Christmas Wrap-Up

My Christmas was a whirlwind of organized chaos. That may not make sense to a lot of people, but the description fits my holiday season perfectly.

1. The girls made their Christmas gift lists before Thanksgiving. I like their lists, especially this year. They didn’t have anything too outrageous on them, and they each only listed 13 items.

2. The weekend after Thanksgiving, the girls walked a couple blocks to our local ShopKo and purchased two Wilton gingerbread house kits. They brought them home and with just a little assistance from me (mixing the icing and loading it into the bags), they were off and running, building and decorating their adorable, little houses.

3. We got the tree up about a week after Thanksgiving. It was a practically painless project for me. I put the three pre-lit tree pieces together and plugged the strings of lights together and the girls did the rest… fluffing up the tree branches and hanging the ornaments and candy canes. I put the star on top and the skirt around the bottom. It took us about a half an hour total, and I was fixing dinner for most of that time…

4. I started my Christmas shopping on Saturday, December 10, which was the day after payday. I spent pretty much my whole paycheck on gifts for the girls, but it only took me one afternoon and I had most the gifts on their lists checked off. I also had a blast doing this shopping with my dear friend, Caren, whom I rarely get to “go out” with.

5. I crocheted a little pink hat for my granddaughter and tied a small “silky” quilt for her on December 18.

6. We took the girls to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork on December 20. This is one of our Christmas traditions. It’s the best! It’s not too far from where we live, it’s only $5 per carload, and you can drive around and around the park as many times as you want.

7. I made a “tacky” Christmas sweater for my work party that was held on December 22… and won the “Ugly Christmas Sweater” contest!

8. I took the afternoon of December 23 off work. It was payday, and I finished most of the rest of my Christmas shopping. Then it was off to my biological father’s family Christmas party in West Jordan. That house was so packed full of people it was difficult to move, let alone chat with everyone. This is the first Christmas since I found my father, so it was nice to be invited to share in one of his family’s traditions.

9. First thing in the morning of Christmas Eve, I ran around town picking up the last few gifts I needed to buy. I picked up the girls and we went out to lunch. Then my little elves wrapped all the presents (except those from Father Christmas of course). Our little cat, Maddie, tried to be an elf also, but she was, in truth, a destructive, gift wrap tearing, ribbon eating little beastie. I tidied up a bit and the girls went to bed after I read them “A Visit from St. Nicholas”. Then Santa got to work. It only took about 15 minutes to stuff stockings and wrap gifts in the special Santa paper. I got to go to bed at 11:00! I believe this was the first Christmas in about 22 years that I have made it to bed before 1:00 a.m. It was a Christmas miracle!

10. Christmas morning started dark and early… 6:30 a.m. The girls were very happy with their gifts, and I’ve got to tell you… they were more excited to see me open my gifts than they were to open their own. They even let Corbin and me open our special gifts BEFORE they opened their gifts from Santa Claus. Another Christmas miracle! The girls played their Wii games for awhile and let the adults rest a bit. Then we all got ready and made the trip to my parents’ house. We were the first ones there… another Christmas miracle!

11. Almost everyone in my family was there. Most importantly, my son, Anthony, had flown in from Nevada for Christmas. I hadn’t seen him since June. We made and ate smoked turkey and/or ham sandwiches, baked potatoes and pie… lots of pie. We all exchanged gifts and watched as everyone took turns opening (my family’s tradition). There was a lot of laughter and love, as always.

12. Left my parents’ house and went to my wife-in-law’s parent’s house in Provo to drop off their gifts. My girls got to spend some time with their sister, Indigo, and their “Aunt Christy”, “Aunt Nikki” and “Grandma Sindy”. We hung out for awhile and then headed home for another round of family togetherness.

13. We live with my in-laws, so my husband’s family party is where we live. My mother-in-law made some spiral cut ham, homemade mac and cheese and potato salad. A lot of the family showed up and the girls had a lot of cousins to hang out with for a few hours. Then we dragged our exhausted selves to bed.

