CHRISTMAS!

It is so hard living away from family sometimes....especially when every time I come I have to become reacquainted with Zoe. But all I really have to do is show her "nay nays" on my phone and then we are friends again. I love how she called me Aunt D.

Jon and I are so lucky when it comes to splitting Christmas with the families. The Brownings celebrate/open presents on Christmas Eve...for the most part. While my family does the whole Christmas morning thing. So Christmas Eve with the Brownings (and occasionally the Quebbeman-Turley family will join us). And sleep over at the Q.Ts for Christmas morning.

Yes, it was Christmas Eve and I was still finishing knitting presents.

Elle was so into the tissue paper from the presents. I don't think she even noticed what was inside them. (Elle is Jon's sister's daughter...confusing?)

Christmas morning with the QTs. Zoe was the gift distributer. It's always more fun when a little kid is doing it.

To define my mother in one brief story. My mom was opening a present dad had given her. She was very excited and was opening it quickly. The wrapping was being stubborn and was hard to rip off, but she did it very forcefully...so no problem....except for the fact that she also ripped off the front cover of the book, which was her present. (One of the many ways I am like my mother...I think Jon is finally understanding where I get it from.)

I guess dad has always been into puzzles...I had never really tried until this vacation. SO addicting! We stayed up almost all night on Christmas Eve doing this puzzle....which was mostly of clouds and dirt, so it was kind of difficult.

 

You may see a common theme throughout some of this pictures. Hint: it involved Ginger our cat.

Jon is modeling the "scowl" I knitted him. I can't remember what name we decided to call it, but it's in between a cowl and a scarf, so.....

This vacation was the Vacation of Games.

Do you notice the common theme yet? If you haven't guessed, it's that Ginger LOVES being part of the family. He wanted to be on my lap the whole time I was putting the puzzle together, tries to sit in the chair like a human while we are eating dinner, and of course lays right on top of our cards!

The story behind this picture is: My parents came over to Betsy's (Jon's sister) house to play some new games with us. During the game Betsy was fixing a bracelet of mine and had the super glue out. Somehow Janie got a hold of the glue. She got it all over her hands and on her lip. Janie HATES having dirty hands, therefore was very upset. She sat in my lap while I tried to pick all the glue off. At one point I looked down and she was dead asleep! I guess that's what happens when you have three older brothers that run you around all day.

Finals

Finals was stressful for both of us. I was trying to finish knitting Christmas presents and stockings and Jon was studying hard for his tests. 

 

I was knitting while watching a show and Jon tells me he is going to take a 10 minute power nap.  I kept on waiting for him to comfy up for it.....he never moved....I looked up and he was dead a sleep like this.  Soo cute.

 

We did some last minute shopping at good old Stonestown mall. They had such a gigantic Christmas tree in the middle. It was so big we couldn't get the whole thing in the picture. 

 

Okay....."threading" is sooooo painful. This is the second time I've had by eyebrows threaded and I must have forgotten how painful it was the first time....because I did it again. For those of you who have never threaded it is a very accurate way of hair removal. Kind of a rip off, but worth it. 

 

Jon and I were in the mood to do something Christmasy before we went home for vacation....so we went to the Nutcracker. It was amazing! Oh and one of the super cool things was that it was snowing outside. The theater was blowing fake snowflakes outside! 

 

This is the inside of the San Francisco Opera House where the Nutcracker ballet was.

 

 

Some Nutcrackers....to expensive to buy...to I just took a picture.

 

Some cool building we saw from the balcony.

 

Some cool people on said balcony.

 

Good show even in the nose bleed section.

  

 

 

These are amazing sculpture trees that we saw on our walk from Muni to the Opera house. I really wanted to climb up in one and take a nap.

 

After the Nutcracker we walked to Union Square and ate some dinner at the Cheescake Factory. It was a pretty warm day, so we sat out on the balcony and watched/laughed at people skating/falling.

 

Jon tends to close his eyes in pictures...

 

Then he always does this when I tell him to open them....oh silly Jon

 By the way Jon wanted me to clarify that not all of these events happened the same day. I'm just lazy and don't want to do multiple posts.

Thanksgiving?

