Best of 2008!

I ADORE end of year best-of lists. So what could be more appropriate than to review the year that was in the life of the Bird Girls, with feedback from YOU, our loyal readers?

I've compiled a list of my favorite 3 posts from each one of us. I automatically disqualified group tags such as our 100 Things.

Here are the nominees:

These Boots Weren't Made For Walking - Julie gets her Trish boots covered in mud, but she has a spare in her trunk!

What's In Julie's Purse? - Find out why it weighs 50 pounds

I'm Digging on You - Melinda's celebrity crushes

I'm Breaking Up with Oprah - Why Melinda's had enough

There's One in Every Congregation - Kristen's Top 6 Weirdest Church Moments

I Can't Stop Watching - What keeps Kristen giggling late at night

More of Julie's Favorite Things - Why she smells like a yummy pie!

Pumpkin Goodness - Melinda and Julie share a hidden secret

Adulation Jiggity-Jig - Why Kristen can't face some of her coworkers anymore


Please review and vote on your favorite! Feel free to write in a comment if you think I've missed something. We will accept votes through Monday, January 5 and announce the winner on Tuesday, January 6.

Update:Okay, so the poll I originally put in here has stopped working! But those of you who voted still had their votes recorded. For the rest of you, use the link above to vote.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

From the Ho, Ho, Ho's!

Christmas Joys

Tis the Season! The Most Wonderful Time of the Year has almost reached its anti-climactic end (Christmas Day itself). Everything you've built up to since the day after Thanksgiving (or the day after Halloween if you're FM100) comes to an end by 10:00 on Christmas morning. But I love love love the Christmas season – it really is my favorite time of the year. Here are five things I love about Christmas time:

-I love that Christmas is still about being kinder to people and looking out for each other – even perfect strangers. I've let people in on the roads I wouldn't normally have let in. At my work we collected 11 huge boxes worth of new pajamas, coats and shoes for little kids in shelters, and it was really amazing to witness how generous people are – even if they don't have a lot of money themselves.

-Lights! I'm not talking the monstrosities some houses call Christmas lights (the kind that are listed in the newspaper and coordinated to music – come on, people!). But there is something about all the houses on the streets all putting out multicolored lights that just adds to the magic of the season.

-Snow. I'm just going to say it. I hate driving in the snow, and I'm already sick of getting snow this winter. But at Christmastime it's really something to look out at the snow – combined with the lights – and it makes you feel all peaceful and calm.

-Christmas songs! Yes, most of them are cheesy (excuse me, “classic”), but I find myself singing along to almost all of them in the car.

-Finally, even though Christmas has become so commercialized, it still brings a lot of people to think about Christ and the hope he brought into the world. It's one of the only holidays that brings people to get outside themselves and think about what they really believe – and the fact that we still do this 2,000 years after his birth is an amazing thing. What else can you think of that's lasted 2,000 years?

What do YOU love about Christmas time?

Over-Sings

I love singing Christmas hymns in December. But, you almost have to sing a different three each week to get them all in! This wouldn't be a problem except that in most wards I've been in we repeat the same four hymns over and over! I love you, Silent Night, Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard on High, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing – but singing you so much is robbing us of the opportunity to get to the other, lesser-sung hymns. Once in Royal David's City or O Little Town of Bethlehem, anyone? No – because we're too busy singing Silent Night for the fifth time! Let's mix it up and get some lesser-known hymns in there! After all, Christmas comes but once a year!

PS. Don't even get Julie started on how every New Year we sing “Ring Out Wild Bells” - easily the most depressing hymn in the hymnbook (“the year is over, let it die”).

I'm Up!

Well, with Melinda still not having the internet at home and Julie's computer on the fritz (Julie's direct quote was “I will DIE without my computer”), I have to officially carry the blog for the next couple of days.

Yesterday my alarms (yes – plural alarms, I have 3) went off at the regular time, and I distinctly remember turning them all off and putting my head back down on the pillow and thinking, “This is dangerous.” But I would only lie in bed for another couple of minutes, right??? Wrong. The next thing I knew it was 6:45 – 15 minutes before I had to be at work. Nothing can wake you up from a deep sleep so fast as the realization that you have to be to work in 15 minutes (and it's a 20-minute drive). I'm pretty sure I set an official land-speed record and made it out the door in 7 minutes, and to work by 7:10. High five! It took me a good couple of hours to settle in after that, though – if my morning doesn't start out according to my established routine, my whole day is thrown off. I'm generally always in a good mood, but the quickest way to throw me off and get me in a bad mood is to mess with my morning. Does anyone else get that, or are most people better at rolling with the punches than I am??

