Wife of the Year

Yep, that's me. You want to know why? This is why.
Merry Christmas to my cute husband and his new XBox 360 complete with Halo 3. He was totally surprised and so excited. You could say I earned a few wife points.


This is our Christmas Tree, I promised I would put a picture up. I think it is really cute, even if it is a little crooked and fake.














We did Christmas Eve with my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom and family. This is me and Emily and Brooke, my cute cousins, at Emily's house.
Cristian likes to experiment with the camera, hence the close up.

The next day we did breakfast with them at Brooke's house, and watched her cute boys open gifts. Then, C and I went home by noon, and didn't leave the house again. We opened gifts, watched movies, and ate. So great. We loved it. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, yummy salad, and apple pie made from scratch. Although, I am rethinking my time commitment in the kitchen on Christmas Day. It was too much. We may need to have a different tradition, like pizza, or something totally easy. But dinner was really good.

Epilogue about Christmas Traditions

I just want everyone to know, that the famed Riding family Christmas Eve tape that I was talking about in my last post has been immortalized on a cd by my brother David and given to all of us for our enjoyment. My Christmas joy is complete. Not so sure about Cristian's; it may take a little more than that, but I am happy. My love for the lazy Christmas Elf Dansel will be able to re-manifest itself, and if I am lucky, my children will feel the love someday too.
Merry Christmas, people I love. I will post pictures after the holiday.

It's Christmas Time!

I love Christmas. Everything about it. We just put our decorations and Christmas tree up on Friday, and it is so pretty. We are multi-colored lights people, since that is what we both grew up on. I love the soft glow they give from the tree when all the house lights are off. I will take a picture and post it, I promise.
I also love Christmas music. So much that by the time I am done listening to it at New Year's, I am kind of sick of it and ready to put it away for another year.
I love Christmas treats. I kind of have to put away my food guilt and say, oh well. I will be good in January. I don't stop working out, but when yummy food is so prevalent at this time of year, I have to eat it.
I love the season so much that, in fact, Christmas Day seems anti-climactic sometimes. Because then you have a week of weird limbo between Christmas and New Year's , then it is over.
My dilemma is, Cristian and I have not really established any traditions yet. I know we have so much time to do that, but I don't know what to do. All I know is what I did growing up with my family, and I love those traditions. But now Cristian and I are a family, and I don't want to just subject him to my childhood traditions with no thought for his. Besides, some of mine he outright refuses to participate in, like the old-school tape recorded from a record (yes, we are talking 1960's, people) that told a Christmas Eve story so little kids would go to sleep for Santa. We would listen to it every Christmas Eve before going to bed, and it became such a cult classic in our family that even as adults those of us who are together for the holidays will listen to the tape, quote everything, and laugh our guts out. Truthfully, it is kind of dumb, but we sure love it. I am also pretty sure that none of the men who married into my family have grasped the value of this tradition. Sure do wonder why.
Anyway, the only tradition he told me about was an advent calender; so I bought one this year. It is not the home-made felt one that he had ( and I had one too) but it will do.
Any ideas, anyone? What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions that you do with your family?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day and spent it with people you love. I spent mine with Cristian (of course) and my Aunt and Uncle Ruth and Tom Pooler, and their girls, Emily Montague and Brooke Duke and families. We had a great time and ate some serious food. Emily does not mess around when she plans a party, and cooks food. Seriously.
Here is my Top 10 List about why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday:

10: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Love it.

9: No gifts to buy, just lots of food.

8: It's a relaxing day with good people, all centered around a good meal. What could be better?

7: Four day weekend, baby.

6: I love the fall season anyway, and Thanksgiving is the finale to the fall.

5: Cozy weather is FINALLY here!

4: It's a family day.

3: The food is amazing! I love eating until my stomach is tight, and not feeling guilty. Thanksgiving is for eating.

2: Fall candles. MMmm.

1: Kick off to the Christmas Season!

And with that, may you all enjoy your leftovers and watch some good movies this weekend and drink hot chocolate.

