Thanksgiving Time

All our Arizona and Nevada families met in St David last week for a wonderful, fun-filled, excitement-packed week-end. Now that Jeremy, Martha and family, and Matt, Megan and no family yet, have moved closer to Nick, Rebecca and family, it just seemed fitting for Chris, Summer and family, and Ken, Linda and no family left, to visit Southern Arizona for the Thanksgiving Holiday. In spite of missing Andy, Mel and family, and MK, Keresa and family, we proceeded to enjoy ourselves and each other big-time. Rebecca proudly showed us what Nick had recently done to the kitchen and dining rooms. We hiked hither and yon then from yon back hither. We traveled to and fro and fro and to, saw sights and sighted saws. Back to Boo's house she spearheaded the Thanksgiving dinner while the rest of the guests and Dobby arrived with their assigned assignments. It was pulled together and eaten with relish and relish trays. (Note how passive voice works sometimes.) We rode on worn-out tyres across water-filled chasms. We fought prickly bushes and gunfights. The prickly bushes won but the bad guys lost. We burned biscuits and bit dogs on the icy Arizona savanna. Some of the dogs were dirty but none bit back. Fortunately, Martha still had her Philly collection of gloves and hats. We rode a one-way train into the bowels of the earth, wrestled with the one-eyed acid-spewing dragons and escaped with only minor burns and hearts that were later broken. Once we even ate ugly steaks, weeds and sour bread and loved it. We visited Vail, not to ski but to see Jeremy and Martha's new digs. Gorgeous. I think they could put their Philly house in their new house three or four times and still have room to get up and down the stairs and out to the swimming pool. A kinda funny or pathetic thing happened too. I told Grandma Whitney we'd be going back to Nevada early Sunday morning. When I woke I used my handy-dandy flashlight on my watch. Was I ever surprised to see we'd slept in until 5 AM. "Arise my bride," I said. "Tis growing late and we'll be fighting dam traffic." We scurried and crashed around. Within fifteen minutes we jumped in and started the ole' hiway cruiser. Imagine my confusion when your grandma politely but firmly requested that I explain to her why the dashboard clock read only quarter to twelve. "Uh," I said sheepishly, sleeply and lamely, "I think my watch is on upside down."

Mel 'n' Andy

Hi, I have been working with Andy all morning to find some pictures to send. It seems that we have misplaced our camera, and when I downloaded the halloween files last month I put them on the kids' screen, and now he wants them with the rest of the pictures, so he is doing something that I don't know why he has to do it. So maybe next Halloween, we'll be able to send those pictures along.

Am I submitting news for October or November? Or because this is the December edition, am I suppose to write about how I hope December will turn out?

This December the tree will set itself up before the 20th. Our Christmas picture will not be painful and end in tears of the children or myself. And everyone will look at the camera and smile. Then the Christmas card will write itself, search for lost addresses and mail itself. (before Christmas) All the shopping, wrapping, and sorting will do itself and be done before Christmas Eve. And if Decenber has a really cold morning, I get to stay in my warm bed and just read a book. Alone. All day. We will go caroling, and we won't freeze, and the kids will like it as much as the people we sing to. No one's toy breaks on Christmas morning, and the kids actually eat the Christmas Sausage Souffle that I make the evening before (not at 1 or 2 am) and then say in a chorus, "Thanks Mom, we love this!" (not "Ew why can't I just have cold cereal?")

Wow December is going to be great this year!

I feel like we're in fast forward. We moved in August and now it's December. I spent last night pulling everything out of my small closet and organizing and folding. It seems to be our theme around here, trying to fit lots of stuff in smaller spaces. I thought it was a fun Friday night activity, I suggested we make it a date and Andy could do his side of the closet. He stood me up though, and spent the evening playing games with the kids. We loved Thanksgiving at Grammy and Papa's house in Salem. We used the frequent flyer miles and made an early flight with all the kids and all the bags and all the birth certificates. It was a true miracle. We stayed at Grammy and Papa's and really just spent the week working hard at doing nothing. I love helping Marilyn in the kitchen. She let me help every step of the way. It was nice to see much of the family, we have several new cousins with one on the way. Then on Sunday we drove the Expedition home to WA (we bought it from Mike.) In october McKayla started cheerleading. It is pretty serious buisness aparently. The girls on her squad practice 2x per week and they are preparing for competions all over including nationals in Feburary. That will be in CA, so we are planning a Disneyland trip, if anyone else wants to meet us there. We have a caroling party tonight, so that is all I have time to write.

Love, Melanie

Martha 'n' Jeremy

December

What a month! The kids are healthy, Jeremy's worked now for 4 weeks, and we were blessed with family visits!

