Christmas weather

There are icicles hanging off the eaves of our house and that just seems right to me.  I've missed winter.  I have missed snowy winter.  When the world is shimmery white, that seems like Christmas time.

The unifying theme of all these pictures is that they were taken from inside the house.  I like snow and all but I also like being warm, inside.

The roads have been a little dicey at times but the snowplows zip through fairly frequently and the sun shines between storms and it all just makes me happy.

Let it snow!

Introverts unite! Separately.

I think I need this shirt.

What do you get when you combine an introvert with several busy busy days where she doesn't get much alone time?

A really unproductive introvert that would mostly just like to stare at the wall all day.

It takes it out of me!  I'm back on track today.  I might just do something amazing.  Like make my bed.

Getting involved

I don't have a lot of friends here.  For quite awhile, I think I was too shell-shocked by all the changes and too engrossed in my children to really care about making new friends, I mean I have friends, the best friends possible.

They just don't live here.

Slowly I have realized I need to make friends.  It's good to have people that care about you and what happens to you.  It's good if they don't all live hundreds of miles away.

So I joined a book club.  I'm still tentative around there.  I don't belong yet, but I'm working on it.

I decided to try to volunteer more at school.  I could meet like minded people.  I went on the choir field trip and enjoyed chatting with the other mothers.  Monday I signed up to help feed the choir kids (all 400+ of them) before the big Christmas concert.

I was talking to the other mothers while we were getting set up and I realized, "These are my people!"

Mothers of children in performing arts tend to have a lot in common.  Make them all Mormons and you have the makings of people that get each other.  Some of them were the mothers of Braeden's good friends that I'd never met because the boys could all drive themselves and the mothers never interacted.  We all compared notes on our sons' missions.  We are all going through the same withdrawal and trying to figure out what to do with all the leftovers since those big boys are gone.

Then the kids descended to get their food.  I saw Emma and her friends and I love those girls.  Emma hit the jackpot in the friend department.  I saw a few of the Young Women from church.  I saw Bridger, Braeden's good friend that is still in high school.  He said, "That email from Braeden today..."

I said, "I know, I cried."

He said, "I just can't...all those guys on their missions..."

--> Then he walked away, shaking his head.

Several of the kids went out of their way to thank us for feeding them and that's a universal truth among performing arts kids.  They are well mannered and comfortable talking to adults.  (Maybe all teenagers are that way and I just mostly interact with the performers.)

The concert was great and I am always floored by their talent.  I loved being a teeny bit behind the scenes, although it does come with hazards.  Earlier I had witnessed a beautiful tall girl put her arm around another girl with Downs Syndrome who is in the choir.  The tall girl said, "Are you excited?"

The other girl smiled a smile that could light up a whole city block and said, "Yes!"

When those two lovely girls walked onto the stage, the tall one helping her friend know where to stand, I remembered the scene earlier and I started crying.

It's tough to be me.  And why do I ever leave home without Kleenex?  I mean, that is just basic safety.

Christmas trains

Sunday we got together with Adam's cousin Pam's family.

I love their family.  I have always liked Pam.  Her twin boys are seniors this year and we were standing by the stove while she was keeping an eye on the soup and breadsticks and we were crying over our boys growing up.

Crying mothers just bond you together, you know?

Branson, one of her handsome boys walked by and smiled and just shook his head.  Mothers. 

After the tears and the soup which was delicious, we got down to the business of making trains.  They are experts at it.  Watching Pam get prepared was a thing of beauty.

in the bottom corner is another of Adam's cousins, Doug and his family

Every time we see Pam, I tell Adam over and over, "I really like her."

Because I really do.

This calls for a celebration

We've had a good time.  On Thursday Emma and I (Adam was out of town) took Mark to dinner to celebrate his birthday.  We both wore Star Wars shirts in honor of Mark.  (He was wearing one too but that's pretty much what he usually wears.)

Mark said he would take the selfie because his arms are longer.  That was hurtful as well as true.

He also opened his present from my parents.  It was a Lego set. (What else could it possibly have been?) 

Notice the Milky Way candy bar in the background?  He saved it from his Halloween candy for his birthday.

Friday Geri came and by then Adam had returned.  We went to downtown Salt Lake and met up with Marianne and Robert and family there.  We had dinner at a German restaurant where the proprietors were slightly intimidating but the food was delicious.  The Johnsons went to a play and we went to Temple Square.

Mark is standing uphill in this shot.  He's not THAT tall....

I love going to Temple Square anytime.  In December, it is pure magic.

Here we are in the Joseph Smith Building.  And yes, Adam is wearing sandals.

