Once Upon A Christmas

A few years back... Mom, Aunt Peggy and I decided that instead of exchanging Christmas gifts... we would go and do "something" together during the holidays. The first year we went to Voice Male together... last year the three of us went to Savior of the World in Salt Lake... this year we decided to go and see Once Upon A Christmas... we had such a wonderful time! It is a play put on by the Davis Family from the Pickleville Playhouse in Bear Lake...as well as a super delish dinner before hand by the Coppermill. Anyone looking for something fun and entertaining to do for the holidays... you need to go and check this out! I would have taken more pics.. but the camera battery died after I took the first two...

Christmas Lights!

I think Josh is the only person who knows just how important Christmas lights on the outside of the house are to me. It all started when I was a little girl. We lived in an apartment on 1st East... a few days before Thanksgiving my dad would put a string of lights... it was my job to "color coordinate". That was my favorite thing! Green, red, white, blue and yellow. We could turn them on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Also on that day Logan City would turn on the Christmas lights down Main Street. Red and Green tinsel like decorations with lights that were strung across the street every so often... (It seemed like there were 100's of them...probably more like one every block). I loved when we could "drag Main" and see them if it was snowing... the effect was that much sweeter!

Forward to our house in Lamplighter. Because our house was dark wood... and we had a Cathedral ceiling in the front... when Christmas lights were turned on, it looked just like a Gingerbread House. The colors of the lights were more pastel... it was sooo pretty. They had 2 deer made (you know the ones)... They always were chained to the ground under the tree in the front yard. Our house looked awesome!

When I married Randy... we never had lights outside at all... It was dark and I hated it! So for Josh and I's first Christmas on our own I actually hung a strand of lights on the front of our apartment... it wasn't much... but it was back to tradition again! We lived there for a few more years and my dad did the work of hanging the lights... he even put lights on the small tree by our carport. Back to tradition...yea!

When Josh and I moved into the condo... wow.. .now it was time to really decorate. Josh was older so my dad taught him how to hang the lights on the house... set up the "loop da loops" (they are iron posts with a hook on the end), put the wreaths on both sides of the garage and set up the "courtyard" with loop da loops and our very own set of deer... my dad even created trees... he strung green lights on very large wire tomato covers. We had the biggest driveway of them all... completely lit with loop da loops... Our house rocked! Shoveling snow over the loop-da-loops was not an easy task!

When Val and I got married our first Christmas the boys put lights up all around the house... all 4 sides... we didn't use the little "twinkle lights"... we used the large white lights! My dad would tease that the planes flying into the Logan Airport would get confused and think that our house was the runway! When Josh left on his mission... holidays were super hard for me! So many of the holidays we had traditions and without him they just weren't the same. Lights on the house being one of them. I would start bugging Val about lights... (not his thing) and Ben would end up putting the lights on the house at the last minute.... Thanks Ben... that really meant a lot! This year I been so busy with work... I really didn't care if the lights got put up or not... Josh knew better. He kept bugging Val (until he didn't have a choice) Josh was going up on the roof... with or without his help! I came home after a very long day at work... to be surprised with beautiful multi-colored lights to greet me! Thanks Josh for knowing how much lights at Christmas mean to me. I hope when you get married... you will keep the Christmas lighting tradition going!

Sunday Night Football

The "back side"

Vicki - Uncle Darrell - Dad - Josh

Kendra and Vicki

Uncle Darrell.... Throwing "the bomb"
The "Heisman Pose" .... lookin' good Dad!

The Cowboys on Sunday night football... what could be better... a Johnson Cowboy Party! Chicken... rolls... pop and cookies for "treat time"... we were set. Since we all had jerseys... Josh wanted to make sure that Uncle Darrell had one too... #9 - Romo... fits perfect! (Thanks for being so thoughful!) Kendra had her first "Cowboy" game with the family... hopefully she will come back too! Here's to more Cowboy parties in the next few months... Superbowl has a nice ring to it... Go Cowboys!

New Do...

Finally after 6 months of giving up "Jef" long story... mostly $ related... and 6 months of hearing Josh say... "Mom your gray is showing"... I found someone here in Logan who gave me my new "look" ... I love the color... and I love the cut! Mom liked my cut so well... she had Lindsay cut hers too! She looks super cute with her new do too!

Awesome...

Josh and I decided to try out the new Texas Roadhouse for dinner Saturday night...and invited mom and dad to come along with us. All I can say is... awesome! I love the atmosphere... the food... and the company! I can't wait to go back!

Ooops...

Mom and Betty were in the parking lot on their way home from church when....crunch! Mom was hit in the back quarter panel by... none other.. their neighbor 2 doors down! Cory has a "big" truck and didn't see the Camry... even after he hit her... he still couldn't see her. He was much relieved when he jumped out and saw it was a car and not a child that he hit. No one was hurt... and the car is still okay to drive...just an inconvenience for a few weeks... and another deductible (since it was on private property!) Hello... Autocare...we have another one for you to repair! Do you give family discounts?

Logan and Imigration Canyons

I took a drive to Montpelier to help train their employees on the new Vision Data System... here are a few of the pics I took... snow... yuk!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A Big Thank You!

There really is light at the end of the tunnel... who would have thought that re-entering in 400+ ads... figuring out what the new "class codes" are.... (yes they changed all of them!), making all of the price adjustments between the two systems... creating all of the headers and all the "little things" that goes into publishing a daily classified section... we actually pulled it off. It was not a "thing of beauty" but it worked... "Today's newspaper is tomorrows bird cage liner"... my "go to guy" Paul Davis told me that when I first became the manager 5 years ago... its taken a few years... but Paul... I believe you now... errors are a way of life in the classified department. It's still a little tough in trying to enter ads... Jana and I are not as quick as we were on the old system... but each ad is getting better... and a little bit easier! We still have lots to "figure out"... but I think the worst and hardest part is over...and we have Classifieds!

A BIG THANK YOU...
* For the sweet cards left on my desk...
* The encouraging e-mails...
* Hugs from those who could tell I was loosing steam... fast...
* The "sports guys" who would come and check on me from 7pm - 11pm... to make sure I was still awake and not doing a "face plant" on my desk...
* Those who told some silly jokes to make my "load" a little lighter...Kristy I will never never stop laughing at those jokes... even though no one else thinks they are that funny!
* To my sweet Josh for bringing me lunch or dinner depending on how late I was working
* To my husband... for letting me "vent" at him when nothing would work!
* To my family... for understanding my crazy work schedule and not expecting me to do much... make that anything... on the home front!
* Paul and Jared - for understanding my "head popping up and spinning around" moments and still holding my hand on making the "techee" things work... you two are the best!

I hope The Herald Journal "mucky mucks" know what awesome people they have working for them! The way the HJ staff came together to take on this project... the extra hours that were spent at "The Office"... and all the moral support from the other departments... who this project really didn't affect... but were willing to do what they could to help us out... I think our staff is one that would make any company proud!

Herald Journal Employees...
You Rock!