14. I took a bunch of “kids” to Jump On It in Lindon the day after Christmas. Anthony, Danielle (and her husband, Tyson), Maya, Penelope, my niece, Serenity, and my granddaughter, Addalie. The girls had a blast. My adult kids… not so much. They are realizing that you can’t do as much when you get older without it causing aches and pains in your aging body. LOL! It was good to all be together and for all my kids to get to spend some time together doing something fun.

15. Later that night some of the family went out to eat at Village Inn. Delicious comfort food as always… and pie! It was the last time I’d get to see Anthony, as his flight was the next morning at 6:00. I’m glad we got a chance to spend a little more time with him.

16. And it’s not over yet! My brother, Brandon and his fiancée just flew in yesterday, and I need to get over to my parents’ house to see them. And, my birth mother and her husband are coming to our house this Saturday to exchange gifts.

It was the best Christmas I have had in a long, long time. I even managed to mail out all my Christmas cards in time for everyone to get them BEFORE Christmas. And with the girls doing most of the “grunt work”, I was able to relax and enjoy more of the season than I have in years! I would have taken pictures, but my camera’s been broken for awhile now. I took a few with Maya’s new camera, and maybe I’ll post them sometime in the near future.

More Random Christmas Memories

My siblings and I used to put on a Christmas pageant for our parents. I was always Mary, my brother, Joel, was Joseph, my brother, Brandon, was usually a shepherd, and my baby sister, Emily, was Baby Jesus. We wore robes and tied bath towels on our heads. The manger was our red vinyl beanbag chair. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.


Here are the four of us on one little sled: Me, Joel, Brandon and Emily






My dad always used his pocket knife to unwrap his gifts, and offered it to anyone who had trouble with ribbon on a gift or tape on a box. Nothing says “Christmas” like a small, sharp knife.

Santa Claus always put fresh oranges, pears and apples in our stockings, along with nuts still in their shells. Inevitably, our stockings were full of a rotting, gooey fruit and nut science experiment about the middle of January.

My mom would usually put away one gift for each of us until New Year’s. I grew up thinking that everyone got a gift on New Year’s.

My dad would take us caroling around the neighborhood, and then make his famous hot cocoa for us when we got home.


Dad pulling me on a sled in the back yard ~ 1973




We children usually all slept in my room on Christmas Eve. A couple kids in the bed and a couple in sleeping bags on the floor. Lots of giggling! Chidren's anticipation of Christmas morning so thick you could cut it with a knife (maybe my dad’s pocket knife). I don’t know how late we usually stayed awake, but I do remember how difficult it was to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.

Our family always had Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve evening, and cold turkey sandwiches on rolls on Christmas Day.

Watching all the Bass/Rankin stop motion Christmas specials on television… and the cartoons (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol…). This was back before people had VCR’s in their homes, or cable television for that matter. We waited all YEAR to see these specials, and if we missed a special, we MISSED it until the next year.

My mom’s side of the family always had a Christmas party in December. Everyone brought pot luck to eat. We all SANG carols together, while someone in the family accompanied on the piano. We drew names each year for who we would give a gift to the next year. Santa Claus almost always showed up to these parties. No one sings at family Christmas parties anymore. Maybe that’s a tradition I can start with my kids and my siblings (hint, hint).

Ice skating at the Provo Boat Harbor.

Sledding down the hill (road) in front of our house.

Tubing by the beaver farm across the street from our house or Japs Hill. (Sorry, I know that’s politically incorrect, but that’s what that hill has been called since my dad was a little kid in the 1940’s.)

Building snowmen with my dad in the back yard and not thinking anything of the fact that he NEVER wore gloves.


Joel, Frosty and Me ~ 1977






And Christmas music... so much Christmas music! Jim Reeves, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Burl Ives, and on and on, and it was playing in our house beginning November 1. I know this is where I got my love for Christmas music.