Spell Check

So, I'm minding my business, typing my last post, when Julie pipes up, and asks if I'm going to use the spell check this time. To which I reply, "Why, do I need to use the spell check?" And she says, "Well, last time, there were a few errors." Seriously? I had to remind her that I was under a serious time crunch while typing my last post, and had to post it without doing my normal awesome job of checking everything. So to everyone who had to read my last post with ALL of those spelling errors, I apolergize (sic)!

'Tis The Season

I love Christmas cards as much as the next person. I think they are very cheery, and a nice way to catch up on what your loved ones have been doing during the year. What I don't love are when people use the Christmas card as an excuse to tell every, single, solitary thing they have done over the last 12 months! I don't need to know that in the month of March, you bought a new ladder, and were very busy using the ladder to clean out your rain gutters!

Growing up, we loved getting a Christmas card from one of the couples in our ward because it was like a car crash--you didn't want to read it, but couldn't stay away from it. Bless their hearts, this couple would explain, in horrific detail, all about their numerous illnesses. One year, they just had one illness occur after another. *Ralph had gall bladder surgery, got an infection in the wound, fell and broke his hip, and had a nasty cold for two months. While *Martha got a peppercorn stuck in her gums, had a wicked hangnail that got infected, and had to tend to all of Ralph's injuries. And that was just the month of January. It was an eleven page letter.

But our all time favorite Christmas letter comes from one of our cousins. She has like 14 kids, and literally uses the Christmas letter to detail the minutia of their lives. I can't handle it! Here is a direct quote from this year's letter:

"*Melissa (19) has completed her Associates Degree, she is only in her third semester of college. Melissa is a member of Kappa Delta Sorority where she is in charge of academics since she has the best GPA in the sorority. Melissa is a delivery person for Domino's pizza, and she likes it when the football camps are in session because they order lots of pizza and the boys give her big tips because they think she is cute."

Are you kidding me? Even if that is true, which come on Melissa, it isn't, I don't want to hear about it! I had a pretty good GPA in college too, but you had better believe I wasn't going to include that information in a Christmas card!

But for everyone else who is able to self-edit, keep those cards coming! Merry Christmas!

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent/injured.

Bubble Wrap Calendar

How fun is this idea. . . we all love to pop the bubble wrap that our beloved packages come in and now there is a calendar available with a bubble to pop each day! Love it!

Don't You Know the Answer to This Question?

I was at the grocery store today stocking up for our Bird Girls Candy-Making Extravaganza and was reminded me of a question I've had since the evolution of the debit card.  With all our strides in modern technology, why can't we come up with a card swiper that notifies the cashier if I've selected "debit" or "credit?"  I've swiped my card, and physically pushed the button that says "debit" - yet you still have to ask me every time!  I just don't understand!

Holiday Things I Love

These are some things I am loving about the holiday so far . . .

Music

In addition to my favorite Christmas songs that I listed previously, Amazon is doing 25 days of free Christmas music . . . a new free download is available each day. How fun is that! You've got to love that Elliott Yamin of American Idol fame (sort of) has a holiday album.

Smells

I am loving the Vanilla Bean Noel scent by Bath and Body Works. I have it in a soap and my new favorite thing is my oil warmer from the same store. A few drops of flavored oil on my little plug-in warmer and my house is smelling delicious!

Shopping
Surprisingly, I haven't even seen the inside of a mall this holiday season. Thanks to Costco, and favorite websites like Amazon, Etsy and Ebay . . . it's all taken care of . . . and being shipped to my home . . . another of my favorite things! This is definitely the way to do it.

Shoveling
I am finally getting smart and this year I am having a nice company shovel my walks for me . . . wahoo! You have no idea how exciting it was to come home last night after a significant snowstorm and have the driveway and sidewalks all done. Normally, I would have come home late and been out with my neighbors trying to chip away the frozen, crunchy, icy layers of snow in the dark . . . so worth it!
Website
You know how I love a good website. I have been enjoying this one about how to have a Christ Centered Christmas. It has great suggestions to help with the true meaning of the holiday.

Weather Weary

Things That Must End Now:
1. Can we please stop with the meterologists telling us these snowstorms are great because we need the moisture? In his weather report tonight, Kevin Eubank said multiple times how it was an "impressive" storm and "we're not complaining" because we need the moisture. Well, I'm complaining, Kevin! You come and shovel my driveway and we'll see how you like the moisture then!
2. The word "moisture."

We Drove All Night...

Okay, we really flew for an hour and a half, but Celine Dion doesn't have a song titled that. That's right, the girls went to Phoenix last weekend to see Celine Dion in concert. Try not to be jealous. We had tried to get tickets for her concert in Salt Lake, but it sold out too quickly, so of course we decided to fly to another city to see her. Which ended up being good thinking on our part because Celine up and postponed her Salt Lake show.

