Spying on Santa

This is our special Brion & Kim Christmas tradition--spying on Santa. When Bryce was little, we told him we would allow him to spy on Santa on Christmas morning and watch him put presents in the stockings. He was so excited about this. It worked out for us, too. He went to bed without a worry of missing out on Santa, because his awesome parents would wake him up and let him do what every child dreams of--spy on Santa!!! At 5:00 a.m., I went to his room and told him Santa was here. We tip-toed down the hall and peak our heads around the corner and there he was!!! It was so exciting that we do this every year. Now Jared can't wait to spy, and whenever he gets a doubt that Santa exists, he remembers that he has seen him! I put some pictures in just to prove Santa is real!

The Holidays

I can't believe the holidays are almost over (there's still Val Day and, don't forget, my birthday on Feb 16th!)!!!!!

We had a great Thanksgiving. The day started with the annual Timp Tri Club Bike ride at the fitness center (we spin and watch a movie at 5:30 a.m.). I love this tradition because I don't feel guilty pigging out later! I cooked dinner and had some family members over. Brion bought me (okay, I told Brion he bought it for me!) a Ronco Rotisserie--the extra large one. We cooked a 20lb turkey in it. When we bought the turkey at the store, I was so impressed with myself for saving turkey bucks and commented to Brion that we only spent $3 on the turkey. His reply was, "That's fantastic, but we spent $150 to cook it!"

I catered only one Christmas party this year, so that was nice. We attended the Lunsford & Peck Christmas party at the Grand America Hotel. I was so excited because for the first time in four years, I didn't have to plan it! I also won an IPod and $100 in change. The $100 was a game and you won it if you could guess correctly how much change was in a jar. Of course, I just went and asked my boss how much money was in there. When I told my co-workers that I cheated, they thought I was kidding. Their loss! We also went to the Timp Tri Club Christmas party. Allen put together a great slide show and I will put a link to it. I always enjoy hanging out with my tri club friends.

Christmas was also great. I adopted a policy years ago that I would not send out Christmas cards or neighbor gifts or cook any goodies. It was a great decision and greatly reduces the stress of the holidays. So if you're wondering why you didn't get anything from me, don't feel bad--nobody did! Instead of cooking Christmas meals, we visited family. Of course, we had the Casper fondue on Christmas Eve, which was at Troy's house. On Christmas morning, we spied on Santa. The kids opened their gift and we hopped in the car and headed for Vegas. We spent Christmas afternoon at Uncle Bob and Aunt Peggie's house and had our Casper fondue (you can never get too much fondue!). Then we headed for LA to see Lauri. My dad and mom were already down there. We spent a few days in LA and visited with Dawn, Lauri, and everyone else. Afterward, I realized that this was the first time my whole family had been together in a while and nobody took a family picture!

The Buffalo pictures on my blog

You’re probably wondering why I have a bunch of pictures of a buffalo on this blog. I posted these for family members to download. If you want to download these pictures, right click and save them to your computer--then you can keep them. So here’s the tale of my dad and my Uncle Steve’s buffalo hunt.
Steve and Pat came to Utah to visit my dad and mom. Steve and my dad drove to Canada and were just minding their own business when a buffalo started to charge them. My dad was afraid the buffalo would scratch his truck so he ran towards it, throwing rocks. The buffalo caught the rocks in its mouth and spit them back out at Steve and my dad. So Steve ran up to it, climbed on its back and started riding it like a horse. He scooped up my dad and they both started riding around on it. Eventually the buffalo got tired and laid down to take a nap. So they shot it and now they have enough food for the winter.
Okay, so that’s not the real story, but who knows what the story will be years from now. What really happened is my dad’s neighbor has some property in Canada and offered my dad to go hunt for a buffalo. When he asked Steve if he wanted to go, he couldn’t turn that down! He and Pat came out to Utah and then Steve and my dad drove up to Canada. They spent one day driving, one day hunting, and the next day driving back. They know how to make a vacation out of it! So they got their buffalo and another thing marked off their bucket list!!

Quick note: I have removed most of the buffalo pictures from this site. If you want a copy of any of them, let me know.