The highlight of this month was Thanksgiving weekend. After spending the past four Thanksgivings in Philly, I'd have to say this one spent with family topped them all. Chris, Summer and kids came to stay with us. Wow, I've seen Lyle and Hyrum excited get excited about life before, for example, every time a train goes by in our back yard or when Lyle dresses up as a superhero; however, nothing tops the night Bronson and company came to our home. There was so much excitement in the air, you could feel it. The kids were all talking and laughing so much I don't know when they had a chance to breathe. OK, maybe I was a little excited too. Later in the night we managed to get the kids into bed. Who knows what time they went to sleep. Maddie and Bronson won for waking up the earliest. Summer caught them out of bed at 3am playing with toys! They had to go back to bed. The next morning (a little after 6:00am) the kids woke up and played hard. Just when they thought life couldn't get much better, we all got in the car and drove to Becca's. There, they were united with more cousins (Jonathan, Stelli and Lissy) and their Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Matt and Aunt Megan. Again, they all played hard. Thanksgiving Dinner was a wonderful event. While the kids ate their food outside, the adults peacefully ate their food inside. Looking back, I still shake my head in awe. We really took our time eating. The kids stayed outside and ate without any food fights. I don't think they even threw any pickles!

After dinner we cleaned up, or should I say, played, in Becca's new kitchen. The men talked us into going on a hike down by the bay. There were no water lilies, but there were some pretty strange sights. Becca took us to a tire swing where Jeremy pushed all the cousins. They were so daring sometimes I was afraid to watch. The kids had so much fun, we adults had to try it out. Dad did some fancy circus stunts and flipped upside down. I'm not sure if he meant to be so fancy, but we loved the show. He was so wild his hat even fell off. Matt was encouraged by Dad's performance and tried to top him by running and jumping onto Megan in mid-flight. Megan held on mightily, and the two did a superb performance. Even Lizzy joined in the fun and went for a swing! What fun.

The next day Becca took us to Tombstone and a mine. Again, the kids played hard and we all had a great time. Saturday, our final day of play, Jeremy took us out to a part of the Arizona desert. There was tall grass. It was so tall that we could play hide-and-seek and hide by simply lying down in the grass. Although there was a bitter cold wind that day, it didn't slow down the kids. We wrapped them up in layers of clothes and winter accessories and let them go wild. The only time they stood still was to occasionally warm up by the fire or to roast their hot dogs. Lizzy and Lissy even joined in the festivities by eating the dogs left on the ground. What fun! We ended the day by going back to our home and drinking hot cocoa and eating cookies. Again the kids played and played. We ate some yummy steaks and ended the all-too-short Thanksgiving weekend. I think the kids played more than they slept. For as much time as they spent together; there was not one single mishap amongst the cousins. They played hard and had a good time. With as hyper-hypo as they got, I can proudly say they're good enough kids that they all were lovingly united in their hyperness (I had to remind myself of this two days ago when I caught the kids misbehaving during naptime: Rummy had climbed up onto Lyle's top bunk bed and the two were playing. Their playing got out of hand and Lyle pushed Rummy backwards off the bed. Somehow, Lyle managed to grab Rummy's ankle and hang on to it. Meanwhile, I was in the kitchen peacefully sipping a cup of cocoa and listening to Christmas music. I heard the boy's shrill screams and ran upstairs to see the scene. From the top of the bunk bed, Rummy was hanging upside down screaming while Lyle was holding onto Rummy's ankle screaming. I wanted to yell, cry and laugh all at the same time. After all were safe I suggested we say a prayer; this was to help me from strangling the both of them. Lyle said it and thanked Heavenly Father for blessing him with such big muscles that he could save his brother. As unbelievable as this story sounds, it really happened. Are these the same boys that played so nicely with their cousins?

Enjoy your December festivities, everyone! We love you!

The Tanners

McKay 'n' Keresa

Many times throughout the day I try to make a note about writing something they [our children] did or said in my journal. Those are the pieces I send over for the newsletter.

We missed not being around for thanksgiving. It was ironic that Keresa's family called and left a voicemail during the kids' nap. Then when we left and went out for a drive, she received the message so she called them back. That happened right when Gpa Whitney called (or rather, Summer called on his phone) so we had all this excitement. When Syd didn't get to talk to Gma Whitney, she felt pretty sad, so I called her back and put Sydney on. Eventually she said she couldn't hear her anymore and I don't know whether she hung up or whether she didn't make enough noise for Gma to know she was still on the line, so Gma hung up. Either way, she was pretty stoked to be a big girl on the phone, holding it all by herself and such.

We went with another law school couple to Wal-Mart, and out to dinner at a new Mexi place we found in Richlands called Mariachi. The food was great and cheap, and the Wal-Mart trip was fun. On the way home we were talking about what we bought, and Keresa, who was driving, said, "Why did you want that Febreeze again dear? It was for your shoes right?" I responded (from the backseat), "uh, honey?!" in embarrassment. The whole car burst with laughter, including Sydney, who had no idea what was going on, but figured she'd better laugh too, so that made us all laugh even more. I was still embarrassed.

