A taste of Cali in SLC

I just found out through my job that a food truck is starting up (heh heh) in Salt Lake this week! When we were in L.A. I really wanted to try the trucks they have selling "Korean tacos" and other fusion foods, but we didn't have time. Now we have one of our own in Utah. They'll let people know where they are on Twitter and the Web. If you want to see pics of their food visit their in-development Web site at www.chowtruck.com. Looks good to me!

A Most Excellent E

What a treasure we have in Emma. Our big girl, who just enjoyed her first Young Women activity and who is already being sought as a babysitter, has of course grown and changed as the years have gone by. But her cheerful spirit, her native enthusiasm, her conscientiousness and quirkiness, her optimism and desire to help, have been with her since she came to us from Heavenly Father. What wonder and delight we experience, seeing the world through her eyes! What wackiness we enjoy as a result of knowing her! What joy she brings to our home!

She was partying on her actual birthday (at a New Year's Eve sleepover) so the opening of her family gifts was fairly low-key ... or as low-key as she gets!

She got a "Real Heroes" poster of Ammon, her favorite person from the Book of Mormon. This line of posters is just incredible; check them out at http://www.realheroposters.com/magento/. I'm half-tempted to put some up in my own room!

A box of riddles and practical-joke ideas. Right up her alley.

She begged and begged for this hot-chocolate gift set from Sam's Club, with "hug mugs" that you hold in both your hands while you sip from elongated rims. So I was glad when they went on deep discount right after Christmas!



Emma's entire class learned to knit hats with round looms. The 24 students ended up giving more than 100 hats to The Road Home (a homeless shelter), in addition to making several fine speci-mines for themselves, like the one Em's sporting above! Needless to say, we now own a set of looms and several bags of yarn.

I thought of writing that achievement comes naturally to Emma, but that would be downplaying the incredible effort she puts into her responsibilities, interests and passions. She worries about doing well and works hard to make sure she does the best she can. And, always, there's her great enthusiasm. Here, she's celebrating winning a literature award in the Reflections program. Emma, for WHO you are even more than what you do, we are proud of you! Happy 12th birthday, and may your future be as bright and joyful as your past!

The Twelve (or more) Days of Christmas

As with many other years, the kids' Christmas kept coming, even after the actual day, with packages from South Dakota and Texas. Above, they look over treats and books from Grandma and Grandpa Kratz (those Pez were gone by the end of the day).


Emma loves books by Margaret Peterson Haddix (among many, many others), so she was psyched to get a new one from G&G Kratz.

Max built this little pyramid of marshmallows. Then he ate 'em. Right off the table.

Greg's cousins, Steve and David Thum, sent the kids $15 gift cards to Barnes and Noble. You couldn't give my kids a present they'd like more than that: books, and shopping for them!

Dancing with happiness after getting the gift cards.

A day or two after these pics were taken, the girls got Christmas gifts from Uncle Z, most notably a video game called "Chicken Shoot" that is their new favorite activity. I've been using it to bribe them: "Clean up and then you can play 'Chicken Shoot.'" "Finish your homework so you'll have time for 'Chicken Shoot.'" Thanks, Uncle Z! The only down side is that my kids run around the house yelling, "Chickenshoot! Chickenshoot!" which, of course, sounds a bit unfortunate if you're not precise with the vowels.

Had ourselves a merry little Christmas

Is there a more perfect day than Christmas morning, watching kids get their hearts' desire (at least for the moment) and admire one another's gifts; seeing the excitement in their eyes as they give us the things they've picked out or made (that whimsical snowman in the above pic was made by Grace, and both Kate and Em also gave us homemade presents), and then wallowing in candy and books and games and toys (interrupted only by ham consumption) for the rest of the day? If there is, I don't know what that day would look like. See that outfit I'm in? Never got out of it for the rest of the day. Merry Christmas, indeed!

Max got an awesome and HUGE Buzz Lightyear to match the Woody doll he inherited from Grace. It talks. Its wings snap out at the press of a button. Its helmet does that WHOOSH! thing. This is a cool toy!

Scarves. Liked 'em.

Max told everybody who asked that Santa was bringing him a racetrack. Looks like the old guy (or, as he's called on "NCIS," Admiral Whitebeard) delivered.

Pink pig. Pink scarf. Pink jammies and pink Barbie with pink sword and pink skirt that converts into a dashing pink cape. Life is good in Kate World!

Em got a cool patchwork shoulder bag from Aunt Lisa.

Daddy got a book about ... yes, you guessed it. The expression on his face may be due in part to a gentleman's agreement he and I made long before Christmas in which we decided NOT to buy one another any presents, counting the big-screen TV and Blu-Ray player as our Christmas. I almost immediately broke it and bought him presents (from the kids and from "Santa," mostly). The thing he so foolishly forgot is this: I'm not a gentleman. I'm a lady.

The "you weren't supposed to buy me presents" bitterness couldn't hold up long at the sight of a tabletop air hockey table that really works. He played a few games with the kids and, as a result, decided the game would be safer at work.

Unlike most little boys, Max likes getting clothes. He called these "big big-boy pants."

Kate hugs Grace to thank her for the Disney princess Polly Pocket set, a gift from Grace and Max.

Boy, do Grammy and Ba know Gracie. One of their gifts to her was a super-soft and velvety velour outfit with a satin-lined hood on the jacket.

Grammy and Ba gave Max (among other things) a little bucket of rubber bugs. I keep finding them in the plants.

Fancy Nancy is one of Kate's favorites; here's her "splendiferous" Christmas story, a gift from GG&G Kratz.

Grace got a Tinkerbell doll, which is no big surprise. What's great about this one is that it has a fabric body, so it's SOFT!

