Each Day Is a Gift

It was a fun day yesterday running the marathon.  We went to a Cafe East, an all you can eat Asian/American/Italian/Mexican restaurant!  Jade ate 5 heaping plates of crawfish! silly girl!

I had a restless night.  Every time I turned or moved, my knee pain would wake me up.  I literally rolled out of bed; then hobbled around.  Walked with one straight leg!  Larissa and her friends weren't even sore!  Granted they're in their early 30s and ran half while I'm an old granny!  Hahaha!

Church was very nice!  Larissa played the violin musical number, Gesu Bambino.  A mother and daughter spoke of Christ!  The Men Choir sang two beautiful numbers, a young girl sang "O Holy Night".

The legs felt better today.  Larissa, Julianna, Angela, Jade and I went for a walk pushing baby Jett in the jogging stroller.  It was fun to hear everyone recap their race.

Larissa and I took the children to the park to play then to the movie, "Rise of A Guardian" while the big boys (Larry, Brandon, David and Bryan) went to see "The Hobbits".  Then we went for a bike ride.  There were butterflies fluttering around and squirrels squirrying around....on Christmas Eve?!!!....ONLY in Kingwood, TX!!!!  The weather has been so crazy since we were here.  It's warm one day (in the 60s-70s) then very cold (in the 20s-30s) the next day. 

After a fun day playing outside, Larissa and I were too tired to cook so Brandon treated us to Chick-fil-A!!!!

Then the family did the Nativity complete with angel (Jade), Mary (Larissa), Joseph (Lex) Baby Jesus (Jett), Shepherd (Luke), and the donkey (David).  Then we opened one present, pajamas.  Then the children did the reindeer dance out on the lawn.  We then had hot cocoa and set out food for Santa and the reindeers! :)

Shortly after Santa came and the children opened their presents and stockings, the power went out just as Larissa and I were about to put the turkey in the oven!!!  A tornado came through Houston snapping down trees and power poles in Kingwood.  We waited and waited for the power to come back on.  After couple of hours, Larissa called the power company from her cell phone and got a voice message that the power outage may last until Thursday night!  Aaaaaghhhh!!!!

Because they experienced Hurricane Ike couple years ago, they were prepared with oil lamps, flash lights, hand-crank radio and a corded phone.  Some of their neighbors went to the movies when they found out the theater has power.  But because we needed to stay home to wait for our missionary son to call us from Taiwan, we sat anxiously waiting all the while trying to figure how to cook the Christmas dinner without electricity/oven. 

Steven finally called and we were able to talk to him one at a time on this rudimentary corded phone.  He only had 45 min. for the call and with 5 min left, Luke unknowingly pressed the button and hung up on him.  You should've seen the disappointed look on everyone's face!  Luckily he called back 2 min. later so we could say goodbye!  I HATE goodbyes!  It was so good to hear his voice although he spoke Mandarin pretty much the whole time.  He sounded happy and healthy! :)  Within 5 min. of talking to him, the phone line went completely dead!  What a Christmas miracle that the phone worked when he called! :) :) :)

We made this dinner on the barbeque (there was just enough propane to finish cooking the roast and dinner rolls) and gas stove which Larissa and Brandon recently bought!  Thank God for a new gas stove!!!  We put most of the perishable food including the 20lb turkey outside since the temperature was in the low 30s.  Crazy how yesterday was so warm that we played in the park chasing butterflies and squirrels and today was SO COLD!!!!  Baby Jett was SO ready for dinner, it was 3pm! :)

We quickly cleaned up before it got dark, thank goodness there's hot water.  With no electricity nor internet service nor heat, we bundled up in blankies, sat around the piano with Larissa playing, we sang Christmas songs, told stories, played hide and seek and went to bed early.  We feel so very grateful for the simple things of life, for health and for family!!! :)

The power was still out this morning so we all went for an easy jog.  It was sunny, a bit breezy, not as cold as yesterday.  The stillness of the morning was disrupted by the sound of generators' humming in this otherwise quiet neighborhood.

All of our cell phone batteries were dead or dying so we went to the mall which luckily escaped the power outage.  While the big boys tried on shoes and shirts,  we roamed the mall looking for electric outlets to plug in our 5 phones!!!  The mall was so crowded.  We are not a mall-going family so we left. 

We had promised the children that we would have a combined birthdays party today for David, Jett and Brandon.  David's birthday was yesterday.  Yep, he was my best Christmas present, born at 3am Christmas morning 27 years ago.  Baby Jett was born 5 weeks early on Dec 27, 2010; and Brandon's birthday is on Dec. 30th.  The children want to go to Chuck-e-cheese.  We were there for three hours...just enough time to get all the phones charged up!!! 

Me and baby Jett riding on a giant painted pony!

Today is travel day back to Utah.  But not before we celebrate Jett's 2nd birthday with cake and all.  Thankfully the power came back on.  We had the turkey dinner complete with all the trimmings that we were supposed to have on Christmas.  Larissa was worried that the turkey would be spoiled since it was left outside for more than 2 days.

We flew above snow clouds on our flight home yesterday afternoon/evening.  It was so cool to see the mountains, roof tops and lawns completely blanketed with the white stuff.  It was close to 10 pm by the time we unpacked and got our ski gear ready.  We got up early and were at the ski resort before the lift opens at 9am.  Our car temp was 14F!!!! BRRRRR!!!!!

FUN FUN day skiing!!!

My boys and some of their cousins!  It's Asian Invasion on the Solitude ski slope!!!! :) :)

A bit warmer today!  Yesterday we skied powder.  Today we skied corduroy. It was more crowded today than yesterday.  We're first on the lift again as usual.  Imagine our joy and delight when we got off the ski lift on our second run and saw Karen and Mark!

May be in couple years, baby Skylar will be skiing!