15 Minutes of Fame and Santa

Earlier this week I got an email informing us that the "real" Santa would no longer be at Macy's Department store this year.  We have been visiting this Santa for 27 years!  Of course I was a little distressed by the news!  I headed over to their Facebook page and let them know I was disappointed in Macy's for hiring non-naturally bearded Santas!  Shame on them!  How dare they mess with our family's tradition.

A reporter from The Oregonian saw my comment and contacted me and asked if she could interview me over the phone.  She did and it was fun.  I also sent h er some of our family's Santa photos.  I knew it would be in the paper the next morning.  I got my paper and started looking through the Living section, the Metro section and no article!  Imagine my surprise when I turned the paper over and there we were on the front page!!  It must have been a slow news day in Portland.

You can go here to read the article from the paper.

Later that day I got a call from my neighbor Debbie that she had just a picture of us on the noon news on Channel 8 - guess they picked up the story.

And then later in the afternoon I got an email from Shauna Parsons, an anchor on Channel 12 asking if they could send a reporter over to interview us.  I said sure and then scrambled to get the house picked up.  I was in the middle of Christmas decorating and that is always a huge mess.  Fortunately one tree was up and decorated.
The cameraman and reporter arrived and we had a fun interview.  You can see the interview here.

So I guess we were famous - for a little while at least!!

Thanksgiving - Park City

We thought it would be fun for our family to get away by ourselves for a couple of days.  Just hang out together.  I am so glad we did.  We had so much fun.

Friday night I took a really hard fall down Wynn and Emily's wooden stairs (note to self:  do not walk down wooden stairs in tights (no shoes)  It is very slippery!)  I managed to land on my back and then my tailbone.  Thanks to some ice, a Priesthood blessing and some muscle relaxers I could at least move the next morning but I was moving pretty slow all weekend.

Logan was able to get us a great deal on a hotel room up at Park City so Saturday morning we headed up there.

We did a little Christmas shopping at the outlet mall and then went and checked into our room.  We got ready to have our family photo taken.  I wanted a photo in the snow so Park City was the perfect spot.  Our wonderful photographer (and Cali's voice teacher) met us up there.  She found the perfect spot and I LOVED how they turned out - I will post some later.

After that we went up to the Montage, a beautiful resort in Deer Valley where Logan has held meetings.  They have a fun s'more event each evening.  Yum - they had homemade cinnamon and pumpkin spice marshmallows!!

It was the perfect to warm up after our photo shoot - hot chocolate and s'mores!

I love hanging out with these guys!!!!

After that we went to dinner and back to the hotel room where we played some games and enjoyed the hot tub.  The kids really liked the spa robes!



Sunday morning Clark headed to the airport to pick up Jessica who had gone home for Thanksgiving and then we all went to church in Lindon to hear Ryan give his homecoming talk - he did amazing.  Tricia then hosted a big family dinner afterwards.  Yum!!


Monday we went down to BYU and met the girls for lunch at the MOA.  Tessa had a ton of money on her meal card after not eating in the Cannon Center all week so she treated.  Clark came over to join us and grab a sandwich too.  Emily and Addi were with us and then they drove us up to Salt Lake to catch our plane home.


We had a great week and can't wait for them all to be home again soon for Christmas!!!

Black Friday

On Black Friday we did do a little shopping but not until later in the afternoon.  We found a few good deals and Christmas gifts.  Clark stayed behind to study and get ready for finals.

The rest of us headed up to Salt Lake.  We wanted to go to the Grand America to see their Christmas windows.  It is a cute display and story of a penguin and a lost star.

  If you find the star in each of the windows you can go to one of their darling little shops for a free shortbread star cookie.  So yummy!

They were also in the process of building a full size gingerbread house.  It smelled so yummy!
We then had dinner in Salt Lake and then headed back south so we could go to the temple with Cade as he took out his endowments for his mission to Argentina!

The Wishbone

Cali claimed the wishbone. 
Cecila and Cali battled for the wish.

The wishbone wasn't quite ready to be wished with!