Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

The Difference Between a Hermit and a Ghost

Kedar and I have always had a difficult time sharing our home with animals. Both of us grew up with pets and consider ourselves "animal people" but having our own home makes things different. While growing up, having animals in my parents' house didn't seem like a big deal, but having our carpets peed on, and our furniture chewed, or even our grass pooped on doesn't seem very appealing. I realize now what a pain pets must have been for my parents.  Kedar and I have been very reluctant to invite four-legged friends into our home.

You can imagine how our kids have felt about this arrangement; not very good.  A few years ago, Conner really wanted a pet. I mean, he reallyreallyreallyreallyreally wanted a pet. After a lot of thought we came up with the perfect pet for our family.  We thought we were being quite generous when we gave him a Hermit Crab for his birthday. Then, we gave Ethan a Hermit Crab for Christmas that same year and we were feeling really good about ourselves; the kids had pets and our home was remaining intact.

For the most part, the Hermit Crabs were working out quite nicely but it didn't take long to realize that they are not the most exciting pets. In fact, quiet shortly I became convinced that they are indeed the most boring pets out there. Turns out they are called Hermit Crabs for a reason. Just as their name implies, they rarely venture out. Most of the time they could easily be mistaken for any other shell just sitting there, not moving, not showing any sign that there is a living creature inside.

They do move around a little but only at night when the kids are fast asleep and unaware. We can go for weeks without seeing them move at all, so every so often Kedar will pick them up and turn them over to make sure that they are still alive.

A pet that you have to turn over to make sure is alive = A very boring pet

In fact, Aubrey had a crab that died several months ago- she is still convinced that it's alive (there is an empty shell in the cage that looks similar to the one her crab lived in).  The boys have tried telling her that her crab is dead but she staunchly refuses to believe them.

Apparently, an empty shell as a pet is just as fun as a Hermit Crab.

Recently, Ethan has become dissatisfied with our current pet situation (and who can blame him?).   He's been on a mission to convince Kedar and I that a dog would make our family complete.

But about a week ago I got a phone call from my parents that seemed to provide a great solution.  My parents asked if it would be okay if they gave the kids a lizard for Christmas.  I thought that this could be the answer to our pet predicament.  My parents were offering a pet that is way more exciting than a Hermit Crab but still not a dog!

In my mind, I saw an inch long, lime green lizard in a five gallon tank.  "Awww, cute!" I said to myself.    When I actually saw the lizard for the first time I was surprised to see a thirty gallon tank with a five inch long Ghost Leopard Gecko inside.   Now I was thinking, "Wait...is this what I agreed to?"

Of course the kids were ecstatic, and to be honest the more that I watched her (yes, we have a girl) the more intrigued I became, in fact, now I think she's kinda pretty. 

We've had Jasmine (you can call her Jazz if you want) at home for a few days now and we have been able to enjoy all sorts of pet related fun with her.  Here are a few things we have already done that we could never do with the Hermit Crabs:

1- Watch her breathe (a sure sign that she is alive, no need to pick her up and turn her over).

2- Watch her blink (after 3 years of owning hermit crabs I'm not sure that I could acurately locate their eyes). 

3- Watch her walk, eat and drink (all within a short amount of time).

4- Hold her (the kids are thrilled that I will let them hold her, I am thrilled that I don't have to worry about crab claws).

So, we are now the proud owners of 2) Hermit Crabs and 1) Ghost Leopard Gecko.  Who knows, maybe in ten years or so we will have worked ourselves up to owning a dog.   

It took Me a Minute to Get It

When I was asked what I had been given for Christmas my excited  response was,

"Kedar, gave me a Nook!"

Without missing a beat my witty little brother quipped,

"Oh, yeah?  Well, I got a cranny."

Before Santa Came to Our House

 

 The goodies were thoughtfully laid out... 

the note was carefully composed....

and the kids were wearing their new Christmas jammies.

Gingerbread Houses

Christmas Past

A few random Christmas memories from my childhood:

- My sister and I would sleep in each other's room every Christmas Eve.  One year she would sleep in my room, the next year I would sleep in hers.  We would talk and giggle into the wee hours of the morning.

