Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!! To recap our year, we have a test. And since we haven’t seen many of you over the year, you’ll be at a slight disadvantage. Good luck!

1. How many miles did we travel this last year?
a. 1,596 b. 7,312 c. 4,294 d. we never leave ABQ

2. What did Kendra do that made us laugh the hardest?
a. Cross her eyes
b. Says “go-ee-oh” instead of “here you go”
c. Tried to teach a toy fly to pray
d. Telling us she’s going to call pizza on her toy phone, then picking up the phone and saying “hi pizza”
e. Telling Mommy not to fall into the toilet after she had

3. What was Kristi’s favorite book?
a. Treatment of Childhood Disorders by Eric J. Mash
b. Get Rich Quick by Mike Jukes Onyou
c. Dude, Where’s My Country by Michael Moore
d. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

4. What was Mark’s favorite book?
a. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
b. Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton
c. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
d. Birds of North America, by C. Robbins

5. What song does Kendra make us listen to over and over every time we drive somewhere?
a. “I'll Make a Man Out of You”, from Mulan
b. “How Does She Know”, from Enchanted
c. “I Know You”, from Sleeping Beauty
d. Theme song from Veggie Tales

6. What makes Kendra laugh the hardest?
a. Butterfly kisses
b. Peek-a-boo from behind her bathroom towel
c. Tickle torture from Mommy

7. What was Kendra’s best excuse to call Daddy back into her bedroom after she’s been tucked in for bed?
a. Needs to go to the bathroom (and then doesn’t go)
b. Needs to look out the window
c. Needs to be tucked in again
d. Needs to blow her nose
e. Needs a drink
f. Has no good reason

8. What was a year low point?
a. Mark backing Kristi’s new Rav4 into a pole (a plastic pole)
b. Kristi seeing, for the first time, Kendra behaving quite differently from other kids in a group setting (signs of what turned out to be a sensory processing disorder)
c. Mark’s car getting smashed while it sat in the bus parking lot

9. What was our year highlight?
a. Kristi’s 10 year high school reunion
b. Attending the BYU vs New Mexico Football game
c. A wonderful visit to St. George to see both parents and Shoni’s (Kristi’s sister) masters graduation
d. Kendra dancing on a table in front of a class of 2nd graders while her Aunt Shoni sang “How Do You Know He Loves You?”
e. Kendra making great strides in development after therapy for her sensory processing disorder

10. True or False, Kristi is pregnant.


Answers:
1. 4,294
2. A, but all made us laugh
3. D, none of the others were considered
4. C, A and B were not considered, but D made it to the list
5. A, and over, and over…
6. C, but the others are close
7. Take your pick, they all work every time
8. B, but, yes…the others did actually happen
9. 5-way tie
10. True!!! And we’re so excited. The due date is July 5th.

Snow Day

It snowed a couple of inches yesterday so today Kendra and I had a snow day! After we scraped our driveway and sidewalk we made a snowman. Now, back in Oregon when I made snowmen the snow balls always had grass and leaves in them. Well, down here in New Mexico we do not have grass. I thought this would finally be the time I could make a snowman without anything sticking to the snow. Instead of grass we have rocks and rocks still stick to the snow. I have learned that it is better to roll a snowball on the pavement than on our "yard." Kendra and I had a great time putting him together.

Then I noticed we had icicles! This day just keeps getting better and better. I jumped up to get an icicle for Kendra. I love it when Kendra mimics me. She then jumped to grab the icicles, but of course they were way too high. It's too bad it only snows a few days out of the year down here.

Disneyland

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday. I told Kendra on the way that we were going to see Santa. She said, "I don't want to see Santa, I want to see Cinderella." The whole night she said that until I told her that Santa was gone. She really didn't want to see him!

Now all Kendra talks about is going to Disneyland to see Cinderella. She even asks me, "mommy you want to see Mater and McQueen at Disneyland?" She goes through the whole list of Disney characters. We probably won't get to Disneyland for years so she's in for one great disappointment. My only hope is that the Disney Store in town has their employees dress up like characters once in awhile.