Merry Christmas 2012

The token Christmas PJ photo.  My mom's gift to our family this year was Christmas jammies which was fun to open at her house.  We usually do that at Zach's parents.  

I got up the energy to make Baby Jesus cookies (it is very time consuming!) just in time to leave some out for Santa.  We left them on Simon's cute plate he made me at school.  

I've never had very early risers, so Christmas morning came at the decent hour of 7:30ish.  I'll take it!  Grandma Jodi joined us this year and she is so prompt at arriving so kids don't have to wait any longer.  

This was Simon's Santa request, a remote control airplane that is tethered to a base so it just goes round and round and round.  It was fun...for 10 minutes... in the cold garage because that's the only place big enough for clearance.  We should have thought that one through a little more before encouraging him :)

This was the first year Emmy couldn't think of something to ask Santa for, so she gave him an answer that every parent dreads - "surprise me!"  Well, Santa did surprise her with a fortune cookie maker and I think she was genuinely pleased.  It makes surprisingly good cookies.  I should know, I have spent all week eating them.

Connor is a sucker for Pokemon t-shirts, even at 18 years old.

Now I can play tennis like a rock star!  My first quality racquet - a Babolat.

Zach took Simon to the mall this year and had him hand-pick a present for me.  Zach tried to steer him towards things that he knew I would like, but when Simon spotted this shiny, twirly, spinny thing (don't know it's real name!), he couldn't be more sure that THAT was the gift for mom.  And he was right - I love it!  He has been so excited and really good about not telling me what it was.

If there's two things my mom appreciates, it's luxurious fake mink...

 

And a little home security...  

(FYI she will be taking hunter safety along with the rest of us very soon)

Zach couldn't resist picking up the "World's Largest Hershey's Bar" for the kids.  Such a dad thing!

Yoshi licking his chops at the sight of his beloved Vienna Sausage!

After opening presents, Zach treated Emmy and I to some of his awesome french toast in bed.  Simon dined on pure sugar while wearing his new night vision goggles.

It's hard to believe that next year's Christmas morning will involve a Skype call to a missionary in some unknown country!  Exciting things coming for us!

'Tis the Season!

The Christmas season is about to wrap up and we have packed it full to the brim as we usually do.  This year wasn't crowded with any mall performances or recitals so that was a relief, sadly to say.  When Emmy is in the thick of it, I love it but when she isn't, it's a nice break.

Here's a few of the things we did to celebrate the holidays...

Dickens Festival

I have good memories of going to the Dickens Festival with my mom when I was young.  I don't think I realized then that it was just a chance for people to sell their wares while being required to dress in Old English period clothing.  It's really the same stuff you will see at the fair, but with a bit of old world Christmas atmosphere to make it feel more cozy.  We went this year specifically to see Father Christmas who I think is the best "Santa's Helper" in the valley.  Zach couldn't come but he gave me strict instructions to have the kids look nice for the picture because this is the last one before Connor goes on his mission.  

Temple Square 

It seems like they have scaled back in recent years in the lights on Temple Square itself, but the atmosphere is still magical and beautiful.  The nativity on the reflection pond glows so bright that is seems like a heavenly vision.  It wasn't too cold this night so it was pretty enjoyable.  Connor wasn't able to come to this but Emmy's friend Abbie took his spot.

Candy Windows

Macy's has brought back the candy window tradition from it's previous owner ZCMI, something I remember from when I was young.  They didn't seem to be as elaborate as I remember, but still a lot of fun to look at.

Scones and Flavored Milk at Winder Dairy

We've been doing this one for probably 10+ years.  It's not super exciting, but just a nice low profile tradition that my kids enjoy and includes food which is fine by me.  I had MINT chocolate milk this year.  Not bad!  Better than Peach Milk last year.

Window Walk at the Grand America Hotel

This was a first for us this year.  The hotel provides a beautiful passport for each person that takes you through the hotel to windows displaying holiday scenes from different countries around the world.  The tour takes you to their awesome toy store, Jou Jou, where they give you the United States stamp.  My kids had fun on the life-sized keyboard that plays different songs every time you stand on the keys.  The final stop was at the hotel's french bakery where a gingerbread man cookie is given to everyone in the party.  

