Christmas Eve

Lew and Madison had to work today so we had dinner kind of late. Lew got off a little early so he finished Christmas shopping and started dinner. Jensen and I went to the mall. Madison was gonna cut Jensen's hair but she was slammin busy. So Jensen and I just shopped some more. Her friend Alana spent the day with us, too.

We had dinner of turkey, green beans, mashed taters, gravy and cranberry sauce. It was delicioso. As is tradition, we open one gift on Christmas Eve. Since Madison is a consumer now, she bought us gifts so we opened the ones from her. We also opened gifts from Jensen. Madison got me a gift set that included hair spray, mousse, shampoo and conditioner. It is just the right kind for my hair. It's funny because I was going to buy some Paul Mitchell this morning and she said, "No you're not getting that, it's too heavy for your hair. Just wait." And then surprise! She also bought me a wooden wind chime. Our neighbor has one and I like the way it sounds so I asked for one for Christmas. Jensen made me a cute little picture of a pig. She colored it purple with a green background. Purple is my favorite color. She is such a good little artist.

After the gift exchange, we watched A Christmas Story, which is also a tradition. It was a marathon so we started watching it towards the end and then watched the beginning. Even though we have the movie, we don't mind watching it on TV because we can get potty breaks.

Kimmy

Tonight we had Madison's friend Kimmy over for dinner. Madison met her in her Sociology class. When I first met her I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone because she is so much like Madison. They don't look exactly alike but I could tell that their personalities are very similar. Madison had invited Kimmy to institute and she has a lot of questions so we had the missionaries over to answer her questions. We also had my BFF Jean over. The missionaries taught a really good lesson.

We enjoyed spending time getting to know Kimmy. She seems very nice and she seems like a good BFF for Madison.

Church Bookstore

Today Madison and I went to the church bookstore. Of course, we couldn't just go straight to the bookstore we had to stop at the flea market. We finally made it. I bought Sheri Dew's latest book, "No Doubt About It". I always enjoy her talks so I thought I would enjoy her book. I also bought Believing Christ by Stephen E. Robinson. He was at Time Out for Women and he gave a talk that changed my whole perspective on the gospel, for the better, I might add. I already had the second book, Following Christ, so I thought I should get the first. Madison got a CD which was also a sequel by InsideOut. They are an a capella group that sings Primary Songs, amazing. Of course, we couldn't just come straight home, we had to stop at Target. I was looking for a gift for my mother whose birthday is today.

Happy Birthday MOM!

The Spencers

Happy Birthday MOM!

66 years young. We went to Ruby Tuesday's to celebrate mom's birthday. She was celebrating with a bunch of people that she works with so we went along. She has made a lot of very good friends and kept in touch with them since retiring. They seem right nice and friendly.

Happy Birthday MOM!

Christmas at G-ma Pat's and G-pa Don's

We had Christmas at mom's today. It was nice relaxing time. We stuffed our faces full of delicious food and then we openend presents. Then we took turns taking catnaps in between conversations. I think mom puts something in her food because we always fall asleep. Present at the party were the Clayton5, G-ma and G-pa, of course, Missy and her kids, Jerry, Tiffany and her fiance, Francois and Nick and his girlfriend's daughter, Skye. We scored good on presents. Mom always makes us a stocking gift bag plus we got gift cards to AMC theaters and Smokewood Grill, delicious.

DTR Friends

We had our Christmas party with our DTR friends. What a great time. We laughed so hard that our faces and stomaches ached. We have to pinky swear to get together more and pinky swear to no more secrets. Love you, Shannon, Steve, Carmen and Kirk. And the kids were too stinking cute Connor, Cameron, Eskekiel and Andrew. Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas.

Ornament Toss

For Family Home Evening, we decorated this Christmas tree. Parker came up with the brilliant idea to toss the ornaments on the tree and wherever they landed was good. Madison and Jensen seconded the idea. I didn't think it would work but let them do it anyway. It was actually a success. Lew hung the lights and finished the project.

The Golden Compass

Monday night we got to see the Sneak Preview for the Golden Compass. Lew got free tickets from work. Yea! for free. We went with G-ma, G-Pa, Jean and Nick plus all of the Clayton Five.

I was excited because we had read the book for Book Club. We were supposed to go for a girl's night out but I couldn't pass up free or family. Sorry girls, but I still want to go again.

I would give the movie three stars out of five. I'm glad that I had read the book because the plot was kind of choppy and hard to follow. The cinematography was wonderful. The daemons were especially cute and fascinating. The images were right on with what I had imagined while reading the book. The ending was stink-a-rooney.

Madi's 20th Birthday

Today was Madison's 20th birthday! I can't believe it. It was 2o years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play... Sorry, there's a song for everything.

Back to Madison. We started the day by going to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. It is a tradition we have been doing for many years. (I lost track). We went with G-ma and G-Pa, Nick, Larkin and Skye. We went to the petting zoo and G-ma fell in love with a brown goat and wants it for Christmas. Jensen rode the horse and Skye rode in the horse drawn cart. We went on the hayride and picked out a tree. It is smaller than we usually get, but perfect. We roasted hot dogs and s'mores then stopped on the way home for boiled p-nuts, also a tradition. It was an unseasonably hot day at the farm.

For dinner, we went to Universal CityWalk to the Hard Rock Cafe. Of course we told the waiter that it was Madison's birthday. He made her stand up on the counter while everyone shouted happy birthday at her. HaHa! It was too funny.

We bought her a digital camera for a gift so now she can help me put pictures on my blog.

Happy Birthday, Madi! We love you!