The January Report

Over the past week I've seen a lot of January-hating memes. One in particular says something like, "January is like one really long Monday." Another one says, "It feels like January 74th."

I agree - January is looooong. But I also kind of love January.*

I enjoy the new year. I'm always motivated by a fresh start. This year I decided not to make any resolutions, and that was actually kind of hard because I really love making New Years resolutions. I guess you could say that my resolution was to not have resolutions - so no matter what happens, I'm a failure because I resolved to not resolve!

New Year's Day is my birthday. Last year Scotty won a gift card for a hotel stay from a golf tournament, so we decided to use it on New Year's Eve. We took the kids to stay at Little America in downtown Salt Lake. We ate dinner at the Pie and went swimming. Then we all fell asleep by 10:00. On New Year's Day we went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel and then hit the pool again. That afternoon, my mom watched the kids while Scotty and I cleaned the house, packed for vacation, and went to dinner.

I turned 35 this year. I feel like I need to accomplish something amazing while I'm 35. Since I couldn't make resolutions at the new year, I'll have to keep you posted about what that amazing thing might be. Or maybe I'll just keep chugging along. There's always 40...

As you may recall, we went to Disneyland early in the month. Going on vacation in January is a very nice practice. I strongly encourage it! But you have to be flexible for weather and possible sickness. We were very lucky that all worked out in our favor. It was really nice to get away from the cold for a while. It helps winter not feel so long and miserable.

Playing in Saint George

on our way to Disneyland

January is the heart of "Puzzle Season." We haven't finished as many puzzles this season as we have in past Puzzle Seasons because we've been incredibly busy. But we did manage to complete Peter Pan (which we started about ten months ago) and Dumbo (which Scotty and I did in a day).

I have such a love/hate relationship with the Thomas Kincaid Disney puzzles. They are absolutely beautiful, but they have so much sky and floral detail. Ever wanted to punch a fern? Cuz I have!

Since Nicky recently turned 12 (and that used to matter), he now has a temple recommend. We took him last week to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. He was really surprised when he found out that the temple has a parking lot. He has been to several temple open houses throughout his life, and we've usually had to park far away from the temple and take a shuttle. He's also been on the Salt Lake Temple grounds where there is no surrounding parking lot. So he was blown away that we could just drive right up to the temple and park in the parking lot. This gave us a good laugh! He also made some pretty funny observations about other aspects of his temple experience. Nicky is a crack up! But he's also very sweet and can feel the Spirit. There was some of that as well.

With him turning 12, he also received the priesthood and his first calling. He started passing the sacrament this month.

Speaking of Nicky's birthday, which is December 27, we had his party mid-January. He planned his own party - a Nerf war in the church gym. He did all the set-up himself. 

I wasn't able to get any good photos because it was too dangerous and motion-blurry. I got pelted in the butt a few times. The kids had so much fun, though. I had to force them to take a break and eat some nachos, and then I had to force them to take another break to have donuts. I could've saved myself some work if I'd known they'd choose Nerf over food!

Church goers might be finding Nerf darts in the gym over the next several months. We used 700, and we didn't keep very accurate inventory. 

In addition to Nicky's and my birthdays, we celebrated several other birthdays this month. In fact, on the day of Nicky's party, we had three parties followed by one the next day.

So, while January is hard, it's also pretty exciting. Even though I didn't make any formal resolutions, I've accomplished some great things this month, one of which is not drinking a single ounce of soda! I also haven't been to Moochie's all year  (wink, wink), and I've read 5.5 books.

There's another big thing I've accomplished this month, but I'll probably write about it in its own post.

In the mean time, we have four more days of January, and to be honest, it really does feel like January 74th!


*Other than the abundance of slush, the yucky air, and the fact that everyone I know is sick.