Dad (without gloves OR jacket) building a snowman with Joel and Brandon ~ 1979

I Know Santa Claus (Even More Christmas Memories)

Santa and me ~ 1974


My dad is Santa Claus. Yeah, I know yours is too. But my dad had a custom made (by my master seamstress of a grandmother) Santa costume, complete with authentic Santa beard and granny glasses, that he would wear and come visit us when we were kids. Now don’t ask me where he changed into this costume. I STILL don’t know. Maybe in the car or in a phone booth (we had phone booths back then, you know)… maybe in our old chicken coop…

But I digress. We kids would all be in the house doing our own things, mom would be making dinner or whatever… and there would be a knock at the door. And who would it be? Santa Claus!!! My dad was such a good Santa Claus that he could visit his OWN children, and they didn’t suspect it was him. He would have us sit on his lap and tell him what we wanted for Christmas (damn sneaky, dad), and then give us each a candy cane. My mom would make sure to have the camera ready so we could pose for a group picture. And then he’d be off into the night. Dad would show up later and be really surprised that he missed Santa Claus… again. Dad played Santa Claus for other people in the neighborhood too occasionally, but he never did parties or got paid to do it. What a character. He continued playing Santa for his grandchildren after they came along.


Santa with my baby, Anthony ~ 1988


My grandma also made herself a Mrs. Claus costume that was adorable. I am still not sure where exactly she wore it, or why… more questions I need to ask my dad, I suppose. But don’t be alarmed if you see Santa Claus driving around Springville in a Buick… it’s just my dad. He’ll probably reach into his pockets and give you a candy cane and an orange, and ask you what you want for Christmas.



Grandma in her Mrs. Claus costume

Christmas Memories

My parents are Christmas People. They can barely wait ‘til after Halloween to start listening to Christmas music. They put up the tree (always a REAL one) the weekend after Thanksgiving. They’ve sent out literally thousands of Christmas cards over the years, and give gifts to everyone, including all the neighbors and the mailman. I am so grateful to them for instilling in their children a love for the holidays. There is no feeling better to me than the Christmas spirit.

Even when I was a child, I loved Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day. Of course I loved getting all the great gifts, but for me the FEELING of Christmas was better than any brightly wrapped gift. We weren’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, and some years I know my parents struggled financially especially around the holidays, but every Christmas was wonderful and memorable because the emphasis was never put on the gifts as much as the traditions and doing things as a family. This post and the next few will be about the holiday traditions my parents introduced and encouraged and my own childhood amalgam of Christmas memories.

Over the River and Through the Woods

The kickoff of the holiday season in my house was always Thanksgiving. Most Thanksgivings while I was growing up were celebrated at my Grandma’s house in Ogden. We traveled over I-15 and through most of four counties, but there were no rivers or woods to be found. My dad’s brothers and sister and their respective families always came too. I remember getting into Grandma’s sewing room closet with my cousins in search of games to play as we waited for what seemed like eternity for dinner to be ready. I don’t remember much about dinner itself, just the family all being together and getting to play with my cousins.

With Grandma at her house - 1980 (Lyn, Brandon, Joel and Emily)

After Thanksgiving dinner, we would wait for darkness to fall and then pile in the car and travel to downtown Ogden to “see the lights”. Since 1962 (it’s older than I am!!!), Ogden City has been transforming its downtown park into Christmas Village from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. This was a very important tradition in our family. The “village” is beautiful and fun and full of cottages with animated elves and other things children adore. We had to bundle up like we were literally visiting the North Pole because one does not drive through this display. One WALKS. After wandering through the village and seeing everything there was to see, we would get in line for Santa’s Castle. This was the best “Santa’s Helper” on the face of the earth. After sitting on his lap and whispering your Christmas wish in his ear, he would give you a candy cane, and I swear that those candy canes were made with the best peppermint in the universe... peppermint grown deep under the ice at the North Pole, and harvested by specially trained peppermint elves.



