Almost Christmas (an update)

On Friday I was able to fly out to Utah with Miciah.   Traveling with just one child who is 9 years old is Heaven!  Course she was crying on the airplane about how bored she was.  "I told you that you'd be bored.  I told you to bring a book."  "I don't want to read."  "Then draw."  "I don't want to draw.  I just want to get off this plane."  "Well, at least stop crying so the rest of us don't have to be tortured by you."  See how caring and sympathetic I am?  I learned that at Mom School.

I was able to see lots of family (and I missed some family, too.  There's too many of you!), and that was great.  I went to the Downs Family Christmas Party and was able to be the one who ticks off Grandma.  It's a special place of honor.  I fought off 5 others for the privilege.

Interestingly (to me), I went to BYU campus and felt no love for the place.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't have any positive feelings towards it.  I do, however, have a love for BYU's chocolate milkshakes, and I was able to get one.  I even broke my rule about not eating if you're not hungry.  We'd just gone to Cafe Rio and it's impossible to be hungry after Cafe Rio, but I sacrificed so I could get my yummy shake.

On Sunday my mom and dad and brothers and sisters had a family party at Rob's Aunt Lisa's house.  She has a great big house that's perfect for entertaining, and we were delighted that she let us have our party at her house.  It was great to get together with my family.  I like them all a lot.  ...  Also fun:  My family doesn't really know Lisa, and Lisa is something of a celebrity.  My brother asked what she did to be able to afford such a great house.  I told him that she started a scrapbooking magazine.  My brother just kinda stared at me blankly.  It was awesome. 

The Wedding
Monday was the wedding!  My brother Collin got married to Katherine and I'm so happy for them!  Miciah and Dea (and others) were flower girls, and this is how adorable they were:

Seriously cute, right?  A friend I haven't seen in a long time turned to me when Miciah was walking down the aisle and said, "Oh, Tamra, she's gorgeous!"  It's true.  She's a beautiful girl.  But she's not cocky about it.  Someone told her once that she was so pretty and she said, "People at school tell me that all the time."  It wasn't a snotty comment, it was just a this-is-the-way-it-is comment.  I love that she's beautiful and doesn't really care.  She's just Miciah and it's nice that she's pretty, but she's still just Miciah.  I'm hoping she holds onto that throughout her life.

This is me and my mom and my sister Lori (my only sister) all dressed up.  Or, rather, they're all dressed up and I'm just kinda Tamra dressed up:

My sister is taller than me and my mom, but not THAT much taller.  She's wearing heals and I'm not.  She's about 4 inches taller than me.  It's funny, our girls, who are months apart in age, are keeping the same trend.  Dea is about 3 inches taller than Miciah at any given time.  It's a good tradition.

Another family tradition:  Collin got married in Sambas.  All the best people get married in tennis shoes!  They actually looked really really nice with his tux.  Much better than my white tennis shoes with my dress.  I should have gone for Sambas, too.  What was I thinking?!

I came home yesterday so that I could say Happy Anniversary to Rob.  He was saying, "I'm sure you're really tired," and I was saying, "Are you kidding?  It feels like 8:30!"  We had our traditional cheesecake and sparkling cider, and we'll celebrate further next week when we have a 2 day date.  Hurray!

And Christmas is in 3 days!  I better start actually wrapping the presents, I guess.