A Few Fun December Events

New pots and pans for Christmas (Thanks to Mom and Dad, Gr+Gr B, and Gr+Gr Richards)













A few games of air hockey New Year's Eve.
















Playing Settlers of Catan (Thanks to the Carter Family)












Jason grows a beard over Christmas break



















Christmas Eve get-together














Baking sugar cookies for the neighbors













First Presidency Christmas Devotional with Marilee and Devin












Playing Hide-n-seek with my nieces


A few other fun things . . .

1. Enjoying the cool snow storms (not quite as cool while stuck in traffic on I-15)
2. Speaking in Sacrament Meeting the day after Christmas
3. Singing Christmas music with the ward choir
4. Filling in as a last second Mary for our family retelling of Luke 2
5. Watching my nephews James and Grants "rip" their presents and enjoying the delicious breakfast afterward.
6. Being Santa Claus for my parents this year
7. Attending a BYU basketball game
8. Seeing Hale Center Theater's production of "A Christmas Carol" with family
9. Going to Temple Square 3 times! --- to see my parents sing in their missionary choir, the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and David Archuleta with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
10. Having days off of work to spend time talking, eating, and playing with family.
11. Ringing in the new year with ping pong and air hockey.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, it's hard to believe that Christmas is already over. It has been such a wonderful month full of Christmas music, concerts, plays, family get-togethers, and holiday treats. I've enjoyed a few extra days off work and have completely enjoyed it. Unfortunately I've enjoyed it so much that I'm sad that I have to go back to work tomorrow for another few days before New Years. At least the break is not completely over, but working seems a rude interruption to an otherwise lovely holiday break. I think it's extra hard since this is the first time I've had to work during the "holiday break" in the last 6 years. I definitely enjoyed that perk of being a student or working on the academic schedule. Hopefully I've survive and still find time to actually write more about what I've been up to this month.

But if I write nothing else this Christmas season, I definitely want to express my gratitude for a knowledge of Jesus Christ. There's really not a better reason to celebrate than to honor his sacrifice and gift to the world. Life doesn't always go as perfectly as I would like, but it has gone much more "perfectly" overall as a result of his tender care and mercies in my behalf. I really feel sad that the world in general is losing touch with this the greatest source of peace and happiness. Anything and everything can be made better, stronger, wiser, and kinder through his loving and healing influence. My hope is that I can be more Christ-like in the coming year and spread more joy and peace to those around me. That is the best gift that I can give back to the Giver of all good gifts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know this is late for anyone following my blog, but better late than never. It's already after 10:00 and I should go to bed, but I know if I don't write this soon, I never will.

I had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving. I got two days off of work and they let me go home early on Wednesday. Those were my first days off of work since Labor Day and it was really nice to have a break! We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Jason's family this year. We met at his brother Jeff's home in Provo. The food was delicious, but my favorite part was holding Jeff and Sally's 3-day old son. James is definitely a cutie even though he didn't do much the whole time I was there except sleep. :)

That evening we went over to my parents house and watched a Hallmark Christmas flick. Perhaps a little ironic since it was Thanksgiving, but I really liked it anyway. We got it at Redbox. It's called "Mrs. Miracle" for anyone else who wants to watch a cheesy feel-good movie.

Friday we put up our Christmas tree and decorated for the holidays. We went over to my brother Keith's house in the afternoon for some pizza, ping pong, and hide-n-seek with my nieces. Then we hurried home and changed just in time to be picked up to go to the "Savior of the World," a musical/play performed at the Conference Center, with Jason's parents, Chelsey, and Mike. It was really good. That was the second time I had seen it, but it's worth seeing more than once. It's a great thing to do to start off the Christmas season. We stopped at Red Robbin for dessert afterward and I enjoyed a yummy strawberry shake.

Saturday afternoon we went over to Jason's parents' house to watch the BYU vs. U of U football game. It was pretty intense the entire time and kept us nervously waiting until the last few seconds when Utah blocked a field goal and BYU lost the game. I won't mention that we (BYU) were ahead pretty much the entire game and should have won if it weren't for some poor calls by the refs, but that's football!

After the game we rushed home to make dinner for company. My brother Keith, Kim, Talisa, and Kira all came over for some dinner and games. The dinner turned out pretty well and the kids were well behaved enough so we could teach Jason how to play Settlers of Catan. He liked it so much that we've played it 4 times since then. I love being around Kira (1 1/2) who is so happy and full of smiles that she's puts a smile on my face when I see her.

Sunday was a good day to stay at home because it snowed all day and all night. Jason and I enjoyed a quiet day at home and sang in our ward choir for a stake activity that night. We were glad we didn't have to go any further than the stake center that night and it took me over an hour to get to work the next morning because of the snow and ice. It's weird to have so much snow so early in the season, but it definitely puts me more in the Christmas mood.

