Family..

... Isn't is about.... Time?

I love my family. I am so happy I got to spend time with some of them this last week. It was great to see my Grandparents again while I was in Arizona. I took this picture when we went to go see my Grandpa in the care center he is living at. After we sang to everyone... Grandpa met his newest great granddaughter for the first time.

First Class

Bad news.... today I had to leave Sunny Arizona and my family to go back to snowy Utah.

Bad news..... once again, my flight was delayed, but this time it was only 20 minutes instead of an hour.

Good news... Once I got on the plane, I went to my seat, 9B which is pretty close to the front of the plane. The lady that is supposed to sit next to me gets there.

Lady on airplane: "Hi, I am supposed to sit next to you, but I am doing business with another guy on the plane. Mind switching seats with him?"

Me: "Sure" (Traveling a lone, this happens... I have switched seats with people before, no big deal if it makes them happy.... it is not like I am super attached to my seat or anything)

Lady on airplane: "Ok great, he is in seat 2B"

Me: "Ok, thanks"...... *thinking* you want me to switch my seat with someone in first class? Yep, I'm ok with that.

So I go to my new seat in first class. This is my FIRST first class experience. Why? Because I only care about getting the best deal in traveling which usually takes my comfort out of mind. For those of you who have never flown first class before... let me tell you the perks you get. #1-You get on and off the plane first. I don't care so much about getting on first, but it is nice to get off first. #2- One I think we are all aware of because we pass these seats as we go to our non-first class seats, is that they have more room. This is nice. #3- You also get a pillow, blanket and a little bottle of water waiting for you in your seat. Wasn't there a day when everyone used to get pillows and blankets? I mean... my sister Lori and I borrowed plane blankets to take to Costa Rica and put them back on our flight home.... we were not flying first class. #4- They get you your drink of choice before the plane even takes off. #5- They have different magazines to read... NOT just SkyMall. #6- When they bring you snacks... they bring out a basket of options... it is not just peanuts or cookies. They had sun chips, apples, peanuts AND Twix bars. PLUS... you can take as much as you want. Say What? That is right... I took a bag of Sun Chips AND a Twix bar. #7 - besides my bottled water, I asked for Gingerale. It was brought to me in a real glass AND the flight attendant offered to set my tray up for me. They constantly check up on you. #8- The male flight attendant was really cute. Ok... that might not happen to everyone that flys first class... I probably just got lucky.

It was a great experience that was a nice surprise that will probably never happen again in my life. It was awesome. Would I pay the extra whatever to fly first class in the future? Probably not... I still want the best deals on flights. The End.

Mesa Temple Lights

Another fun thing about being in Arizona for Christmas was seeing the lights at the Mesa Temple. It is fun to see how different temples grounds are set up differently for Christmas. I had seen the LA temple lights and SLC temple lights, but this was my first time seeing the Mesa temple lights. I thought they did a BEAUTIFUL job! They even have people perform every night. Something that I liked that they do differently than the other temples I have seen is that they spread the manger scene out around the grounds. For example... in one spot they have the 3 wise men traveling with their camels to the manger. Above where Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus are there is a big bright star... so while you are walking around the grounds you can find where the baby Jesus was born. Anyway... I just thought it was all very neat and it was a fun Sunday activity for the family.

Baby Gwen

Another great thing about me being in Arizona for Christmas break is that I FINALLY got to meet my newest niece Gwendolyn Hixon. Gwen was born on November 19th, 2009... she came early. She is the sweetest thing ever and it makes me so happy to hold her. I have no idea when I will ever get married and be able to have children of my own, so THANK GOODNESS I have six nieces and nephews to love... and adorable ones at that. Gwen is so sweet and has given me lots of smiles and hardly even cries. Every addition to the family is so exciting and I just LOVE Gwen! P.S. The picture of me holding Gwen, she is wearing the dress I bought her. Can't see it very well... but it is really cute.

Nail Polish

Part of my Christmas present from my sister Jamie was nail polish from Sephora (a make up store that we share a love for). She gave me two different colors. I thought they were pretty and didn't think much of it, and then my sister told me to read the name of this particular nail polish.... the reason why she bought it for me... not the color... the name. Presenting .....