Saturday we had one kind of adventure and another.  One low point was me locking my keys inside the van while Adam was refereeing a basketball game and couldn't come to the rescue.  A high point was having a brother who is always at the ready to save the day...even when he is in the middle of remodeling a bathroom.  Ammon for president!  (Seriously, I like him more than any of the other candidates.  A lot more.)

We went to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the BYU Art Museum which I loved.  We had birthday cake (I think the picture is blurred because Mark was rushing off to finish his Lego set Grandma Geri gave him):

there was a slight cake crumbs in the frosting issue

And Geri treated us to The Forgotten Carols.

It's all been lovely.

Tiny notes

Dear Olivia and Tabor,

Talking to you on the phone the other day (one right after the other) was exactly what I needed.  Sometimes I get trapped in an unproductive dialogue inside my own head and my siblings bring clarity and perspective and make me laugh.

I love you kids.

Me

Dear Marianne,

Sorry I didn't call you back.  I was on the phone with Olivia and Tabor....

Me

Dear Citizens of Pleasant Grove,

Let's talk about intersections.  There are three lines.  The first one is the stop line, the next two are a crosswalk.  You're going to give me a heart attack when I am driving on a cross street and you stop beyond the third line.

Me

Dear Guy Behind Me at the Grocery Store,

Cheer up buddy.  You seemed really annoyed, standing there.  You kept sighing and muttering "you have got to be kidding me" under your breath because the lady in line in front of me was taking her sweet time.  Your only purchase was a box of spiced apple cider envelopes.  I don't think you should drink angry.  Even if it's spiced apple cider.

Me

Dear Mark,

Thanks for being sick and staying home the other day.  Wanna do that every day?

Me

Dear Emma,

You know when you speak to me in French and I just look at you in confusion?  Then you say, "I forget sometimes you don't speak French."  Maybe write it down: MY MOM DOESN'T SPEAK FRENCH.  You can use all caps if it helps.  (I love you, but you are nuts.)

Me

Dear Guy At Costco,

I know my last name isn't Dahl anymore, I know I don't have facial hair and I'm not six and a half feet tall, but I know Enoch Dahl too.  He's my brother too.  When you asked Tabor if he knew Enoch and Katie said, "This happens all the time," I felt a little left out.  Maybe I need a name tag.  Enoch Dahl's Sister.  It may open some doors for me.  Then next time we meet up at Costco, we could chat.

Me

Dear Pajamagrams,

I keep hearing your ads on the radio for "matching holiday pajamas for the whole family even the cat and dog."  Has anyone truly purchased pajamas for their cat or dog that match their own?  Never mind don't answer that.  I don't think I want to know.

Me

Happy Birthday, Mark

We have another teenager and I couldn't be happier.  I love having teenagers.  The movies and TV shows that have snarky, disrespectful, unappealing teenagers do not get it right.

Because teenagers are pretty great.

All my kids' birthdays cause me to reflect on who they are and who've they been.  Also I feel beyond grateful that I get the privilege to be their mother.

 

Here are some thing about Mark.

He is his own person.

He has self assurance for days.  He's hard to talk into anything he doesn't want to do and he's pretty much against new things.

Except for when he isn't.  He's this rare mix of being a stubborn creature of habit and then having a breathtaking amount of resilience to change.

I was never more impressed with Mark than on his first day of public school.  He is suspicious of every new recipe I ever try but when he needs to do something new and scary, he pretty much says bring it on:

He misses this guy.  A lot.

His whole life he's had this kind and accommodating older brother to look up to and play with and wrestle with and to regale with all his words.  He excitedly tells me now about something he's doing on Minecraft and I usually have no idea what he's talking about and I know that Braeden would.  I'm standing in for Braeden at times like that I feel like a poor substitute.

But Mark's OK with it; he just keeps trying to explain it to me.

It makes me happy to see the relationship between Emma and Mark grow.  They can both be cranky and contrary but they take care of each other and laugh together every bit as much as they bicker:

It's good to have a sister because he also misses this guy:

What were we thinking moving Mark away from Gavin?  He doesn't remember not knowing Gavin.  They celebrated their December birthdays together and went trick-or-treating together and got into all sorts of shenanigans and trouble together.

It's been tough for Mark to make new friends.  There will never be another Gavin.  I am over and over impressed with his ability to dust himself off and try again though.  I wish I were more like him.

Besides Mark-and-Gavin, this pretty much sums up his childhood:

Messy hair + white t-shirt + Legos.  (His Lego sets sit mostly neglected now and it's a little sad but those little bricks probably needed a break.  They've been used.)

Homeschooling him was one of the highlights of my life:

He's had 13 years to perfect the art, and that kid makes me laugh:

And has always been expert at melting my heart:

This note was written on one of the many occasions he broke something.

How could I not forgive him though?  I mean, look at him.

Life with Mark has never once been boring:

Happy birthday, baby boy.  I am glad you're mine.