- Kristin finished her classes. Whew! I have one more final to take, but the bulk of it is over and this merits a huge sigh of relief. Independent Study is a lot harder than I anticipated. Not because the classes themselves are more challenging, but because of the complete lack of a teacher/student relationship. Maybe that isn't as big of a deal with hard sciences, but with English it's vital. For example, one of my teachers asked for a one paragraph explanation of the effect of industrialization on the Romantic Period. I wrote 5 lengthy, thorough sentences and put a lot of work into the whole assignment. He gave me a C+ and wrote a little note next to the paragraph that said, "Write more." As if the grade didn't peeve me enough, his lack of feedback made it even worse. If you want more, ask for 2-3 paragraphs! He only wrote one other negative thing on my assignment and yet I got a C+. Considering the fact that its the worst grade I've gotten in college and it had no explanation whatsoever, it was a little infuriating.
- Bill and Connie came to visit for Thanksgiving weekend and we had a great time. We went to the Joseph Smith movie in SLC, toured Logan and, my personal favorite, visited the reindeer farm in Corrine. The reindeer farm is operated by one family and they put up darling kiosks of North Pole scenes, cut-outs for pictures, their reindeer and other critters and they even have a visiting Santa with an authentic beard for pictures. Check it out!
Dasher, Prancer & Vixen
Santa's Elves
Reindeer Quality Inspectors
The Big Man meets The Little Man- Lexie reverted to her bad behavior and chewed the binding off one of Ethan's books when I was running an errand. Furthermore, she committed the crime while sprawled out on the couch. I can't talk anymore about this because it disappointed me too much.
- Several home improvements took place including getting a new outside door for the side of the house, finally getting a door for Ethan's room and getting a dog house for Lexie. (The result of her misbehavior when she's inside alone.)
- We mailed all our Christmas packages and cards! Check your mailboxes!
- Ethan eats in his big boy highchair. Do any of my siblings recognize his highchair? That's right, I recovered our old highchair and feel nostalgic every time I put Ethan in the highchair that I used as a baby.
Ethan enjoying his new hang out
- Ethan jumps! Grandma and Grandpa Fixmer got Ethan a Johnny Jump Up for Christmas and we had to open it early because he loves jumping right now. It took him a couple days to figure it out, but now he loves jumping in it. I have a video of him jumping to posts, but I'm waiting for YouTube to upload it.
- Travis' classes finish this week. Please keep him in your prayers. He has presentations and tests on Tuesday and Friday. It's been another grueling semester and he's very ready for a break.
- We've all had our run with a horrible bug. Of course, we were nice enough to give it to Melanie, Mom and Dave at Thanksgiving, too. There's no fever, but lots of coughing, sneezing, sore throats and runny noses.
- We went to Melanie's Christmas party and had a blast. We saw Happy Feet, watched the kids decorate cookies, sang around Mel's new piano while Steve displayed his amazing skills, ate incredible food (ham, potatoes au gratin with gruyere and fennel, brocollini, asparagus, and beans, rolls, croissant bread pudding and banana pudding), opened gifts (mittens that Melanie knitted for all the nephews and nieces, and The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook for the adults) and laughed a lot.
- Our house is decorated for Christmas! This topic will be further expanded tomorrow in a post dedicated entirely to the decoration of our first house for our first Christmas in it! Yippee!
