy to see how happy it made them.

not your typical caroling attire, but this is what they chose to wear

On Sunday, we had just one speaker for sacrament meeting. The remainder of the meeting was for singing five different hymns after the bishop introduced each hymn with a small synopsis for what purpose each had been written. I could tell that she enjoyed that. I am so happy that she enjoys singing.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Jenna's Wish List

Jenna has never been greedy with her wish list.

Some things are not practical.
Generally her wish is short.

She rated the following from 1 - 10,
10 being the highest. Only 7 things on her list.
What I'd like to fulfill most is wish #4.
That will require a lot of prayer.

She just wrote her list in random order

but not order of importantness.
The two things from the list that
she would like most
I don't have control.

1. New charger for tablet

(Roland finally broke down and
got one for her as she was using
up his phone battery.)
rates this as a 2

2. "Everyone wants to steal your cheese" t- shirt

rates a 7.

3.      toy box chocolate surprise
  I don't even know what that is
  rates a 4

4. a good friend to move in across the street

this is one we both would like
both of us would make this a 10

5. common sense hoodie

rates a 5

6. better singing skills rates a 6

  I think somebody in the ward
  offers singing lessons. I will look more
  into that

7. brothers 10

She would also like to see it snow. I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.

Friday, December 22, 2017

More on 12 day challenge

Image result for standing in checkout lines clip art

On the 7th day there were lines

Lines at Winco
Lines at WalMart
I did not have to wait in either
Roland was really sweet and
allowed Jenna and I to do
our own thing.

Day 8

Take a few minutes to
write down your values.
I do that anyway.
There are 8 values listed
as part of Young Women's Theme
I would say that Individual Worth
appeals to me the most as I
would like to be recognized for
my individuality and not be
a cookie cutter representation of
someone (or something) else

Day 9. Take 3 breathes to get

oxygen flowing. Oh, yeah!
I can do that here in Oregon.
I can breathe the moist clean air
Breathing the outdoor air in Salt Lake
right now -
NOT a good idea,
I hear there is a lot of inversion.
I don't doubt it.
It's what pushed me to move
to Oregon in the first place.