Anyhoo, we had had the tickets for almost a year, and were really excited to go, especially to get out of the cold for a couple of days. We flew in on Fridee, and got to utilize my one perk from my old job. I am a Hertz gold member, so when we got our rental car, we just got to go to our stall and my name was in lights. It's kind of dark, but it makes me feel fancy.

So since all we do is eat and shop, we went to the Cheesecake Factory where I had the best guacamole I think I've ever had. It was delightful. And then we got a holiday surprise in the form of a peppermint chocolate cheesecake. We loved it! Here's a shot of Julie enjoying it. Doesn't it look good?

Then we went shopping, and I have to tell you, out of state Macy's have the best deals! They actually have current, semi-hip clothes, rather than the frumpy old lady clothes that our Macy's seem to carry. That night, we ate at Aunt Chalada's. Isn't that a great name?

Saturday, we woke up to fantastic weather! Our hotel had a great pool area, and I think we were the only guests in the hotel. So we were lounging at the pool in December. I could not have been mroe thrilled. And then, it was time to see Celine. We went to the arena, and they have built all kinds of restaurants right around there, so we had a nice time there before the show. They had a big jumbo tron that was filming everyone passing by, so here we are on the big screen:

I tell you what, that Celine can sing. She put on a great show (unless you're reading this Lilli--in which case it wasn't good), except when she tries to dance. I imagine that's either what I currently look like dancing, or what I will look like when I'm older.

So thanks for a good time ladies. Maybe next year we can go see Barry Manilow or Neil Diamond!

12 Days of Christmas Sock

I came home tonight with a fun surprise on my doorstop . . . this huge Christmas sock filled with presents and this little note:

Julie
Again Santa's Elves are in disguise
Bringing you a stocking of surprise.
So, Julie please enjoy,
And unwrapping skills employ
Until Christmas Eve arrives
Knowing you are a blessing in our lives.

Love,
Santa's Elves

It made my night! Last year I got a similar fun surprise and it looks like the elves are back. I don't feel worthy to get it again and have no idea who would do this for me out here. It kills me to not know who it is so that I can appropriately thank them for the gifts and for the fun that I have each day until Christmas. I try to employ my detective skills by figuring out the handwriting, but to no avail. So, I placed a bunch of "Thank You" notes in bright yellow on my front door so that they will know how much I appreciate it, when they hopefully drive by to make sure that I have the gift.

This brings back fun Christmas memories for me with our cute Mom. She always chose a few families in the neighborhood to do the 12 Days of Christmas for and she would spend a lot of time figuring out the gift, a clever card and then have us kids or Dad do the doorbell dodging. Now, it's fun to be the receiver of someone else's generosity. This large sock is brilliant because you don't have to try and sneak around for 12 days . . . just once with all the gifts loaded inside for the receiver to open each day. Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing out here all this way by myself, and then I get something like this and it makes a big difference. So, to whomever gave me this nice gift I say a big "Thanks!". I'll have to share some of the surprises as I open them.

Eva New, We Love You!

On Monday for FHE our ward was going caroling at various retirement centers. It's one of those activities that you really don't want to go to, but know you should. I got the FHE guilt pretty bad and I sucked it up and went. And of course, I was really glad I did. The highlights:

Eva New, who happened to be in the lobby when we came in. From her motorized wheelchair, she took it upon herself to give us a full tour of the retirement center. She then took us to see her room. The tour included: The main room (which serves as a kitchen, living room, and bedroom); her bathroom; and her window, from which she watches all the cars go by.

So we get Eva all situated in her recliner and sing her a carol. We say goodbye. We get no further than the next room down when here comes Eva on her walker to join us! We had a new caroling buddy, and she was a treat.

I also enjoyed the old man who answered the door and then requested rather obscure songs, like Silver Bells. When we finished he was nowhere in sight. Pretty soon he emerged and started taking pictures of us!

To sum up, I heart old people.

Julie's Essential Christmas Collection

Now that we are finally in December, I can finally stomach the stations that play all Christmas, all the time. This is a list of my all-time favorite Christmas songs:

1. "Where Are You Christmas" by Faith Hill - This song was in the movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I never saw the movie, but as soon as I heard the song, I loved it!

2. "Believe" by Josh Groban - from the Polar Express movie. Another one I haven't seen, but I am in love with this song . . . and Josh Groban!

3. We've mentioned this one a lot . . . Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You". All I can envision when I hear this one now are Melinda and Kristen's tapping skills to the beat of this song.

4. Amy Grant - I LOVE all of her Christmas albums. I have the classic versions with her long hair and before she was Mrs. Vince Gill. Since then she has put out several Christmas compilations. My favorites are, "Breathe of Heaven" and "My Grown Up Christmas List".

