Christmas 2011

Christmas has come and gone.  I love the decorations, the music, the excess of treats, the excitement in my kids' eyes, the magic, the traditions.  I love it all, but I as I have said before, I love when it ends.  I think I set a new record this year.  The tree and all the decorations were put away by 11:00 AM December 26th. (I know that my mom is mortified reading this. She is probably thinking, "Did I teach her nothing?")

We had a great Christmas.  We stayed home and for the first time ever, we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alone with our little family.  It was weird being in such a quiet house, but we welcomed a chance to make some memories together.

I made our traditional Christmas Eve dinner complete with ham, homemade rolls, asparagus, salad and Gruyere potatoes.  I always laugh preparing a huge meal like that because it takes hours and hours and tons of money to create and it is eaten in less than 10 minutes and to top it off, the kids barely touched their food.  But that is not the point right?

During Christmas Eve dinner, supporting a long-held and favorite Thompson family tradition, the doorbell rang and two elves named Jingle & Jangle mysteriously delivered a bag full of new pajamas for the whole family.

This is one of my favorite traditions and I love that my kids get the same butterflies and squeals that delighted my siblings when we were kids.

The kids tracking Santa on google maps.

That night, the kids enjoyed opening their gifts to each other.  For a few weeks before Christmas, we encouraged the kids to do extra chores to earn money so that they could buy each other presents with their own money.

As a child, all of my siblings bought and exchanged gifts for each other.  That sibling gift exchange was my favorite part of opening gifts on Christmas morning.  It was so meaningful to select the perfect gift for each of them.  I truly believe that is part of the reason why we are all so close to each other.  We learned to give and it was incredibly rewarding.

My kids have no trouble feeling excited about the "getting" at Christmas, so I really want to help my kids to get a love for the "giving" as well.  It is a tradition I hope they grow to love.

Christmas Morning

That night the kids all had a sleepover in the same room.  They asked us how early they could wake up and we told them no earlier than 6:30 AM.  (A few years ago they woke up at 3:30 AM and we promptly told them NO WAY! and sent them back to bed).  This year at 6:30...on the dot...the kids woke up and each of them got to take a turn to run down the stairs to peek at the presents.  My parents always took a picture like this of us sitting on the stairs with our squinty, sleepy and excited eyes.  So fun!

It was a magical morning and we loved every second of it.

Thanks to Romney and his incredibly generous gift, he bought me a new computer to replace my 11 year old laptop that was hanging on by a thread.  He bought me a Mac desktop to replace what he referred to as my "Speak & Spell."  Thanks Romney!!! xoxo

I hope that it was a magical and meaningful Christmas for everyone.  Happy Holidays!

Home

Well, a lot has been going on around here.  For starters, we bought our house and moved in.  We had a really quick closing...less than 30 days.  I only panicked once...okay more like 22...about buying a home in this economy.  The news and headlines of a double recession didn't help my anxiety, but Romney in his calm and loving way reminded me that we had been blessed with a really calm assurance that we were making the right choice for our family.  (I always thank him for being the calm one, the good looking one and the wise one.)

Now that we are here, I know he was right.  We are really enjoying our new lives and we could not have asked for better neighbors.  Our neighbor next door has already proposed that we install a gate in the fence so that the kids can go back and forth easier from our yard to theirs.  Perfect.

My mom and siblings have been begging for some pictures, so here are a few.

I am still getting pictures up on the walls and trying to personalize the house to make it our own, but so far we are all adjusting well.

 It feels good to finally be home.  I just pray now that we will all bloom where we are planted.

Happy Birthday to Me

I turned 38 yesterday.  Romney was feeling pretty bad that he has had to work so much and his plans to take me to Denver for the weekend fell through.  He was worried that I was going to have a dumb birthday.  He was wrong.

We put an offer on a home...(we feel a little bad that we gave a low ball offer...well okay, not that bad...), but our offer was accepted and we move into this home in a month!!  "Welcome Home" is almost a realty!!

I told Romney that it is going to be a little hard to compete with this present in the future, but I told him that he can of course still try...(just kidding).

A Job, a Move & Stability

Colorado State Flag

So, we have moved...again. How can it be that 3 moves ago, I vowed that I had one move left in my body and mind and yet, here we are again? We have dozens of unopened boxes in our basement and my kids are once again the "new kid" at school.

Romney has always apologized that he is a gypsy aka an entrepreneur. But somehow I thought that at the end of our amazing Boston experience 6 years ago, we would be able to settle down and grow up with our kids...in Utah. We were there, our family was readily available, easy lunches with high school friends, cousins around the corner, Sunday dinners with in-laws. We had it pretty great....except  the job situation for Romney was far from invigorating and certainly not an ideal situation. So when the opportunity was presented to Romney that he could be the president of a promising start-up with funding and revenue Colorado, I began to understand why Romney apologizes for being an entrepreneur.

Romney took the job working at a company called Lautriv Systems. It is a software company that provides an essential solution for insurance companies. He commuted for a few months and came home on the weekends to help me prepare for yet another open house. The limbo was killing all of us. The housing market in Utah was stagnant and we could not find a home that fit our family's needs. I was wondering if the move was actually going to happen. But we felt the Lord's hand guiding us as we took the leap of faith. We found a perfect home to rent and then, two days before we moved, dreamy renters signed a two-year lease for our home on Kensington Avenue.

Our Home

We now live in a newer subdivision just northwest of Denver. The kids have adjusted incredibly well and thanks to a fantastic ward, we are quickly adjusting to the changes that have come.

They have all made friends. Here are pictures of them on the first day of school. Lauren (4th grade) and Christian (1st grade).

Thomas (6th grade) on his first day. (He was a little reluctant to get out of the car.)

It was such a treat that my parents and my sister Kara and brother Christian were able to come to Denver last weekend for a few days. Months ago, they had purchased tickets to the Denver pre-season game. And much to our surprise, a distant cousin Karen Shuman who lives here in the Denver area, called me a few days before and offered me two tickets to the game. So, Romney and I were able to attend our first NFL game with my family. It was a treat and we all had a great time.

My sister Kara and I have always loved purses. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase another set of purses together from a vendor in downtown Denver. LOVE IT!!

We painfully miss our family in Utah, but know that the closeness we felt while living there will continue, but with just a little more effort. I look forward to sharing our Denver adventures with you and I hope this blog will help tighten the gap that is betweenp us.