I like the look of gleeful anticipation they have as they open gifts ... this one turned out to be paintable Pixie Hollow figurines from the Thomases.

Emma gasps as she opens that big box to find ...

... a really big E!

Aunt Jen, Uncle Brad and cousins gave Max a "rotten." Don't they both have adorable faces?

Settin' up the racetrack. It really is pretty darn cool. I have often observed that boys seem to have the coolest toys. Is that just a reflection of my personality, or is it true?

Greg makes a grimacing, two-finger effort in a game of "Hungry Hungry Hippos" with the girls. Turns out Grace is an ace at this game. Characteristically, she bides her time and watches for the marbles that she CAN get, then gulps 'em down lightning-quick.

Max was very psyched to get four "Cha-Chow" sippy cups. He carried them around for the rest of the day and, by Christmas night, had drunk from at least three of them.

The unstoppable duo of Woody and Buzz Lightyear! We wrote "MAX" on their shoes with Sharpies.

Daddy enjoying his favorite part of Christmas festivities ... funeral potatoes, Jell-O salad, big frosty Coke and ALL THE HAM YOU CAN EAT! Actually, I don't mind that part much myself ...

Welcome, Christmas!

We got the Christmas season off to a great start with Cass and Jason on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, visiting Temple Square to see the lights. This display is amazing; as many times as we've gone, it never gets old for me or for the kids, who can't get enough of it. My brother-in-law, Brad, is something of a lights connoisseur, and this place would be his nirvana. I'm not going to put many captions on these ... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (in the interest of fairness, I should mention that Cass took many of them!).










We celebrated a mini-Christmas with Cass and Jason after we got back, dressing festively in Christmas cracker paper crowns and (apparently) college alma mater T-shirts. Sure, the dinner was Chinese food, but it felt holiday-ish, nonetheless, in a "Christmas Story" way.

Christmas princesses

We also had a gift exchange, which was the kids' favorite part of the post-lights evening.


A week later, we got around to putting up the tree; note the bags and boxes of holiday stuff in the background. In those boxes, Max found two things he liked: year-old candy canes (they're not bad, actually!) and a Santa hat.

That same week, the girls performed at the Festival of Trees, a beautiful annual event that we do as a Mommy-and-kids activity because 1) Daddy's usually not home from work by the time we have to be there; and 2) he HATES the crowds that accompany such events. Our Christmas performers looked beautiful and sounded great!

Em had duets with both Kate and Grace, and they performed alone. Gracie was very nervous, as usual, and her song sounded beautiful!


Kate's got some major concentration going here.


Stac's favorite tree: shockingly, it was "Lord of the Rings" themed. Look at all that merchandise on the floor! I want it! It should be mine, my own, my precious!

The girls, on the other hand, fell in love with the "Labyrinth" themed tree. I want to know where they got all the merchandise from that movie; it was kind of a flop when it came out!

Kate's very, very favorite thing was the clay nativity of PIGGIES!

Em asked to take him home. I said she could if she carried him out to the van herself.

Em and Grace also performed in their school Christmas choir the next week and did a great job. Grace was concentrating so hard on the choir director that she didn't see Max's repeated attempts to wave to her. She didn't miss a word or a cue (and Emma would want me to hasten to say that she didn't, either!). The last day of school before Christmas break was the sing-along, a wonderful event that gave me more Christmas spirit than anything else this season. Nothing feels as luminously joyous as listening to elementary-schoolers belt out "Twelve Days of Christmas" at top volume, and you can take that to the bank!

We were so lucky to have Aunt Jen come for a few days. She had great timing: she caught several recitals and performances, the Johnson family Christmas party (more on that in a sec) and got to come to school to help with gingerbread house building in Kate's class!

Kate's friend, Janell, brought treats for everybody, and she gave Max one. He felt like a member of the class.

Kate and Janell work on their creations.


Max chats with Janell during gingerbread-house construction. OK, they're actually graham-cracker houses, but they look pretty dang decent!

Due to my amazing organizational skills, we somehow missed the fact that we had a piano recital that night. We were at Wal-Mart when Rozann called to see if we were coming. We rushed down, sans music, and Emma got up and did a beautiful job singing "Ave Maria" (it's all in Latin, mind you!) from memory. I was very proud of her. Gracie was at a sleepover birthday party, so she didn't perform, but Kate and Em both played piano. I started thinking that maybe I should just spring recitals on them every time, because they both did wonderful performances.

Christmas isn't Christmas for me until we've had the Johnson family Christmas party. Jen and I were privileged earlier in the week to go out and help G&G Johnson finish the MANY batches of caramel popcorn they must make to have enough for every family in our big, ever-growing group. At the party, I helped with the kids' white elephant gift exchange. I didn't see anybody disappointed, so I guess it was a success!

Two of my favorite people, looking great at the party.

Gram directed the music during the nativity program, which seems to get wackier, from a costuming standpoint, every year. This may be because I always end up doing the costumes (for example, that's Grace being a sheet-sheep, and Emma's wise-man "beard" is her hair braided under her chin) ...

One of our last Christmas tune-ups was a second piano recital; Rozann wanted us to come so Grace could perform. They all did very well, performing the same music they did at the Festival of Trees. I had them all sit at the piano for this picture; note Em's dramatic, "yes, I am a MUSICIAN," pose.


I love the little dude waving in the background!

The kids love taking lessons from Rozann (that's her, above), her daughter, Holly, and their staff. I have been very happy with their progress and, most importantly, with the confidence and enjoyment they have gained from playing the piano. This studio really emphasizes the joy of music, and I love that. Listening to my girls play "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" and "The First Noel" and "Silent Night" was one of the best parts of this Christmas season.