Sunday Dec 30, 2007

Subject: Christmas Holidays

Dear Family & Friends, 
Monday, we enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve. Meridith's parents kindly watched the
kids while she and I did a little last minute shopping. In the evening, we
enjoyed a nice meal with Meridith's family. Afterwards for FHE we watched Luke 2
and Mr. Krueger's Christmas.

Tuesday, we had an enjoyable Christmas. The kids slept in almost till 8:00
which was nice. We all enjoyed opening presents. Mariah got a new bike, Jayden
scored a scooter and Marshall got a stuffed Diego. Actually, Marshall saw his
stuffed Diego, grabbed him and then proceeded over to the couch and kept
repeating "Diego, Diego, Diego" and pointing at the TV. He refused to open
another present (even though ironically two of them were Diego DVDs he could
have watched). So we put one on for him to keep him happy and then enjoyed
watching Jayden and Mariah open their other presents. Later in the morning, we
went over to the park so Mariah and Jayden could try out their new modes of
transportation. Several of their friends were over there similarly equipped.
Jayden made a valiant attempt at riding the scooter, but got frustrated when he
couldn't keep up with Mariah on her bike or the other kids on their scooters so
he went back home to get his big wheel. We went over to Meridith's families
house in the afternoon, we enjoyed talking to Meridith's brother Kyle on the
phone and hearing about his missionary adventures in Argentina. In the evening,
Meridith's family came over to our house for Christmas dinner. Lots of good food.
All in all it was quite an enjoyable Christmas. However, right before bedtime
both Mariah and Jayden started complaining about sore throats and runny noses.
My nose had been running for pretty much the whole day and it looks like the
three of us were coming down with the cold that Marshall and Meridith were just
getting over.

Wednesday, we had a happy Boxing Day. The kids had fun playing with their new
toys and it was very relaxing. In the afternoon, we went over to Meridith's
families and exchanged gifts. Her grandparents on her Mom's side had come down
from Pine and it was fun visiting with them. They also treated us all to takeout
pizza from a nearby restaurant. We cooked up a Digorno for the kids who don't
appreciate all the toppings the rest of the adults crave. On the way home we
picked up a new vaporizer.

Thursday and Friday we enjoyed relaxing days at home. We did a good job at not
over exerting ourselves and trying to get over our colds. Fortunately, we had
plenty of toys to play with and movies to watch to keep our minds off of our
sufferings.

Saturday, Jayden and I went over to Costco and waited in a long return line,
but the wait proved worthwhile.  Many of you may recall that at the beginning of
the month Meridith and I "scored" a shop vac at the company party. Well, when we
were doing our Christmas shopping on Monday I was forced to wander all over
Costco because they like to shuffle everything periodically to make you do just
that knowing that you'll probably stubble across something and make an impulse
buy. This time however, their evil plan backfired when I spotted the exact same
brand of shop vac on their shelves and formed a plan of my own. I had just told
Meridith when we left the store on Monday that they have such good deals on
electronics, books, and entertainment type stuff at Costco that if I had could
probably easily blow $5000 bucks there without too much effort. So knowing that
without a receipt for the vacuum the best I could hope for was store credit, yet
I was perfectly fine with that. So Jayden and I took back the vacuum cleaner and
less than a half hour later walked out of there with a fair amount of store
credit that Meridith and I can spend on something that we might find a little
more useful or entertaining. In the evening, Meridith and I watched Stardust and
we both really enjoyed it. After returning from Utah where I started reading the
book I promptly requested it from the library in both printed and CD form
(undecided on which method I was going to use). Alas, I already had many books
from the library and so I had not gotten around to either of them. After
watching the movie, I felt motivated to read the book. However, when I opened it
I discovered that this book I had got was in Spanish (I had just requested it
online and picked it up off the hold shelf without cracking the cover and I
guess they made no effort to come up with a Spanish version of the title). So it
looks like I'm going to be going the CD route with this one.

Today, we enjoyed our church meetings. Meridith decided we should try not
putting Marshall down for a nap before our block of meetings to see if he would
be more subdued in Sacrament meeting. As I am fond of the saying, "Insanity is
doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results." I'm
usually up for trying something new. Alas, today's experiment could best be
described as my own corollary to this which goes, "Frustration is doing
something different and in fact more difficult and getting the same result". But
hey, "nothing ventured nothing gained" we "live and learn".

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Holiday.

Love,
Judd, Meridith, Mariah, Jayden, and Marshall

P.S.
Knock on some wood, but after reading some of your emails I realize so far
we've gotten off pretty easy as far as Holiday health goes. I hope everyone gets
feeling better soon.