Christmas at the Haws House

Who missed me?

That was a trick question- I know that you all did, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. That would be lying, and I am an honest person (most of the time. When it comes to "Who liked my spinach casserole tonight? It's my mother's special recipe," I lie. No I didn't like your casserole, but I'm not exactly going to say, "It was disgusting and I hated it. Nobody at this table liked it- it was dry and it tasted like spinach").

So.

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a spectacular one. Matthew came downstairs this morning, glanced at the bike Santa had left him, and dived for his stocking. The first thing he picked up was the Bionicle set inside, and he's been playing with it all morning. Five minutes ago (at 1:30) he ran in and said, "Guess what, Mom? I got a new game for my D.S.!" He had finally noticed that you get multiple presents on Christmas, instead of just one!
Guess what I got?

1. Season Tickets to the Hale Center Theatre Performances!!! Yeah!
2. A digital picture frame that can capture all of my memories! Now when you enter my room, you can say, "Hey look! That's me!" Hee, hee.
3. For those of you in my ward that know (from bad experiences) that I have my good days accompanying you on the piano, as well as my bad days (which probably happen more frequently than those good ones), but all of that is about to change. See, about two or three months ago we learned that our old hymnbook that we've had since I've been born was actually my Grandmom's. We had to give it back. But today I received a hymnbook (that has a spiral binding so it isn't hard to open) with my name engraved in the bottom and some lovely notes from Matthew and Esther written on the inside flap. Now I can practice!
4. Stocking stuffers. Lipgloss, eyeshadow, sour gummies, peeps (in winter. How do they pull these things off?), a giant candy cane, an iTunes gift card for $10 (I've already put it to good use), fuzzy socks, a sock purse, and a bunch of pistachios (pronounced pist-a -CHEE-o-s).
5. Jammies: a family Christmas Eve tradition. Here are mine:

I gave Mom and Dad a book of poetry (written by me), Matthew a paint set, and I knitted Esther a rainbow scarf.

New music! Check it out! Turn on the speaker!

I played a song (Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus by the brilliant composer Sally DeFord) in our ward's Christmas Program as well as our family program. But you would know that, because all of my viewers are either:

1. Family (about 1/5)
2. In my ward (about 4/5)
3. Friends from school (what's left- maybe 1 or 2 of you)

If you are none of these, please notify me using the "comments" button. And if you are one of these, still notify me using the "comments" button.

Esther, Matthew, and Monterey are in the family room having a D.S. party.

Mom, Dad, and I are in the office a Pride and Prejudice party (My Dad's Christmas present- the complete collection of Pride and Prejudice). We're watching a very modern (and hilarious) one.

Other news around the Haws House: Matthew's sick.

His symptoms: He's always very thirsty, very hot, very tired, and yesterday, when we were about to go to Jump on It, my Mom told him we weren't going and he said, "Okay."

Okay?!? You've been waiting for this for weeks now. Jump on It! And when it's canceled, you let it go with just an "Okay?" Where's the fight? Yeah, he's really sick.

What else haven't you heard? I went back to Physical Therapy and I have this lump in my neck that is beginning to hurt.

I got to see Daniel and Caleb yesterday! It's been awhile, and Christmas Eve seemed to be the prefect day for seeing them again.

Anything else?

I saw the Nutcracker the other day with Mom, Esther, Grandmom, Granddad, and Aunt Jennifer.

Now, the Nutcracker has become less of a dance and more of a musical for me. I will admit that I was kind of a waste of a ticket as I had my eyes closed half of the time. During intermission, I looked down into the pit and labeled all of the interments for Esther. There was the strings (cellos, violins, violas, harpist, basses), the brass (trumpet, trombone), the percussion (the drummers and the electrical piano, which was cheating because they used that instead of a choir in the snow fairies dance).

I think I've covered everything.

The movie's over and Esther and Dad are going sledding. Should I go with them? It's five and I'm still in my jammies. The new ones.

The Quote of Today is from my jammies.

Hasta luego! Love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Quote of Today: Life is good.