Ridiculously Idyllic

We cut our own tree this year. It was nothing like Christmas Vacation. It was one of those ridiculously idyllic days that happen only very occasionally; and which trick you into starting some sort of tradition because you hope it'll always be like that.

Ford should put us in a commercial, that kind of idyllic. Well, except for how N looks like he's about to crawl under the truck.

And yes, we lasted two months as homeowners in Utah before we bought a truck

The Barter Bar

So, in my rural Utah location there is a call in classifieds radio show. So every morning on one of the local radio stations you can call in and let all the faithful listeners know that you're selling your old tires, or goats, or spinning wheel. Perfect for getting rid of my moving boxes I thought. But here's the thing, it's really hard to get through. People are just burning up the line trying to get the word out on their junk. So, I had to resort to email, which they read on air. Then my line was burning up with people who wanted to come and get my free boxes.
The lucky recipient? My garbage man. Yup. He said, "Oh, I know where you're at I pick up your garbage on Thursday mornings." When he came we had a nice conversation about trash, you know, how my neighbors forget to put out their garbage, or the lady who lived her before me didn't produce much. Turns out that's what living in a small town's like.

Alternatively

Alternatively, I can just release the J-vac.

You're Gonna Be So Jealous

If you are well over 30 and/or have multiple children you're so jealous:

That is the central vac intake located underneath my kitchen cabinets, which means I don't need a dustpan. I just sweep all the crumbs, cheerios, and dried mac right over in front of it, flip the switch and it all gets sucked away. So, until the boys realize how cool it is and suck up something sticky and it ceases to work I am just going to enjoy it... it and the rest of our new house.

The Party

We did a combined birthday party for my boys this year. It was supposed to be N's turn but since he wasn't too pleasant on his actual birthday,

I decided three-year-olds aren't ready for mass present reception and we went with the combined party, no gifts.

Since we have so many boxes I decided we'd build a box city at the party. This is part of the reason I couldn't just call it off after N's shenanigans at the family party. This was the perfect plan to re-use my boxes (and be forgiven by mother earth for the carbon footprint of those pants...maybe).

Pre-party, land development, - with cousin D
Cousin D really got into the whole thing
Creating the building of their choice

The nice thing about moving so much, is that you only have to be slightly creative once, then you can do it over and over...
N loved using the glue

city at completion

It really got fun when we pulled the basket of matchbox cars out.

Defending the Galaxy (again)

I made my boys use the same costumes as last year (they were great costumes), plus we had an important addition:

Nacho is a lot easier to throw together than Chewbacca

A full range of anticipatory emotions

Sometimes I Worry

Sometimes I worry:
that I'm doing this parenting thing all wrong
that the tone in our voices and in our house is too critical
that I spend too much time organizing and cleaning and party planning
that while I worry, I don't seem to be able to change