Our First Nativity

We did our Christmas lesson for Family Home Evening the other day since we're not going to be at home for any more Mondays this month. We decided to try acting out the Nativity. It was kind of a last minute idea, courtesy of Danny (we're trying to be better at planning our FHE lessons more in advance) and it was a pretty simple and crude version. At the same time, the kids had fun and we did well inspite of our small numbers. Introducing the cast: A doll represented Baby Jesus; Emily was Mary; Dallin was Joseph; I was the narrator reading from Luke 2 and Matt. 2, the inn-keeper, and the angel; Danny was the donkey, a shepherd, and the wisemen (he wore three different tiarras at the same time to represent the three wisemen - very resourceful, if you ask me). We then sang a few Christmas hymns and to conclude, we watched the church video "The Nativity". It was a good, meaningful Home Evening we felt.

Notice Mary is "great with child" thanks to her stuffed pig.

In our version, Joseph got to ride the donkey too.

In the stable with Baby Jesus in the manger.

Thanksgiving, Birthday, and Other Stuff

This post is so overdue, and really should be several posts, so I'll try to be concise (yeah right.).








Thanksgiving



We spent most of Thanksgiving with my fantastic in-laws. The whole family was together, which was great.












Of course the weather was pleasant enough to spend lots of time outside.








Dallin hamming it up.

For weeks, Emily had anticipated playing Duck, Duck, Goose with everyone. It was pretty funny watching the grown-ups play.

Emily and Dallin got to help decorate the tree, the thing Emily said she enjoyed most of the whole weekend.

Unfortunately, Emily's pants tend to sag a little and her undies usually go down with them. Hence, the bum crack. But a cute bum crack at that.

We got a family photo one morning. This is everyone waiting to get started.

Grandma and Aunt Stacy kindly helped the kids decorate a gingerbread house.

I think Dallin ate more candy than he actually put on the house.

Emily loved the gumballs that came with it.

Danny and I were not present for this whole thing of decorating the house. Apparently, this is what grandmas let the grandkids do when their parents are gone. What you don't get to see is the whole string of action photos taken before this one that show Dallin climbing up on the table, crawling toward that bowl of candy, and plopping himself down to have complete reign over it. All the while Grandma's in the background laughing instead of intervening. Nice one, Grandma! We caught you on this one! :) Oh well. What's a grandma if she doesn't spoil the grandkids?

Participating in the Dixon tradition of toffee dipping. Here's the double assebly line where everyone has one of the following jobs: throwing the bare toffee into the bowl of chocolate, covering the bare toffee with chocolate then throwing it into the bowl of nuts, covering the chocolate-covered toffee with nuts and placing it on the cookie sheet. I was doing none of those jobs, just eating the bare toffee. Besides the toffee, we (I use the term "we" loosely as I was a minimal participant) made all sorts of other goodies like fondants, fudge, turtles, and almond joys. Yes, my mother-in-law is an accomplished chef and loves to make anything and everthing. Luckily, I'm the benefactor in much of what she makes.

Dallin and Uncle Ben. Dallin's job was throwing the toffee into the bowl of chocolate.

As was Emily's job.

Dallin and Aunt Emily hanging out.

Birthday

I celebrated my 29th birthday on the 30th. To celebrate, all of us Dixons went out for breakfast at Crackers (yum!!) on Saturday morning and then Danny and I went to Cheesecake Factory (yum yum!!) with some of my siblings and their spouses that night. Sunday was my actual birthday so we had cake at the Dixons and opened gifts that evening. I got some money (some of which I've already on some shoes), some new clothes and earrings, my old violin repaired, and my own copy of These Is My Words, my favorite book. Not bad, eh?

Dallin withGreat-grandpa and Great-granny Dixon.

Other Stuff

This past week or so was spent in Mesa while Danny was in Boston for work. We stayed some days at my in-laws' and some days with my mom while she tended my brother's kids. I was able to get some good Christmas shopping done and it was fun to stay up late talking with my mom before bed.

My kids got to take part in another Dixon Christmas tradition: Bratzle-making. Bratzles are flat, little, Swiss cookies you cook in a special iron (similar to a waffle iron) that imprints the cookies with pretty designs. They are oh so delicious and the kids had a good time helping.

This, unfortunatley, is not a good representation of either Danny or the following little incident. So, the last morning we were in Mesa, I got out of the shower annoyed with myself for not having turned on the bathroom fan (the mirrors were extremely fogged up). Dressed only in my garments at that point, I turn on the fan and when I do, it makes a weird buzzing noise for it's first couple rotations. I didn't think to much of it, other than the fan had never done that before. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I see something fall from the fan, a thin, brown something - like a stick, and I hear a couple of little thuds. When I peered over to the space between the toilet and the tub, there on the floor was a lizard! It was just the one of the regular lizards we see all the time her in AZ, about 4 or 5 inches long. I'm not scared of lizards per se, but I certainly wasn't going to try to get one that big, so I called Danny in to do it. It didn't move much, but it was alive (Personally, I suspect it brain damage after falling from that high, ricocheting off the toilet, and landing on tile floor). We let it go in the backyard and eventually it ran away. So, that was a pretty surprising thing that we all laughed about.