5. "Another Christmastime Without You" by Michael Damian. That's right, in my younger years of soap opera devotion, Michael Damian was pretty foxy on The Young and the Restless. He sang this on a Christmas episode and from then on I have been hooked. It's totally in my iTunes play list . . . yes, I paid to get this song. Laugh if you want, but it's a goody.

6. "Mary, Did You Know" - I love both the Donny Osmond version and the Clay Aiken version. No mocking allowed!

7. Speaking of Donny Osmond, my all-time favorite is "Baby, What You Goin' To Be". Now, you can't find this on iTunes. It's a classic from 1997 that is hard to find . . . but I am proud to say that I own it.

We Have a Winner!

Because the 5,000 person hasn't been flushed out, we are choosing to give our prize to Michelle (big cheers!) for being 5,001 and brave enough to comment. Michelle, e-mail your address to me and I will send you our special prize. One of the Bird Girls' favorite things . . . (Drumroll please) . . . a bag of chocolate covered cinnamon bears by V Chocolates (accept no substitutions). They are phenomenal and we hope you enjoy them. We appreciate all the comments and feedback on our little blog.

GIVEAWAY!!

As of this writing, we are four hits away from 5,000! Look at the hit counter below - if it says "5,000" while you are reading this post, make a comment and identify yourself (yes, even you - our friendly "blogstalkers"). You will receive a wonderful prize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Can't Believe I Watched the Whole Thing...And That I'm Blogging About it Now

If you were a female at BYU from 2000-2004, you or one of your roommates likely had “Center Stage” in your apartment. I'm not sure why – the movie's really not even good. So I was mildly amused when I saw the straight-to-TV sequel “Center Stage: Turn it Up” was starting. I thought I would amuse myself by watching the first couple of minutes to see how bad it was. Well, the joke was on me - I watched the whole thing, and folks, it's better than the original. When does that ever happen?

All the bad stuff about the first movie is gone – the annoying Jodi character, “real” issues like anorexia and no-good men. But Peter Gallagher and Ethan Steiffel (Cooper) both return, and The Coop has lost the floppy hair and mercifully improved his acting skills.

The role of the Privileged White Boy love interest is Tommy (played by a guy named Kenny!), a former hockey player turned ballerina (Get it? He's totally straight) who also has a killer Boston accent (“my teacha says I gotta get some fi-ya (fire)”).

And that's really all you need to know – that and the fact that I might make you watch it when it comes out on DVD. So get ready!

Melinda's

So I'm finally responding to Julie's tag about my house. I feel kind of silly posting about my house because a) it's really quite small, and 2) it is literally a rectangular box. So if you don't mind looking at lots of square walls, here are the 10 things I think are neat about my house. Please enjoy

1. My pool! This was sadly one of the main requirements I wanted when I bought my house. My realtor kept trying to show me places without a pool, but I wasn't having it. There are normally chairs out there, and water in the pool, but that's what you get in December.

2. Visitor parking. When I was house shopping, Julie was adament that there be plenty of visitor parking. Luckily, there is ample parking--apparently, you can even park your large trailer in front of my house if you'd like!

3. My "backyard." One of the other things I love is that I don't have to mow my lawn! My friendly neighborhood lawn crew comes every week to mow, trim and weed. Sometimes, I sit on my back deck with my magazines and drink while they go to town making everything look nice. Could I be any more lazy?

4. My thermostat. I am always cold, even in the Summer. So I love being able to crank my heat in the Winter! I don't love the bill so much, but it's a little gift I give myself. Merry Christmas Melinda!

5. I really love having a garage. Along with a pool, this was one of my requirements in a house. I'm a pretty savvy shopper, right? Not having to scrape my windows in the Winter is a dream for me. This also doubles as my...

6. Home Gym! Isn't this fancy? I tend to be a slacker in the going to the gym department, and when it's cold outside, I talk myself out of going. When I moved here, the closest gym was 15 minutes away, so I let my membership lapse, and now I just run down to the garage to work out, but sadly, I still talk myself out of running most of the time.

7. This is also where I have a really neat board to hang all of my tools. Well fine, I actually only have one tool to hang on my peg board! So if anyone knows a man who needs a place to hang up his tools, I am currently leasing out some space. And my love. :)

8. Dining room table. This will seem like a weird thing to like, but this was the first piece of furniture that I bought for my house. I walked into Down to Earth, saw my table, and literally 22 seconds later, was in line paying for it. I also like...

9. My wall of photos. The picture in the middle is the Bountiful Temple, which I went through for the first time, and surrounding that are pictures of people I love. So even when those people don't utilize my visitor parking to come see me, it's like they're really there!

10. And finally, like Julie, I love having lots of closets all to myself! I love organizing them how I want (by color and sleeve length--it's my OCD!), and having enough room for these babies:

That is all.