As a child, the Christmas Village was simply magical. A city park transformed into a Christmas paradise! The best part of the Christmas Village and Santa’s Castle (for the parents, that is) is that it was completely free. The generous people who put this whole thing on did it for the community and for the sake of tradition. They didn’t even have the sale of “professional” pictures taken with Santa Claus. If parents wanted pictures of their kids on Santa’s lap, they had to remember to bring their own cameras and take their own snapshots.



When I was a teenager, we started having Thanksgiving dinner at our house just for our six-member family instead of going to Grandma's house,and for the first few years it just didn’t feel like Thanksgiving. Eventually, I adjusted to the change (man, I hate change!). We still went to “see the lights” in Ogden sometime during the holidays though. I even took my older two children once when they were small. I’m definitely going to have to make the trip this year with my younger kids.

More memories tomorrow…

Christmas Movies

Christmastime is here!!! I love the Christmas season. Of course there are a lot of things about Christmastime that I don’t like, but those things all have to do with the commercialization of the holiday. I loathe shopping… I don’t like the crowded stores. I dislike the feeling that I’m spending too much for something at a particular store, but hate the thought of shopping multiple stores just to save a few bucks. The to-buy list plays on a continuous loop in my mind for a month, and then I inevitably experience the deer-in-the-headlights BLANK OUT brain the moment I walk through a store’s doors. “Why am I here again?”

But I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Christmas season, and one of my favorite things to do is laze about and watch Christmas movies. I've put together “Lyn’s Top 15 Christmas Movies” list for your perusal. First of all, some of these movies aren't your momma's Christmas movies. Second, If you’re a big musical fan, you won’t find any of your favorite Christmas movies on this list as I am not a fan of musicals. Third, I have not included all the Bass/Rankin stop motion or other animated television specials either, although I love them and find them comfortingly nostalgic. This is a list for full-length, theater-released films only. You have probably seen most of them, but maybe you’ll find a few on my list that you haven’t…


15. Scrooged (1988)~ Modern(ish), dark-humored interpretation of Dickens' story, with Christmas spirits visiting a cynical, selfish TV exec, played by Bill Murray.




14. Die Hard (1988) ~ Terrorists take over the Nakatomi Plaza on Christmas Eve, and John McClane must stop them.




13. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) ~ Amnesiac,former spy, Samantha Caine, must stop terrorists from detonating a chemical bomb in downtown Niagara Falls on Christmas Eve.




12. The Santa Clause (1994) ~ When Santa falls off his roof, a harried ad exec is required to assume the mantle.




11. Love Actually (2003) ~ Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.




10. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) ~ Kevin mistakenly travels to New York City without his family on Christmas.




9. Home Alone (1990) ~ Kevin is mistakenly left home alone by his family on Christmas.




8. The Ref (1994) ~ A thief can’t imagine what he’s in for when he holds a family hostage in their home on Christmas Eve.




7. The Holiday (2006) ~ Two women swap homes for the holidays and meet up with their dream men.







6. The Family Stone (2005) ~ A woman wants acceptance from eccentric clan at Christmastime.




5. Home for the Holidays (1995) ~ Recently unemployed, 40-year-old, Claudia, returns to her childhood home to spend Thanksgiving with her dysfunctional family.




4. Elf (2003) ~ A human who thinks he is an elf searches for his family in New York.







3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) ~ The Griswold family plans turn to disaster, this time at Christmas.




2. A Christmas Story (1983) ~ All Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder BB gun.




1. A Christmas Carol (too many adaptations to name) ~ The Charles Dickens classic Christmas tale. My favorite adaptations of A Christmas Carol have got to be the one from the 1970s with George C. Scott, the Muppets Christmas Carol with Michael Caine, and the newest Disney adaptation with Jim Carey. This story gets me EVERY TIME. I don't feel as if it's Christmas if I haven't seen some form of A Christmas Carol. I love the message that no matter what, if you're still breathing, you can TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND. There is always hope and a chance for redemption.

So, Dig out your favorite Christmas movies on VHS and DVD. Pop a big bowl of popcorn. Plop down in front of the tube, and enjoy!

P.S. Let me know what YOUR favorite holiday movies are too.