Schnepf Farms

Over Halloween weekend, Grandma Dixon and Aunt Stacy took us to Schnepf Farms for a really fantastic day. They've got quite the set up out there from a roller coaster to pony rides to pig races to a train ride. It's similar to a carnival, but on a little smaller scale and with a farm feel to it. The kids had a great time trying most things out and we're still talking about it. Thanks, Mom, for such an exciting day!

The kids got their faces painted. Dallin got a spider.

Emily got a pumpkin.

The antique carousell was a favorite for them.

Emily loves pigs and was thrilled to ride one.

Emily rode Oreo the pony.

Dallin rode Snowflake. Poor guy, he was practically doing the splits with his little legs. I don't think he enjoyed the ride as much as Emily did.

Dallin had a good time feeding the goats. I was sure at any moment either he or Aunt Stacy would get a head butt from one of them.

Emily did not want to get in the cages with the animals. She was happy talking to this sheep from the outside.

Walking through some little "Water Conservation" maze.

Emily "helping" out during the pig races.

Then it was Dallin's turn.

With Daddy on the Bumble Bee ride.

With Grandma.

It was a pretty hot day and Stacy had the right idea staying in the shade.

Danny and I wanted to try out the swing ride.

The last ride of the day was the little train.

What Happens in Ft. Wayne Stays in Ft. Wayne!

This past weekend Danny and I traveled to Indiana for a wedding. Months ago, Danny's good friend/ASU classmate, Jeremy, invited Danny to be an usher in his Lutheran wedding held in Indianapolis. We made plans, of course, for a little get away and hoped to stay at the Garns' (my sister and her family) house in Ann Arbor, MI and drive down to Indianapolis for the wedding that Saturday. It turns out that Ann Arbor is a good 5 hours from Indianapolis, so my Michelle suggested that they join us somewhere in the middle for a couple of days without their kids. At first I thought she wasn't serious and that it'd never happen. But then plans really began to come together and from there it snowballed into my other sister, Jennifer, and her husband, David, joining us. From there it snowballed into my mom coming as well. It was going to be a long-awaited couples trip with some of my side of the family (it took a while for all of us to get married and then for some to get out of school and actually be making a decent income)! Ft. Wayne, IN is the midpoint between Ann Arbor and Indianapolis, so that's where we decided to meet. On Thursday,Danny and I flew into Indianapolis, then drove to up Ft. Wayne. My mom, Jennifer, and David all flew into Detroit, where Byron and Michelle picked them up at the airport, and then they all drove together down to Ft. Wayne that same day. So, we had Thursday evening, all of Friday, and Saturday morning together and it was BEYOND FUN to have just us adults!! No nap/feeding schedules to work around, no crying/whining kids, no waking up at the crack of dawn get the kids fed. Just us adults to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. It was GREAT and we lived it up the best we could in the short time we had. We're so glad everyone joined us and we had the best time! A big thank-you goes to my wonderful in-laws for tending our kids for us! Oh, a quick post-script: we had some good laughs as Danny and I drove through Gas City. We called the other car on their way to Ft. Wayne and made lots of jokes about it. Mostly, though, it reminded us how much we'd miss Brian and Heidi on the trip.

Our first night we went out to a local Italian restaurant. It was so tasty! Left to right: me, Danny, Byron, Michelle, Jennifer, David, and Mom.

The "mango". Okay, it's really the loaf of bread Jennifer used to demonstrate to all of us uneducated people how to cut up a mango.











Mom with her favorite sons-in-law. Sorry Byron - sucka!!

We shared a hotel room with Byron and Michelle. They kindly volunteered to sleep on the sofa bed. We hope their backs aren't jacked up.

Heading off to bed for some much needed sleep after staying up way too late.

In the morning down stairs enjoying our free continental breakfast.

After breakfast we hung out in David, Jennifer, and Mom's room deciding what to do after Plan I (touring a pickle factory) fell through. David was actually being productive on his computer.

Everyone else just hung around. Danny and Mom doing a Sudoku puzzle.

Byron and Jennifer shooting the breeze.

Michelle doing a Sudoku puzzle.

The sisters. We don't look that much alike, do we?

So, since Ft. Wayne isn't so much a tourist city like, say San Francisco or NYC, we decided to, yes, go goofy golfing. But it was so much fun because it was just us grown-ups.

Here we are. The weather was just right.

We liked teasing Mom about her unique stance with her feet spread way apart, her knees locked, and her toes pointed out. Good form, Mom!

Four!!

Us girls. We chose to play the "Safari Course".

Byron and Jennifer celebrating their holes in one. Michelle felt she deserved to be part of the picture even though she only got a fake hole in one. Typical. :)

Here's where we stopped for lunch after golfing. No, it's not a store where one can purchase granite for a counter top or something. It's an exclusively Mid-western restaurant where they serve superbly delicious food.

Friday night we went to a play in downtown Ft. Wayne at the Civic Center. We even got front row seats. Overall, we thought it was kind of weird, too long, and not quite what we were expecting. It was still fun, though, to spend a night out on the town just because we could.

Byron and Michelle in front of the stage. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't show the background well enough for Eunice the pianist or Tom the bass player to be seen. They were interesting folks.