Zoo Lights

This was a new event for us.  Since we have a zoo pass, we (Zach) thought we'd try it out. I say Zach because none of the kids or I wanted to do this, but he kept persisting so one night I told the kids to dress warm and plan on having a good time at the zoo!  It happened to be the coldest night of the year and also the night half of the Salt Lake Valley had the same idea.  When we saw the line just to get IN the parking lot, we should have bagged the idea then and there.  Then there was the line to get tickets, even though we had a zoo pass!  Once inside the zoo, we soon realized there were few to no animals in sight, just electrical light representations of them.  The highlight of the night was getting hot chocolates in the new restaurant, which served a double purpose of hand warmer and warming our insides.  The only animals we saw were a seal swimming off in the dark distance and some very active bats.  Zoo lights - won't be doing it again!

Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame Celebration

You might not associate this particular event with your December, but I do.  The UTC is a Think Tank client and as part of our business relationship with them, we get to attend this black tie event held every year at the Grand America Hotel for free while others have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $300/plate.  Zach designs the theme, look & feel for each year's gala and this year it was all about "Moxy".  The keynote speaker was Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.  Not only was every high powered tech business owner in the crowd, but for some reason every Utah politician as well - Orrin Hatch, Jake Garn and Gary Herbert to name a few.  My favorite part of Zach's look and feel this year was the fun centerpieces made out of Orbeez and color changing lights of all things.   

A little bit of everything...

I took these fun pictures of Simon the other day raking up what little leaves we have in our yard.  Since we live in a relatively new neighborhood (13 years old), the trees are just now starting to put out a decent amount of leaves and it's fun to rake up that one big pile for jumping in.  

Just a few days later, we got hit by a snow storm.  Of course he had to be out playing in it just as soon as there was enough accumulation on the ground to make snowballs and eat.  

 Best friends make good snow buddies.  

Emmy is in her school's concert choir this year which is an audition-only group made of up 8th and 9th grade girls and boys.  Her choir teacher (pictured below at the piano) just quit mid-year over a time off policy dispute.  Now they have a new teacher fresh out of BYU who is soft-spoken and not quite sure of himself.  A little bit of a bummer but I think they did really well at their latest Christmas concert.  Emmy had a solo in a song called Betelehemu which is a Nigerian Christmas carol written in Swahili. 

Emmy's hair is finally getting long enough again that I can do fun things with it.  I remember doing "crown braids" all the time when she was about 5 and was barely able to pull it off again recently.  It looked so cute!

This is Abbie, Emmy's best friend these days.  She spends a lot of time at our house and I don't mind a bit.  She appreciates my cooking, puts up with Simon without getting mad at him like Connor and Emmy, and makes my emotional teenager a lot more tolerable and fun.  They take ballroom together which further strengthens their bond.  It's friendships like these that parents hope never go sour.

Simon got a hold of the camera and took these shots of me trying to brush Yoshi.  His shedding is horrible lately!  It seems to get worse the older he is.  I've thought about having him shaved but that just seems cruel to do to a dog in the winter.

Thanksgiving at the Mayfields...

Misty hosted our Farley Family for Thanksgiving this year including my family, my mom, my cousin Linsey and her family and Erin's family in from CA.  My brother Quinn wasn't able to come at the last minute because of sick kids which was disappointing for him and for us.  

Emmy and Connor spent most of their time playing the piano.  They love going to both of my sisters' houses because of their baby grands.  

Emmy, my older sister Erin and my mom.  My mom showed this picture to a family friend who mistook Emmy for me.  Does anyone else see it?  

Simon was pretty happy to hang with his cousin Calvin a.k.a. "Doobs" playing electronics.  There aren't any boy cousins in my immediate siblings so the addition of my cousin Linsey's family is great for him.  

My brother-in-law Mike doing the turkey carving honors.  The food was great and there was plenty of room for everyone, one thing I love about holidays at Misty's house.  

Not many pictures of Connor this month, but he is still here!  He is just working and biding his time until he puts in his mission papers, probably in March or April.  Lots of his friends have already left, most of them going to South America and a few here in the states.  It's crazy to think what the next few years will bring.  We are trying to prepare ourselves for any possibility.  Reading letters from my nephew Spencer on his mission Siberia have been so helpful and insightful into the daily life of a missionary.