Even though I won't take the time to write my list of "thankfuls" right now. I do want to mention that I am so incredibly blessed and have so much to be grateful for. Although my life right now isn't exactly as I pictured it would be several years ago, I have no complaints. Jason is the best husband and friend anyone could ask for. I never get tired of talking to him or spending time with him. I thank the Lord every day that I'm married and sealed to such a good man. I'm also very grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I couldn't be happy without it. It blesses my life every day. I think it's only appropriate that we have a day of Thanksgiving as we enter the Christmas season so that we can focus more on our many blessings made possible by our Savior Jesus Christ. He truly is the reason for the season.

A New Calling and a New Plan

This has been a good week with a few news updates. First, I was sustained as a Relief Society chorister today in church. I joke with Jason that they called me as chorister because I am one of the very few sisters that is consistently there on time for the opening hymn. We have RS first in our schedule and currently it starts at 8:30am.

Second, Jason made a final decision about seminary and has decided that it's not the career path for him. He has enjoyed it at times, and has learned a lot about himself and about teaching. We both feel like the experience has been a blessing for him in many ways, but it just isn't going to work out long term. So the question is, now what? Well, that's a good question. Jason plans to teach to the end of the semester which will end the middle of January, but then the sky is the limit. If anyone has any ideas of what we can do with our lives, let us know. We're open to suggestions. :)

We enjoyed our weekend. Friday we had some friends over for dinner and games. They taught us a new game called Manila. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed talking to them until late.

Saturday I cut Jason's hair and then we drove to the Provo Temple to do some temple work before the BYU football game. Grandpa Richards was kind enough to offer us their tickets on the 50 yd line for the game against New Mexico since they couldn't go. We thought it was going to rain on us, but the weather held up through the whole game. It was fun to watch the game again after only having heard the games on the radio for the whole season. And for anyone who didn't watch it, the Cougs won 40-7.

After the game we went out to dinner at Sam Hawk, our favorite Korean restaurant. It was delicious!!! I really like a good pork bulgogi. Thanks Sara, for introducing this yummy meal to me. On our way home rain quickly turned to snow and by the time we woke up this morning, there was a good 6 inches of snow outside. It was beautiful. A lot of it melted during the day, but there's more in the weather forecast for the next couple of days.

Work and Weekends

I haven't written for a couple weeks which means this post will be a collection of random thoughts and happenings.

Work has been pretty stressful and busy the last week and a half. I've put in some extra time at work, but I'm trying to keep it to a minimum. We delivered a script review for the first module of the parenting skills training that I'm working on. There was a miscommunication about the expectations of how far along the project should be and my project manager started looking through the course about 6 hrs. before I was ready. Then she got concerned it wouldn't be done on time because she had scheduled a Quality Control check a day early and the whole thing got blown out of proportion. I ended up getting it done in time for the QC and we were two hours early on the delivery and I thought that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, even though the course script was well done, it wasn't good enough for the client who ended up nit-picking it and causing a lot more stress and grief. Fortunately the project manager was on my side for that, but trying to make the corrections and meet the demands of their mixed messages is difficult. It undermines my confidence of designing because I worry that nothing I do will be good enough for them. Anyway, that's a simplified version of a complicated mess, but I'm hoping that everything will at least smooth itself over since I'll be designing about 28 more modules for this client in the coming six months.

It's been a little strange to have the sun go down so early now. I used to drive to work at sunrise, and now I drive homeat sunset. It makes me tired earlier in the evening so sometimes I go to bed at about 9:30 or 10:00 when Jason goes to bed. We usually go to bed about the same time, but then he gets up three hours before me! The latest news with seminary is that Jason is less and less keen on the idea of doing this for the rest of his life. He still won't give a final answer on the subject but he has started looking into other job options if that means anything.

Speaking of seminary though, Jason and I went to the Lehi Junior High production of Peter Pan on Friday night. We went with low expectations for a junior high play but were both surprised by a really great rendition of the play. The music was fun, the acting was impressive for the age group, the scenery was really well done, and the whole production went really smoothly and not too long. Overall we both really enjoyed it and Jason had fun seeing many of his seminary students both in the play and in the audience. It's funny because the 9th graders get really excited to see "Brother Burningham" and come up to say hi, but then they get embarrassed or shy and don't know what to say next.

Last weekend we also went to a really nice Holiday Seminary dinner at UVU. They had a meeting with the Utah County North area at the institute building where they highlighted a really cool talk byElder Maxwell called "In Him All Things Hold Together" and then we went to the ballroom afterward for a nice dinner.