It's been so long since I've blogged that I can't remember where these pictures are from. I'm pretty sure they are thanksgiving. 

Dad, don't hate me for posting this picture, but it's just to good not to. Backstory: the whole fam...extended and all...went lazer tagging at the good old Lazer Assault in Provo. Dad forgot to wear a dark shirt, which is a total no no in lazer tag. I had a dark undershirt on and so I gave Dad my blue shirt..because he was on my team and I didn't want to loose, even though we did anyway...so he wouldn't glow so much. I think it looks good on him don't you?

 

 

Zoe came up to my Mom asking her to put these goggles on. How cute is that. She is also obsessed with tooth brushes as you can tell by picture number one. 

 

Monopoly Deal. One of our new favorite games.  Sidenote: Its so funny watching my parents scramble for reading glasses. Half the time they are wearing each others.....for example in this pic. You can't really tell but they are pretty girly. 

 

Amy's birthday dinner at Red Robins.

 

Ashley's boy, Ashdon.

 

Amy and her kid Axel...and Ashley's claw coming for the camera.

 

Me and Jess

 

Zoe insisted on playing outside in the FREEZING cold. We watched Ginger watch us. 

It's always good to get some slobbery Zoe kisses.

Catch up...once again

This is actually from Thanksgiving. We were in Utah and my Aunt and Uncle and cousins came over to visit. Zoe really wanted to be one of the girls.

I can't remember what Brian was showing them, but it obviously was entertaining.

I love our cat, Ginger. He decides to sleep in the funkiest places.

Okay so I couldn't resist taking a picture of this mullet lady, because it's just amazing.....when we came back for Christmas, we saw her again. Oh yeah, and any guesses as to where these sightings have been occurring?......you got it: WALL-MART!

Crafty Christmas Diana

I have had so much fun decorating this year! Amy got me a Martha Stewart magazine and my Mom and I looked through it during Thanksgiving vacation. I was inspired to make my first wreath. I went on a walk with Kristine and Ben around Aldea (our apartments) and picked up eucalyptus leaves,little pinecones,nuts and berries and cut a few low hanging leaves....and ta da!!!!

 

I am very impressed with myself.

Ouch

So I got this new contact solution that is supposed to be really good. The only catch is that is has a chemical in it that eats the enzymes off the contact, so you have to make sure to let it soak for a whole six hours before putting it in. I guess eyeballs are made up of a lot of enzymes, so you can see why that could be a problem. I guess some of the liquid had leaked out on my trip or something, but when I put my contact in I had instant PAIN! My eye clamped shut and I yanked the contact out and had to shove water into my eye as fast as I could. I don't know if you can tell, but my eye was so red for a couple of days....and I lost my contact when I threw it out. The funny thing is that this same thing happened to my mom......what's with us mom?

Haircut

I decided last minute when I was in Utah to get my hair cut at my favorite place. I have such a hard time getting out of my comfort zone.....I mean I live in San Francisco I'm sure there is some awesome hip hair place I could go to......but instead I wait until I have trips home.

Oh yeah and since I decided last minute to get my hair done, I was stuck at my parent's house without a car. I rode my mom's road bike to Shep's....it looked clear and blue outside....so deceiving...turns out it was freezing, but I was late. I started riding the bike and halfway down the first hill I had to stop because I couldn't feel my ears or hands. I wrapped my scarf around my head like an old lady to keep them from falling off and suffered through my numb hands. This worked quite well until I looked over my left shoulder to check for cars and my scarf caught the wind and flew over my face, temporarily blinding me.......SCARY! I hurry and flipped it back behind my ear and attempted to look over my shoulder.....and again it flipped in front of my face! I finally just pulled the whole thing off.....so glad I didn't run into something. By the time I got to my appointment I had snot running down my nose, was sweaty and half frozen, (yes it is possible) and could not move my fingers for the life of me....what an adventure.

Welcome to Utah

I forgot to post the pictures form my phone: When I landed in the SLC airport this as what I walked into...unfortunately it wasn't for me. Yipeee for the Real Salt Lake soccer team winning the major league championship. It was crazy everybody was chanting and cheering. There were news crews and cameras everywhere.