Keresa found an online bra shop called Mardi Bra. I think that's pretty cool.

Jackson has started to try running instead of walking. He sees Sydney do it, and figures he might as well too. He doesn't understand that it is different from walking though – like the different weight distribution, the leaning forward, the pumping the arms, etc. So when he runs, it looks just like as if someone recorded a movie of him walking, then played it back in fast forward. It's hard to do. I've tried. I don't remember Sydney ever doing that.

Thanksgiving day was Keresa's birthday, so in accordance with her wishes, we stayed in a motel in a neighboring town. The highlight for the kids was sitting in the desk-chair that was included in the room while I spun them around and around. The highlight for Keresa was watching her new movie she got for her birthday, The Sound of Music. It's the 100th anniversary edition so it includes interviews with the different actors, including some of the VonTrapp children now that they are old. (okay maybe it's not quite the 100th anniversary, but its some anniversary edition.) The highlight for me was that the restaurant we ate at for Thanksgiving dinner had pecan pie. I had two pieces.

I started taking notes in church. I noted (for the last 5 minutes of a lady's talk) every time I heard something pronounced differently than I am used to, and here's what the notes said at the end of the meeting:

Time - Tahm

Our - Air

About - a-BAY-at

Sense - SAY-ance

Priority - Prah-OR-i-tee

My - Mah

Plan - PLAY-an

Bible - BAH-bull

Jackson has finally started making noises like he is trying to learn to talk. He says Ba Ba Ba Ba for a drink of sippy cup, he says “uh oh” when it is appropriate, he says thank you "de do", he says da da da for mom.

Sydney was eating some special macaroni that I made for her. It was spider man and Shrek, so there were little Shrek heads, Fiona heads, and Spiderman heads. Also the Spiderman macaronis have some empire state buildings. When I asked Sydney who was in her macaroni, she said, "Shrek, Fiona, Spiderman, and Jesus." So I looked and sure enough, those empire state buildings looked kind of like a man with a robe on. So sure, Jesus, I guess. So I told her to eat up.

She is also starting to say knock knock jokes. Her fave is knock knock, who's there, boo, boo hoo, please don't cry. But if you do knock knock to her, instead of her saying boo hoo, she says boo what.

While Keresa was in the back getting ready this one morning, I was out with the kids playing and watching TV. Sydney was in the soft rocking chair lying across it with her head and hair hanging over one armrest, and her legs hanging over the other side. Jackson sneaked up on her head side and with both hands quickly messed up her hair then came running to me before she knew what happened. He looked over to her from me, and when he saw she didn't care, he went and did it again. He did it 3 times to her and she didn't think it was as funny as he and I did.

We also saw Bee Movie this month. Another one to buy that the kids will watch a million billion times and never get sick of I'm sure. Sydney may have even liked it more than Shrek, and that is saying a lot.

Keresa is excited to make it back West this month. She is considering trying to squeeze in a trip to Tucson sometime during Christmas break. Sadly though, we are not considering a trip to Seattle during the break, are Atwoods thinking of coming to NV or AZ?

MK KGW SRW JGW

Matt 'n' Megan

Dear Family,

Right now, Megan and I are on the verge of finishing another semester. Next week has the last three days of class, dead day, and the first day of exams. Then exams continue through until Friday of the following week. Megan has been working tirelessly on a term project for one of her classes. She and two other students have been drawing several different working models of a convertible top for a car. Yesterday alone she spent seven hours straight working on it. My classes are all ending fine. It looks as though I will more than pass my classes, much to my delight due to a good round of exams in November. Thank goodness. Now just a few finals and we'll be on the other side.

This past week was also the performances of the musical oratorio, Bethlehem, where I played the trombone in the orchestra. It was an amazing feat to see the huge orchestra and choir along with the few actors and soloists, plus crew members volunteering to produce the event. It was very extraordinary. Maybe someday, Michael, the composer and director, will be famous and we'll get to hear the oratorio performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Megan and I bought some lights to put up around our window of our apartment to add some holiday cheer. Tomorrow for family home evening, we plan to look for a small Christmas tree to put up in our apartment too. We're really looking forward to the time we'll get to spend together doing and starting Christmas traditions. Well, we're mostly just looking forward to not being in school, but all the Christmas stuff is extra bonus. As one of our Christmas presents, we bought two tickets to go and see The Forgotten Carols live in Tempe. We also hope to make a trip up to see the Mesa temple lights and maybe ice skating too if we can find it.

In November, we managed to get four turkey dinners. We're planning a similar game for Christmas morning. After having our own quaint newlywed Christmas morning, we hope to drive to Vail and play with whatever toys Santa brought for Lyle and Hyrum. Then we'll go down to St. David and play with the Jonathan and Estelle's toys. Finally we'll head down to Sierra Vista in the afternoon/evening for Christmas dinner. It should be a good Christmas.

Love, Megan and Matthias