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.