Tanya's Christmas

You might remember the blog post back in October regarding a very special mission companion from Russia named Tanya. Well, she finally arrived, just in time for Christmas!

She arrived at 8:55 PM on Christmas Eve but a woman that she knows from Russia lives only 10 minutes from the airport and picked her up since the weather was bad and the roads were icy.

We picked her up and we took her to the famous Reeder Family Christmas party on Christmas day and then to a sleepover at my parents house where we then celebrated our own "Christmas Morning" on the 26th. We ate way too much food, exchanged gifts, and played endless hours of games. Tanya participated in ALL OF IT! I think some points may have been overwhelming with the number of conversations taking place not to mention the volume of two little girls and ten competitive adults (besides herself) around the game table. But as we drove away and Mike & I headed back to Orem, she said, "That was the best Christmas I have had in my whole life. I love your family so greatly." 

YAY!!!!! Mission accomplished. It was wonderful to share our celebration with her and I am so happy she felt like part of the family since she doesn't have one back home. <3 She cried when she opened our first gift to her. It wasn't anything huge - a necklace - but it must have touched her deeply. I think it was a wonderful reminder to all of us of how much we have and how much more we can give. I hope the next four months are as awesome as Christmas was. Mike & I are happy to have her staying with us.

Her favorite part of the Reeder Christmas Party was the live nativity that took place in the stable by the little children and the singing of "Away In A Manger" that followed and playing Christmas songs on the chimes.

A&A opening their Christmas present from Great Grandparents Jarrett - Brave the movie and Brave Barbie dolls!

Sample of the yummy traditional food that we eat: Sticky rolls for breakfast and yummy Pomegranate Apple salad for dinner:

Tanya was so excited about each and everyone one of her gifts! Here is some of what she got (not all) I think we made it a pretty huge Christmas for her - thanks family and everyone for helping to make it so special for her!

Nesquik - would you believe they do not have it in Russia?

Blanket from Grandpa & Grandma Reeder:

Some slippers from my mom & dad:

Some clothes from Mike & I:

These gloves just looked totally like her style:

And a whole lot of other goodies!

A traditional Russian Cake she brought us from Russia.



Us on Christmas Night

And one last cute story of Christmas. I am sure this is one Alisha would share on her blog - but - I have the photos so I am just gonna go ahead and share one of my favorite parts of Christmas. THIS GIRL RIGHT HERE:

 

"Take a picture of me and mom."

 "Let me see! ... Oh cute! ... Now take a picture of dad!"

 "Let me see! ... Oh cute! ... Now take another picture!"

And it would only be better if you could actually hear her cute little voice saying it! I don't think it gets any better than that!

Merry Christmas everyone!

the Hobbit

One day while I was driving to work I heard the radio announcer say, "Tickets for the Hobbit go on sale this morning at 10:00 AM." Then around 9:56 AM I received a phone call from Mike asking if he purchased tickets to the midnight show on Thursday evening, if I would go with him. I said I would, so he purchased the tickets. 

We live in Orem and he wanted to see it in the best theater around. So we were driving about 30 minutes north, to Sandy, to see the show. Because that is where the best theater is he informed me. He purchased tickets for the IMAX/3-D/48FPS showing. Whatever all of that means for someone like me... All I know is that he was pretty dang excited and that made me more excited than I normally would have been :-)

I am not one for midnight movies. I fall asleep too easily. So while we were awaiting December 13 to arrive I kept suggesting that Mike take someone else or that he find a friend to go with. He didn't even entertain the idea. I was the only one he wanted to join him. So on Thursday night, I got ready for bed, and I went to sleep. I had been asleep for about an hour when Mike came in and woke me up. He said that it was time to go. So here I am - cold and tired and make-up-less but on my way to the first showing of the Hobbit with Mike.

 Inside the theater - I was more awake thanks to theater soda and treats. Every time I got tired, I took swig of soda or took a bite of a Three Musketeer.

It was pretty fun actually going to the midnight showing. Practically everyone (except us) was dressed up. I thought, "Wow. I need to get out more." I feel like all I do is go from the office to home and back again. It was fun to people watch and to see just how many different types of people there are in this world!

I drove home so that Mike could try to sleep since he had to work the next morning and I didn't.