This weekend was also our Stake Conference. The meetings were both good, but unfortunately it seems like they should have been better attended. For the adult session last night, we filled up the sacrament room area put three rows into the overflow. Maybe that's normal, but we would have twice that many in the BYU student stakes at least. For this morning's session we sat by our friends the Simmons. Brandon is the Elder Quorum President and Jason home teaches their family. I actually went with him last time since his companion couldn't go and they are a really nice family. They have three really cute daughters and I have apparently become best friends with the middle daughter Lynaea who is 5 yrs. old. She sat on my lap for about 1 1/2 hrs. or the 2 hr. meeting and was really well behaved. She was really cuddly and it was fun to have her sit with me. At one point she randomly said, "I like being with you." I loved it!

The funniest part of Stake Conference was watching an assisted living center bus drive a load of elderly members literally across the street back to the center. I can see why it would be necessary, but it was still kind of funny. The name of the center is the South Towne Ranch where Grandpa Rasband lived for about a year. I didn't know that I moved into his old stake.

After the adult session of Stake Conference last night I think I went a little stir crazy and ended up starting a pillow fight with Jason that night and then convincing him to play Hide and Seek in the dark. It was actually pretty fun, and then we got distracted trying to fit into small places in our apartment, like under our computer desk and under the bathroom sink. Jason didn't think it was possible tofit under the sink, but I provedhim wrong, and then ofcourse he had to try it too. :)

Happy Halloween

I think Halloween in a fun holiday, especially for kids. I like the fun festivities as long as it's not too scary or gory. Even though I don't like to be scared, I think a good startle is fun every once in while. Actually, I like to jump out and scare Jason any chance I get, and he returns the favor.

This weekend Jason's brother Steve and his wife Kirsten and their two kids were here from New York City. We enjoyed talking to them for a few hours on Friday night in Alpine where I finally got to meet little miss Brook who was born about 4 months ago. Even though Brook was tired, Kirsten was nice enough to let me hold her a long time.

Saturday Jason played football in the morning, we did sealings at the temple in the afternoon. Then we headed to Provo for another Burningham family get-together. The nieces and nephews all dressed up in their adorable costumes and Jason and I went around to a few houses while they trick-or-treated. That area is a great one for trick-or-treating. After trick-or-treating for about an hour they brought home a LOT of candy, and fortunately for me, Claire didn't like about half of the candy she got. :)

Today after church Jason and I went home teaching to his family and then to choir practice. I love singing Christmas music! We also went over to my parents’ house for a birthday dinner for my sister that was delicious as always.

My little niece Brook

The trick-or-treaters -- Truman, Dallin, Claire, and Ben

Kirsten, Ben, Steve, Jason, and Julie

A Cake-Walk to Remember

Saturday was our ward Trunk or Treat activity. Since Jason and I are on the committee we spent a good portion of our day getting ready for it. This involved making and frosting cupcakes, finding Halloween music, cutting out bats and ghosts, and setting up chairs, table, and decorations.

At 6:00 the adults and costumed kids came running in the door for dinner, games, and CANDY. It almost seemed like there were more kids than adults--I'm estimating at least 50 kids or so. After dinner we hosted a few rounds of a cakewalk for different age groups. The first group we called up were children under 5. Big mistake! We suddenly had 20 small children who didn't know how to do a cakewalk and didn't know how to read numbers either. We quickly adjusted and called out the shapes they were standing on instead of numbers-- such as bats, pumpkins, or ghosts. That way, 1/3 of the kids could win at the same time. Our cakewalk adventure only got better after that, but out numbered shapes got TRASHED by the many children after the first 10 minutes. Note to self: laminate the shapes and TAPE them to the ground!

Well, we eventually got them all through with a cupcake of their choice. Some kids liked it so much that they stayed in the circle just to walk around again and again as they ate their cupcake. What they didn't know was that I rarely read the actual number on the slip of paper I drew from the bag. Just to speed things up, I called out my own numbers to make sure the people without cupcakes would win sooner rather than later. What a chaotic game! We only had one injury for the night though. As we were cleaning up the game so the kids could go outside for the trunk or treat, a 4-yr.-old boy was trying to get off the stage and lost his balance. I only saw his feet as they went over his head off the stage. He landed on his head and went home with a big goose-egg to show for it. I was just glad that it was the son of the activities chair and not someone else.

After most people went outside for the trunk or treat, Jason and I took a quick walk around the parking lot to see people's trunks and then headed back inside to assess the damage done to the church. The cultural hall was a disaster! I told Jason the bad thing about kids in costumes is that they tend to act like they're dressed, and when you have costumes like Thing 1 and Thing 2, Avatar, Batman, the Grinch, and such, it makes for a disaster, one that takes a long time to clean up.

I'm just grateful for those who pitched in to put away tables, chairs, wash dishes, and vacuum. I think you may be able to acquire saint-hood just for staying after church activities to put the church back together again. Needless to say that when we got home that night, we were EXHAUSTED!