Brunette on the Internet

Yep... thats me. It is a bonus that I love the color

Merry Christmas

After working a half day on Christmas Eve, my sister Kristy kindly drove me to the airport where I arrived an hour and a half early or even more than that because I thought the airport would be crazy busy. It MAYBE took me 10 minutes to print my ticket, check my bag, go through security and find my gate. Then I found out that my flight was delayed for an hour. Thank goodness I have a new laptop and there is free wifi in the airport. That kept me busy for an hour of the 3 I was at the airport.I finally got to Arizona and my parents came and picked me up and got to my sister Jamie's house and Jamie had made us dinner and then Dan's sister and her family came over and we went caroling to my sister's neighbors and other people in their ward. I thought not being with my whole family and not being in Santa Barbara for Christmas this year that we would not continue our tradition.... but I am glad we did it. It made it seem like it was really Christmas Eve to me when it was not feeling that way because of having to work and spending the whole day traveling. After caroling we came back to the house and had treats and hot chocolate and watched Asher open a present while Dan read part of the Christmas story by the beautiful tree. We then chatted for a bit before going to bed.

This morning my nephew (who totally calls me Aunt Tracy now and I am loving it) woke up and said "Dad, it's Christmas time!" and I spent the morning watching Asher open his many presents and I got a couple of things and my dad made breakfast as he normally does and we spent the rest of the day relaxing. The present that I got from my sister is VERY pretty. Jamie has a talent of wrapping presents. They are so pretty you don't want to unwrap them.

After relaxing for the day we went over to Dan's brother Steven's house. They had a wonderful Christmas dinner and invited us and Dan's sister Amy's family (that we went caroling with last night) and they put on a variety show. You would think that there would mostly just be singing (like what we did to contribute to the show) but the kids were very creative. There was joke telling, piano playing, story telling, ballet dancing, singing and my favorite... a light show! It was all very cute.

It has been really great to be with some of my family and in Arizona in the WARMER WEATHER!!! woohoo! I am excited that I get to be here for a week. Hopefully I will have some exciting things to report. But if not.... I am excited to spend lots of time with my parents and Jamie! Thanks for having me Jamie, I love you!

My Cartoon?

So I am here at work.... by myself.... on Christmas Eve (because I have to) so what do I do? I find somewhere online where you can make a cartoon of yourself. At first it told me I could see what I looked like as an elf.... but I didn't see where I could do that. Anyway, this looks nothing like me, but it was fun to do anyway. Merry Christmas Eve!

These are a Few of my Favorite things...

.... about Christmas. First of all, not that song. Who in the world chose "These are a few of my favorite things" from Sound of Music to be a Christmas song. Don't get me wrong, love the musical and I like that song, but not for Christmas.
Anywho, these are some of my favorite things about Christmas time.

Giving gifts! This is our little Christmas tree in our house and the presents to the roommates

Seeing all the different nativities, and setting up the few that I have


I love the Christmas music


The treats


Hot Chocolate


All of the fun movies


Even better is combining some of my favorite things. My favorite pass time this Christmas season has been getting in my PJ's, snuggling up in a blanket and watching all my Christmas movies, while surrounded by beautiful Christmas decor and drinking warm hot chocolate and snacking on yummy treats. AND with good friends. Does it get any better?

Zoo Christmas Lights

I had no idea that they put lights up at the zoo in SLC (I am pretty sure it was a new thing starting last year). In fact... I had never been to that zoo before, so it is kind of funny that my first time to that zoo was at night in the winter when most of the animals are not there. Regardless of the animals that were or were not there, Chalyce and I had fun. The lights were awesome and we did get to see some animals. It was FREEZING but we bought some amazing hot chocolate to warm us up on our walk around the zoo.

Most of the lights obviously had to do with animals.

The majority of the lights were also animated... like this frog one...

Here are some of the animals that were actually out at the zoo in the winter.

Christmas lights are just so magical and beautiful. Gotta love the Christmas season.

WalMart vs Costco

Ashlee and I both had gingerbread house kits, so after my birthday dinner we came home and decided to put together our houses and decorate them. I bought my kit at WalMart. Ashlee was given her kit from her boss... but I am pretty sure it was from Costco. Looking at our boxes... they didn't look like they would be so different... but they really were. Ashlee's kit came with more candy to decorate and her frosting was way stronger than mine, and that by itself made all of the difference. Lets compare shall we?

Ashlee's house looks so cute it could have been professionally made.

My house is falling apart and looks like a two year old put it together. I swear... I really am a creative and a crafty person, but this house made me upset and I almost gave up on it completely.

No matter how much frosting I put on the roof... it still would not stay up. I tried to put gum balls on the top to cover the gap, but they started falling in the house as the roof would slip down more and more. Sad. Somehow it did end up drying and it somewhat stayed together.

In the end, we still had fun putting them together.