Bump on a Blog

Poor Jeff...Bishop Hope asked him and his other counselor to speak in church on the Sunday before Christmas. Jeff, being the spiritual giant/perfectionist he is put a lot of prayer and work into his talk. The other counselor ended up traveling to visit family and couldn't speak in church. On top of having to speak in church, our bishop called Jeff the night before and told him that he was very ill and couldn't make it to church the next day. So, not only did Jeff have to give a talk in sacrament, but he had to conduct sacrament meeting and basically be the "bishop" for the day. His talk was AWESOME and really left me spiritually fed! He did a great job. His spirituality is definitely one of his strengths. Our Christmas break started after church since Jeff could finally relax. We watched Miracle of 34th street and made sugar cookies for Santa. Kamryn was amazed that she actually liked a black and white movie.

Christmas Eve
The girls were so excited all day thinking about our expected guest's arrival. London would say "shh, I hear Santa" and we'd tell her Santa only visits at night after she is sleeping. At different times throughout the day we'd talk about where Santa was probably at at that moment, when we said that he was probably delivering toys to children in England, Kamryn said "I wish I lived in England". Our Christmas Eve was wonderful. We did the usual...drove around looking at Christmas lights and singing Christmas carols, watched Polar Express, had a big meal, read Luke 2 and other Christmas stories and we let the girls open one present each from Grandma and Grandpa Pope. After our busy, fun day the girls fell asleep relatively easily and then we let the magic of Santa begin. How much fun it is to be a parent!

Christmas Morning
Jeff woke us all up at 6 a.m. This is actually the only day in London's life that she has woke up happy. She definitely isn't a morning person. We opened our presents and both girls got exactly what they wanted. Kamryn got an art easel with tons of supplies. Now she can go to Jeff's art studio downstairs and work with him. He is just as excited as she is. London got her Barbie house with all the accessories. Jeff bought me a new Cannon Rebel with accessories and I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with it. I will post more pictures when I have more time. Jeff opened his Wii and has fun playing it in the few spare moments that he has. That morning I made a yummy breakfast of ham, eggs, hash browns and pumpkin cinnamon muffins. By mid afternoon, we broke away from all of our toys and went to visit Jeff's family for an overnighter. It was a lot of fun, we played some board games and Grandma and Grandpa even took all the kids sledding.

We also went to visit my family. My brother and his wife were able to watch our kids for the afternoon so that Jeff and I could sneak away for a much needed date. They took our kids sledding and the girls had a lot of fun. Jeff and I went to the movies (I am Legend) and we went to eat at Olive Garden. I guess the highlight of the date was in between the movie and lunch when Jeff suggested we go to the mall. I agreed, not really knowing what he had in mind. He basically made me go on a shopping spree (I know, I have the BEST husband EVER). It has been awhile since I've bought clothes and I am definitely in need of an update. At first, I protested since we just had Christmas and I got a really expensive camera, but he was very persistent and basically picked out all of the outfits and bought them without me even trying them on. And, we were shopping at the Gap and Dillard's etc.,. The clothes weren't cheap or even on sale. I have since tried on the outfits and only a few worked, but I love the stuff that I kept!

We've really had a wonderful Christmas holiday and I hope that yours was wonderful as well.