December 2010

Our Holiday Season was packed full, as usual.

12/1/10 We started the month out by going to a tree lot and picking a Christmas tree. We took hot chocolate in a thermos and spent about an hour wandering the lot until we picked our perfect tree. Next year, we'd like to pull permits with our friends (those who don't already have fake, scentless, pre-lit tree's, that is) to go out into the woods and cut our own trees.

12/2/10 My family went to the Festival of Trees. We enjoyed viewing all the elaborately decorated trees, eating roasted almonds, and my favorite this year was the quilts! Two of my cousins were performing with their dance groups, which was fun to watch.

12/11/10 Lulu's dance recital! My niece performed with her dance company at Riverton High School in two different Jazz dances. It was so cute and crazy to see how grown up she is now. For the first time, I realized how much she looks like her mom!

12/11/10 Extended Tegtmeier Family Christmas Party! My cousin Rachel hosted the extended Tegtmeier family Christmas party again this year (what a saint!). Even without the cousins in two of the families and their kids (around 25 people), we still had 43 people there! The little kids acted out the nativity scene just like we did when we were young and then we all sang the Tegtmeier Christmas classics: Stille Nacht (Silent Night in German), O Tannenbaum (Oh, Christmas Tree), Rudolph, and Jingle Bells.

12/16/10 Gingerbread Houses! We got together with my family for a night of making gingerbread-houses. The kids slapped theirs together and left the table to play while the adults spent the rest of the night perfecting their houses.

12/17/10 Cooking at Carols! My mom, Heather, Pam, Letti and I all baked with my Grandma Carol all day long! We made: Greek cookies, wheat bread, raspberry jam, peanut brittle, fudge, chocolate chip cookies, and white chocolate and mint popcorn. It was a flurry of people, sweets and fun.

12/18/10 The Fluckiger Christmas party! Grandma Carol and Grandpa Duane held their party this year at the South Jordan home in the 50's room. We had a Christmas brunch for the first time, which was really nice. Grandpa hired a man and his son to come cook omelets on site. The food was wonderful and the kids loved running around and playing with all the fun stuff in the 50's room.

12/18/10 Dr Yamashiro and his wife Cathey hosted our St Mark's Labor and Delivery Holiday party. This year, we decided to have a themed party: Ugly Sweater and Silly Socks. The food was amazing and the company was fantastic, as usual. It's always fun to get together with my coworkers outside of work because we get to see how everyone looks "in clothes" rather than in scrubs.

12/21/10 Bostyn's Cheer Recital! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend Bostyn's recital (again, as she insists on reminding me). But, I did watch the videos and show them off to anyone willing to watch with me, over and over.

12/22/10 Haberstock Family Photos! Mikey, Matt, Jaimee and I were not super excited when Mikey's sister Annie told us she'd scheduled family photos during her trip home from Germany (where she lives with her boyfriend Kyle). The weather on the scheduled day was overcast, foggy, and rainy and so the planned time kept shifting around, but finally we had the photo shoot and the weather cooperated for that hour and a half. After it was over, we were all glad that Annie had forced us to have family photos taken and the pictures turned out awesome! Photos coming soon...

12/24/10 Drewes Family Christmas! After being together for 4 1/2 years, this was the first time I was able to go to Mikey's extended family party. They always hold it on Christmas eve and this year it was at David and Carol's house. We ate a great dinner and then played games in the basement. We each brought one gift and then played a pick or steal game, which was really fun. The count for his WHOLE extended family on his mom's side: 19. (The count for my immediate family alone: 18. I do understand why Mikey calls my family "rabbits"...)

12/25/10 Christmas Day! Mikey and Carli's boyfriend Chris had to work all day long at Million Air on Christmas day, so Carli, Lily and I celebrated Christmas morning at my parents house. We had coffee and pull-aparts, opened a few gifts and stockings and just relaxed.

Then, I went to the Haberstock's house for the evening. Mikey was the only one missing from his family, but Stanley and I stood in for him. We all helped cook and then ate a fantastic dinner: cornish game hen (no, I'm not even claiming to be a vegetarian anymore), stuffing, yams, corn, rolls, YUM! We exchanged gifts, ate dessert, and relaxed by the fire.

12/26/10 Tegtmeier Immediate Family Party! Oh, yes, the festivities continue! Since Mikey and Chris had to work the other days, my parents had their party the day after Christmas. Grandma Marilyn and Oma came over and we all had dinner and opened presents. Mikey and I presented a copy of a movie we'd made of the family trips in 2010 to Moab and Lake Powell. It turned out really well, if I do say so myself.

Mikey had been "working on" his gift to me for several weeks in secret and all I guessed about it was that he was making something with a sewing machine. He hand-made a sleeping bag for me! It is amazing - synthetic, super warm material, a quilt-design made for two, it has a foot bed that zips so our feet can snuggle together, it zips apart into 2 pieces so we can each carry half if we're backpacking, and my favorie touch: he sewed the symbol "Namaste" onto it. The word Namaste is used in India and often in yoga and means,

"I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, we are One."

Wow, I can't even tell you how impressed I am for both his thoughtfulness and his sewing skills. He is amazing.

So, as you can see, we not only survived, but rather enjoyed December. Bring on 2011!!!