So Long, Farewell . . .

Ashleigh, Natalie and Heather

You know the friends that you have and even though you don't see them forever, you can pick right up like no time has passed? My friends from my home ward that I grew up with are some of those friends. Natalie, Heather, I and got together right before Christmas! Natalie is moving to Australia and we will miss her (until March when she's back for her sister's wedding). I have so many funny memories with both Heather and Natalie. Some from the Jr. High era and the hours we spent at Heather's house, some from USU when Natalie and I worked at the Quick Stop together, and now some new ones from this summer. I'm really grateful for the good friends I've had in my life so far. Good Luck Natalie and see you in March! We have our blogs until then . . .

Here's another picture from our last "ward reunion" when Michelle was still here. Yes, I am very pregnant in this picture or at least I look very pregnant in this picture.

Chrissy, Ashleigh, Michelle, Heather

How Do You Keep 3 Poloks Busy?

Lisa came up with this "game" that we really had a hoot with. Polok #1 (Lisa) would hold the camera and then she and the other 2 Poloks (myself and Jeff) would keep moving our faces in weird and random ways until she would randomly snap a picture. This is the fun we had on Christmas Eve for a good 15 minutes. If you ever do this, you'll want to consider the possibilities with your teeth. We didn't think about that until the end.

Santa Comes a Little Early!

We were at my mom's all afternoon and evening and got home at 8:30. Right as we were getting out of the car Santa Claus pulls up and asks if the girls are asleep yet. He'd already dropped by once and we weren't home so he was making the rounds back around hoping we'd be home by now. He brought the girls teddy bears and candy canes and told them he'd be back in a few days. When Ansen was putting Addison to bed she asked him if he'd seen Santa's sleigh because she would have really liked to the see the reindeer. Oh and by the way, apparently you can tell when it's the REAL Santa Claus because he'll be wearing gloves (per Addison anyway).

Seriously, how cool is that! Addison was star struck which reduced her to very little words (very, very unusual for Addison). These kind of things restore my hope in humanity. I love when you find someone still willing to go out of their way and put effort into other people! The 7 long months of searching for a good neighborhood has paid off.

Our New Tradition!

We decided to start a new tradition this year. Every year we drive around looking at our favorite lights and we keep noticing there are fewer and fewer people putting forth the Christmas effort. So, we decided every year we're going to find our 3 favorite houses and send them a Thank You for sharing their Christmas Spirit. We're hoping it will be one of those traditions where our kids grow up doing it every year so it seems normal and then 20 years later they realize it's actually really weird. (Ansen and I will still be laughing.) Anyway, we found our 3 favorite and the cards go out tomorrow.

One of our winners . . . our neighbors! They have set up a light display or "show" more appropriately. You tune to a certain radio station and the lights go with the music. They honestly spent 4 Saturdays putting it up and my other neighbor said they were out measuring things for the production clear back in August. My parents spend a good 10 minutes out there every time they come over. At any given moment between 6 and 10 p.m., there are 8-10 cars outside their house running with their lights off just watching. It's great! This is just further proof to Ansen that we bought the right house.

Oh and in case you're wondering . . . I've been to the gym 4 times (it was already closed twice, but I'm still counting it due to effort and I now clearly know the hours of operation).

Christmas Fun!

I finished all my shopping by Nov. 30 so that I could have Christmas fun, but we haven't done as much as I anticipated and some of it has really been a flop. . .

1- (fun) We went to Ansen's work party. For Christmas, it's always adults only and an over nighter. We went to the Canyons Resort this year. It was dinner, games and white elephant gift. Then the next morning we had breakfast and you could go skiing or get a massage. We ended up with the massage since Ansen hurt his foot on Thanksgiving. We were way bummed about that, but the massage was awesome and then we went shopping. A whole 24 hours with no kids and adult conversation. It was awesome!

2- (bad, really bad) We went to Temple Square the night it was pouring rain. We met my cousin there and it so happened that there was first, an accident and then, events at the Tabernacle, Conference Center and the Assembly Hall. The traffic was horrible and it took us 2 hours to get there and get parked. My cousin had already been there for an hour and was freezing so we had cookies and hot chocolate and then they left. We walked around for about 25 minutes and then were too cold to hack any more so we headed for the car. By then it was snowing pretty bad so it took us forever to get home. It was also called to my attention that in our haste to get out the door we completely forgot dinner, so Wendy's drive through was it. It was definitely memorable . . .

3-(never happened) We had plans to go to the Festival of Trees, but I got the horrible flu for 3 days and that was the end of that idea.

It's Official!

So, it's official, I have re-started my gym pass I've had on hold since I got pregnant with Olivia and was put on a modified bed rest. Yeah, it's been awhile and it's pathetic. I'm only doing this post in hopes that someone will ask me how it's going at the gym in a month and then I'll have some drive to get back in the habit. I'm hoping to be back in the habit in the next month before Ansen's busy season starts and I'm a single mom again with no babysitter. Then hopefully I'll have the drive to go at 5:00 a.m. or something while Ansen's home. Right now the thought of that just makes me laugh . . . out loud.

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

My sweet husband loves Christmas! We have a couple of must-have traditions from Ansen here at the Hatch house starting with a REAL Christmas tree. Since Ansen grew up in Maine, they would walk around the backyard (acres and acres of woods) and find a good tree, chop it down and bring it in. Many, many trees lost their lives since sometimes they'd chop down a 30 foot tree to get the top 10 feet and realize it wasn't that good after all. (Side note: The big tree they used to put up between the World Trade Center Towers in New York came out of Ansen's backyard 2 years in a row.) We will always have the fresh smell of a real Christmas tree. If you're reading this and you're a real tree family too, you have to get the Cadillac of all Christmas tree stands. Ansen's dad sent it to us 2 years ago and it is truly a piece or art, worth every penny. L.L. Bean has done it again.

http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&categoryId=15103&sc1=Search&feat=sr

We also get a genuine Maine (hand-made) wreath from Ansen's family every year!

2. Christmas Vacation. Have you seen Christmas Vacation? It's one of mine and Ansen's (and the whole Hatch family) favorite movies and we regularly quote from it. I'm thinking of Cousin Eddie in a black dickey with a white V-neck sweater drinking eggnog and laughing to myself . . . "I'd like my boss Frank Shirley right here with a big, red ribbon on his head . . . . hallelujah, holy sh*t, where's the Tylenol."

3. House lights . . . we are striving for the Christmas Vacation house (25,000 twinkle lights). We are far from it, but slowly working on it. Last year we added Big Frosty and Little Santa. My brother Jeff told my grandparents that he wanted an inflatable something to put in the yard for Christmas, so they sent him some money for his b-day (Dec. 16). This lit a fire under Ansen and he eventually found some deal at Smith's and we ended up with 2 Big Frosties and a Little Santa. Unfortunately, the Santa Snow Globe was sold out (Dang . . . we won't be the crazies with 10 blow up toys after all). Every evening Addison, Olivia and I go out and plug them in and then ceremoniously watch them inflate, which takes a lot longer than you would expect.

Okay so Frosty doesn't look so big in the picture and you can't see Santa, but try to imagine I guess.

These are the 3 main traditions we will abide by as long as Ansen lives. The one we haven't caught onto is the 3 a.m. Christmas awaking. Ansen's dad would wake everyone up at 3 a.m. to start the festivities. This actually started with Willard's dad. Willie-Baby is thoroughly disappointed that we can sleep until 8:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. Hey, we let Addison wake us up and she's a sleeper. Maybe he has some hope with Olivia.

What are the must-have traditions at your house?