Moods

I have an issue that I wonder if I am the only person who notices this and doesn't like it. I have a problem with people assuming they know what mood I am in. At the last job I had, I worked with a man who would walk into the office all the time and say "Smile! It's not that bad!" 9 times out of 10 I would be in a totally fine, neutral mood, and was just focusing on my work. But the fact that he said that, put me in a bad mood and I would want to punch him in the face. Just because I was not smiling so hard hard my teeth wanted to come out of my head meant I was in a bad mood?

I now work with another woman (new job) who I actually love to death and consider her a good friend. She, however, is an addictive personality and sees the world in black and white. I am positive those two personality traits are related. Earlier this week I walked into the break room and busted out into some song, totally out of tune, just being an idiot. She laughed really hard and said "you are in a way better mood than you were yesterday." I was like, what? "Actually, yesterday i felt totally fine."
"No, yesterday you didn't care about anything." She said.
I explained to her that I am a laid-back person and there are some days I just don't have a strong opinion about anything, but that doesn't mean I am in a bad mood. I also proceeded to let her know she is way over-sensitive to the moods of others, because this is not the first time SHE has let ME know what mood I was in. But again, since she is a Black/White person, she always has an opinion.
I am more shades of gray than that. I can be tired, neutral, happy, sleepy, or just content and laid-back, all without feeling like I am in a bad mood. I am not just good mood/bad mood, and I do not like it when other people assume they know my mood. If you want to know my mood, ask me. Anyone else ever notice this about themselves?

Now, for real...

Hi everyone! I am truly on the bandwagon now, i promise. First, a little update- I am living in Las Vegas with my cute husband, Cristian Bell. He is a grad student at UNLV getting an MFA in Technical Theater. He builds sets, to put it VERY simply. We have lived here for 2 years now, and we own a home we fixed up (yikes) but not so shady with a man like Cristian around. We love it. I work for a holistic medical clinic and really enjoy it, and am starting my own voice studio. Teaching is scary. I audition for theater when I can, but mostly am kind of out of the loop these days as far as that goes. Now for the update of the last 6 weeks of my life...

October was crazy. First we went to Geneva, NY, where Cristian's parents live. They celebrated their 50th anniversary, and we all had a blast. This is Cristian and I at the party. Not sure why I look pregnant, but whatever. His family is fabulous. I was asked to sing "their song" and it was really touching to see how much in love Pat and Jerry still are as they danced to it. May we all still love our spouses that way after 5o years.

Next was my family reunion. My parents are home from their mission in Ghana for a few weeks, so we all got together. 38 of us. It was insane and there is not a place I would have rather been in the world. We took family pictures, went to a pumpkin patch, and had a party in our neighbors barn (that Cristian built). The very top picture is the Bell Family Picture. At the pumpkin patch, this is Cristian with Amy, Matt, and Mark, 3 of Gary's 7 kids, and at this is Lincoln, Mike's oldest of two boys. At the barn that night, we carved pumpkins. My master designer husband drew some sweet pictures, so our pumpkins looked pretty good, I have to say. Good times.

The NEXT weekend was one I have been waiting for for 10 years. Hee Hee. My high school reunion. Since Mom and Dad don't live in the WC anymore, I have not been there for a while. I let Cristian off the hook about coming, even though he was a great sport and said he would. It was better that way because he would have wanted to poke his eyes out with boredom at all the reminiscing going on. I saw some of my best girls from the old days and have not laughed that hard for a long time.
On Saturday I went to the temple with Chalyce. Again, why the prego look? I swear there is nothing there. I had never been to the Oakland Temple, and since it was my hometown temple, I really wanted to go.










We also had to hit Yogurt Park, a fave place. Don't worry that I also brought home a huge round of good sourdough bread. Sweet Affair Bakery made the eating requirements complete.


Last but not least, the big night. Crazy. Loud music, an open bar, people who are confronting their old flames for the first time in 10 years, enough said. It was really fun over all, and I had a reunion with a childhood friend, Jenny Gerk.










What a great/funny weekend.
That is really it, I just wanted to show a picture of my pumkin I carved all by myself. I was kind of proud of it, actually.
I promise that is all I have, for the moment. Thanks. I really needed to unload. I feel so close to everyone now.

So, this is my blog. I promise I will put some pictures up when I get my camera back from Cristian.