Details Diary

I knew this day would come.  A day when I could cheer my Vandals to a victory!  I cannot even begin to tell you how happy my heart is that the Vandals took home their second Humanitarian Bowl win! 
There were a few minor misteps throughtout the game.  Hello #22, do you know how to catch the ball?!?!  But besides those distractions, we were able to bring home a big win in the last 8 seconds of the game.  Way to go I-D-A-H-O!

Fun times were had by all…my parents (a.k.a. die hard BSU fans) even sported their Vandal gear proudly.  Yay!  Sadly, Trev had to stay home sick, but I know he was rooting loudly from home.

What a great way to round out the year, go Vandals!

I am happy to report that all 3 books I read this month were excellent.  My favorite was Water for Elephants with My Sister’s Keeper a close second. I don’t know why I was so reluctant to read Water for Elephants, but I am happy I gave the book a shot—it was an A for sure! And it has been a very long time since a book moved me to tears, and the last few pages of My Sister’s Keeper did just that.  Read it.

So now that 2009 is finishing up, I get the chance to look back over the books I have read this year.  What a fun, diverse spread it was!  I am looking forward to my reading in 2010 and guess what everyone….I got a nook — thanks hubby! 

Completed Reads in 2009:
1. The Last Lecture (Jan) A-
2. Lucky (Jan) A-
3. Strengths Finder 2.0 (Feb) B
4. Little Earthquakes (Feb) B
5. The Relationship Principles of Jesus (March) B
6. Tales of Beetle Bard (March) C
7. The Shack (April) A-
8. The Almost Moon (April) C
9. Angels & Demons (April) A
10. Sellevision (April) B
11. The Lovely Bones (April) A-
12. Confessions of a Shopoholic (May) C
13. My Horizontal Life (May) A-
14. The Five People You Meet in Heaven (July) B
15. LA Candy (July) B-
16. The Purpose Driven Life (September) A-
17. The Lost Symbol (September) A
18. Digital Fortress (Oct) B+
19. Are you there Vodka? It’s me Chelsea. (Oct) B+
20. The Purpose of Christmas (Oct) B
21. The Glass Castle (Nov)  A
22. Syrup (Nov) C-
23. Devil in the White City (Nov) B-
24. Water for Elephants (Dec)  A
25. My Sister’s Keeper (Dec)  A
26. Deception Point (Dec)  B+

Every year since I can remember we have celebrated Christmas Eve with my Papa & Grandma.  My aunts, uncles and cousins get together and we enjoy my Gram’s clam chowder among loads of other food.  But I must tell you, the Clam Chowder is the standout dish…always has been, always will be.

This year our crowd was a little small.  Bridgette, Cody and Drake are in Idaho Falls and my Uncle Brad and his family didn’t make it up from Ogden this year.  The house was far from quiet though.  My cousin Melissa has 3 adorable little ones and I spent the whole night trying to keep up on how fast they go!  It is so much fun to see how excited little ones are at Christmas—it is contagious!

Merry Christmas Eve!

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and my sister and her family a few days early this year.  We rounded the troops and spent a fun night eating a wonderful meal my Mom prepared and then laughing and opening gifts.  Now that is my kind of night! 

It was especially fun to see Drake get excited for the presents and the little things.  Last year he was fun too, but nothing beats hearing his cute little voice tell us what he is thinking.

Here are a few photos from the party:

Last night we met up with Trevor’s parents to check out Christmas lights.  And to make it even more fun, we had Drake with us.  It was so much fun to see him smile when he saw the lights.

We started off in Paramount and saw my favorite.  It is located on Valentino.  If you come in off of Meridian Rd. at Producer, turn right on Valentino.  The lights are timed to music and the show is awesome!  I highly recommend you check it out if you are out in Meridian, it is the best I have seen.

Then we drove over to Sundance which is off of Meridian Rd. and Ustick.  If you enter off of Meridian Rd. at Ashton, you can’t miss it, it is straight ahead with TONS of lights.  This one was also set to music and was super entertaining.  I just liked the first one best because everything matched and was coordinated…must be the type-A in me. 

Last stop was over off of Collister and State St. in Quail Ridge.  This home has over 500,000 lights and was crazy insane.  Talk about traffic jam!  The cool part of this house was that they decorate every inch of their yard with fun figures (Santa, reindeers, penguins, soldiers, snowmen, you name it) and the driveway too.  So everyone parks and walks through the drive to take it all in.  Drake LOVED it.  He kept grabbing me by the hand to walk it over and over.  So sweet!

All three houses were a blast to see.  I can’t even imagine how long it took those people to decorate…talk about dedication!

Usually we celebrate Christmas with my Grandma Budell on Christmas afternoon, but this year we had the celebration a few weeks early.  My uncle is working in Alaska and won’t be here for the holidays, so we moved the fun up a few weeks so we could celebrate together.  I am all for spreading around the Christmas joy…the longer we can make the fun last the better!

We ate until our tummies were full and then opened presents.  Grandma SPOILED us this year and bought us a park bench for our front porch.  We are thrilled!!  It looks perfect on our porch — thank you Gram!  After presents we had dessert and Grandma made my favorite pie of hers…Cocunut Creme.  It truly was a slice of heaven.  Yummy, just thinking about it makes me crave it.

(Little did we know we were sitting on our soon-to-be bench…Gram is very, very clever)

Thank you Grandma for a wonderful early Christmas!  We love you!