Sunday, December 22, 2024

Christmas is in Three Days (and ten other random facts)

Fact #1: In my current state of existence, I am ornery 95% of the time. The other 5%, I'm absolutely delightful! You would be blessed to experience me in that mode. 

Fact #2: I’m giving some strange Christmas gifts this year. Some of them I’m excited about because, unusual as they are, I know some of the recipients will still like them. Other people won’t like them. I, personally, would love to receive these weird gifts. I did a test run with Timber the other day, and had positive reports. 

Fact #3: These bags have saved my sanity this year. 

I don’t enjoy wrapping presents, but I’ve always felt like wrapping paper is a key component in Christmas morning magic, so I have suffered for the sake of the fantasy. This year I decided to simplify things and put most of my kids’ presents in these bags after buying them on sale on Amazon. Folks? I think I’m sold, but I need to experience Christmas morning to be sure. This may be my method from hence forth. It removed so much stress from my life.

Fact #4: Santa doesn’t bring much to our house because I don’t like to inconvenience him by forcing him to spend a lot of time at our home the night before Christmas, so he just stuffs our stockings and leaves one gift. Scotty and I take care of the rest so he can be on his merry way, which means most of our Christmas presents are under the tree already (in the aforementioned bags). 

Fact #5: Why not use regular gift bags? I do use them for gifts that leave my house, but I don’t want to use them for gifts for my kids that will sit under the tree because I want something a little more tamper evident. The bags aren’t fool proof, but they’re a little harder to snoop with. Go ahead, though, pick it up, feel it, and see if you can see through the bag. Snooping is a fun part of Christmas, and if you’re smart enough to do it, I’ll throw you a bone. But I’m not going to make it as easy as just moving aside tissue paper. 

Fact #6: I LOVED snooping as a kid, and trying to find our Christmas presents (or figure out what they were once they were wrapped) was a big part of my childhood. 

My sister, Anna, and I did everything we could think of including slicing the tape off our presents with a razor blade. We would also sneak out of our room right after Santa left and slice open our presents, take a peek, close them back up, and go back to bed. 

One time, knowing our parents had presents hidden in their room, we put something in their window so it wouldn’t close all the way, and then we snuck home during church, opened the window from the outside and climbed through, and found all our presents (we’d been allowed in the room with supervision, and my step-mom stepped out just long enough for us to pull that off). 

Fact #7: A couple of weeks ago we went to Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday morning before church. Nicky asked if we could go again this week, so we did.

It was such a beautiful event. I am so glad we went! Being the Sunday before Christmas, it was more crowded this time, but it was so good! I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you’ve never had the chance to go, you should! I recommend Music and the Spoken Word or even popping in to a rehearsal on a Thursday night. 

Here is more info on how to attend these events, and here is today’s broadcast:




Fact #8: If you had the chance to view the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional, did you notice that the women have new dresses? Probably not because they look just like their old dresses. But… I’m very excited about this because they have been wearing the same dresses since the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, and they deserve some new ones! Also, Scotty was heavily involved in purchasing them. 

Us with the Choir’s wardrobe specialist and the vendor who helped produce the dresses 

Fact #9: This weekend we had Scotty’s mom’s Christmas party. She did an Elf themed party, and it turned out really cute. 


Fact #10: I’m not hating the lack of snow this far. Shhh! Don’t tell the weather makers. 

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