- There were only a couple of  years during my childhood that we didn't drive to Urie, Wyoming to see my great-grandma and cut our own Christmas Tree.  One year we even had our picture taken for the local newspaper.

- I would search the house high and low, looking for where my parents had hidden the Christmas presents.

- For Christmas when I was 11, my parents gave me a new daybed.  I was mortified to see the pamphlets from my sixth grade "maturation program," that I had hidden safely under the mattress of my old bed, stacked neatly on my bedroom floor.  My dad had seen them!

- When I was 12, Marci and I pretended to be sick so that we could stay home from church.  While everybody else was gone we snuck under the Christmas Tree and carefully opened all of the presents that my aunt had sent from California.  Then we taped them back up before anybody got home.

- The night before Christmas we would all take our beautiful handmade stockings in our anxious hands and stake out our "spots."  Draping your stocking over the back of a chair told Santa to put any gifts he brought for you on that chair.  Of course the biggest spots were the most desirable real estate.

- Hanging on the "kid Christmas tree" were stalwart soldiers and beautiful ballerinas made from wooden clothes pins.

- Christmas morning we would line up youngest to oldest and walk into the family room in a line to find our Christmas presents.

- Lying on my back under the Christmas tree and looking up through the branches at all of the twinkling  lights felt like magic (it still does).

Christmas PJs

This is my favorite Christmas picture from this year:

Here are the kids in their cozy Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. Don't they look angelic? (This was before they woke up at 2am, snuck downstairs and saw everything Santa brought.)

Sting Pong

We were at my parents' house on Christmas day. It was so fun to be there with the entire family. Jared and Kathy are here with their girls from Texas and this was Ty's first Christmas home since finishing his mission. It isn't often that all of the cousins can be together, so they were in seventh heaven having all of their best friends there to play with. We were all hanging out, visiting and enjoying being together.


But pretty soon, all this "family time" wasn't quite extreme enough for the men in the fam. Someone, I think it was Jasen, came up with an idea to liven things up. It was just a matter of time, really. A game of Sting Pong was proposed.

What?? You've never heard of Sting Pong? This isn't a male bonding experience in every family? Well then, let me explain.

The first critical element is the invitation. I believe it went something like this, "Anybody who claims to be a man, meet downstairs at the ping pong table." Secondly, all of the guys congregate and take turns saying how badly they want to skip out (except Jared, whose never played before and doesn't know that he should be afraid...yet). Next, the game ensues, which is similar, in the basics, to "around the world ping pong." All of the guys (6 in this case) form a circle around the table, everybody has their own paddle, somebody serves and then moves clockwise so that the guy next to him can hit the ball when it comes back across the table. Same thing is happening on the other side of the table: hit the ball, then move clockwise to let the next guy have his turn. So, everybody is constantly running around the table hitting the ball and then running some more. Are you following? Here's a picture to demonstrate:


So far, this sounds like fun, right? Yeah, lots of fun... until somebody misses the ball. In that case, the guy who misses has to stand at the head of the table, hold his shirt up so that his stomach is exposed and wait there while one of the other guys hits the ping pong ball at his exposed skin as hard as he can. Fun game, huh? It actually gets better. If the group decides that the one hitting the ball is being nice and not hitting it as hard as they can, everybody playing gets to take turns hitting the ping pong ball at his stomach, as hard as they can.

Here's Kedar waiting to be hit with the ball, protecting his face with his paddle:

The game goes on like this until they all have ping pong ball sized welts covering their stomachs. There's really not a winner or a point, except to inflict pain.

You know, this game reminds me of when we took turns letting each member of the family shoot rubber bands at our noses from across the room... Wait a minute, you've never played that game either?

A Cute Idea

If you are still wondering what to give out as neighbor gifts or want a unique idea for next year, here's something I've never seen before:


Our cute friends gave us this roll of toilet paper dressed up as Frosty. The roll is in a cellophane bag and the earmuffs and face are glued to the bag. The earmuffs are big pom poms connected with pipe cleaner. They attached a pair of googly eyes and an orange foam nose. Here's what the card said:

Who knew that toilet paper could make such a cute neighbor gift?