I snapped a picture at 3:45 AM because this is what time I wake up each day (even though my alarm clock doesn't go off until 4). In fact, that morning I had woken up at 3:45 and thought, "Seriously? This is what time I woke up!? Tomorrow at this time I will be going to sleep." But instead - I was still driving home. However, if I hadn't taken that hour long nap before the movie, I would have been awake for 24 hours straight. This is a HUGE accomplishment for me because the last time I did that was 10 years ago when I graduated high school and we stayed out all night and then hiked the SV to watch the sunrise. I like my sleep, what more can I say?

Anyway, after hashing out the movie the whole drive home, Mike finally drifted off to sleep for about five minutes. <3 That made me happy since I know he needed to be sane for work the next day.

I am not really a good person to talk about the Hobbit because I have never read the book or seen any of the Lord of the Ring movies. But I really liked the Hobbit. I thought that it had a good story line and I loved the way all of the characters looked. I just wanted to keep watching them; the trolls, the goblins, the orcs - they were awesome! In fact, I told Mike as we walked out of the theater that I could turn right back around and watch it all over again. We didn't of course, but I liked it that much! I can't wait for the next one and I hate that they make us wait!

Draper Park

I was seeing lots of hash tags for Draper Park this Christmas season. I decided to look up the address and go check out what everyone was talking about. 

There were some beautifully lit trees...

But then there was "the tree"...

It made all of the other trees look small and dull.

 It was pretty massive and I loved that they lit even the smallest of branches.

Lots of people have referred to it as "the tree of life." That is a fun comparison if you are familiar with Lehi's vision and the tree of life and the rod of iron leading to the tree.

Me & Mike

Amy & I

It was freezing and we didn't stay too long at all. But it definitely was very worthwhile and super fun to finally see it. <3

Christmas Street

Unless you are from Salt Lake, you may not know that this street exists. We learned about it for the first time this year and of course - we needed to visit. It's a little cul-de-sac (Mike knows the exact streets) and you enter it by going under the large sign reading, "Christmas Street." We knew we found it when we saw the bright lights shining from about a block away. It looked fabulous and it was so fun!

 I always hate picking favorites but I LOVED this one. There was like a million lights on it alone! It was so crazy and awesome to see!

What a fun neighborhood right!? Way to go Christmas Street!

Thanksgiving Point Reindeer and Mater

After seeing the lights as part of the birthday celebration, we went to visit the two reindeer that were visiting Thanksgiving Point for the Christmas Season. They left on the 22nd, just in time to get back to the North Pole and take Santa out for the Christmas festivities.

Everyone had lots of fun watching the reindeer. There wasn't a roof on their pen so who knows - maybe each night they flew away and then came back to visit more kiddos the next day.

 I like watching her face in these photos - they tell the whole story!

Very interesting Reindeer Factoids that Thanksgiving Point shared with us visitors:

Alli & Mom wanted in on the "what does a reindeer antler feel like" action too:

 Afterwards we looked at some of the lights around the main area of Thanksgiving Point and then we took off to eat some dinner and watch Nika open her gifts!

(Don't judge the way I look - I had a migraine and was in bed ALL DAY before this little outing.)

Skip ahead to the next weekend. I convinced Alisha to let the girls come have a sleepover at my house. I had told them about Mater from Cars being in the area and they were really excited to see him. As soon as they got to my house they said they wanted to see Mater so in an effort to get them there before it was dark, I loaded them right back into my car.

Mater was visiting only 4 blocks from where Mike & I live. Unfortunately I was talking to Alisha on the phone and ended up driving a couple of miles out of the way. I realized this when I saw the Krispy Kreme doughnut sign/building. So I asked them if they wanted to get a doughnut and they said, "No! We want to go see Mater! We need to go to Radiator Spings!" They were that excited. So I made a U-turn and headed back to Mater and/or Radiator Springs. After proclaiming that we needed to go to Radiator Springs Annika did ask, "Are we going to Thanksgiving Point?" I said, "No." and she said, "Oh, because mostly everything that we want to see is always at Thanksgiving Point." ;0) I thought that was pretty clever. We made it back to Radiator Springs and I was so happy that Mater was still there!

 I don't know who brought Mater out for a visit, but I love that they did! He was exactly what we would have imagined. Annika & I toyed with the idea of leaving my car with Mater over night so that he would have someone to talk to when the people weren't around, but we decided it was too cold and we should drive home to be warmer.

Stopping for one last photo after running around Mater for a while. Definitely a super fun meet-n-greet!