Sabrina

Tyler's sister Sabrina had to be admitted to the hospital today. She has pneumonia. The doctor told them that if she wasn't better by Friday she would have to be admitted so I guess they had to admit her before Christmas. We are sorry that she has to spend Christmas at the hospital but hope she gets better soon.

We wish Barbara, Emily, Sabrina and Madison a Very Merry Christmas!

Work Party

I had my work party on the 12th. We made a reservation at Christopher's Steak & Seafood and got tickets to Kurt Bestor. Tyler asked if he had to dress up and I told him to wear a nice shirt and he could wear jeans. It was only Kurt Bestor not the symphony. I pulled out a button down shirt I had purchased for him a year ago at the Gap which he has never worn. He complained that it was a Sunday shirt. I convinced him it wasn't and he looked really nice. He should wear it on a date. I had also purchased him a jacket at the same time at the Gap which he also has never worn. I gave it to Michael last month but the shirt was too small. That was the last time I purchased nice clothes for Tyler. He is a jeans and t-shirt guy. He didn't get that from me.
We had a really nice dinner. Tyler had steak and a king crab leg. He almost ate all of the crab but it ended up being too much. We also had creme brulee, my favorite dessert. I have had better but still worth the calories. We are all looking forward to eating at the Blue Bayou (twice) in Disneyland and having the Monte Cristo sandwich, mint julip and creme brulee. It doesn't get any better than that.

I need to take my camera back to Costco. It is just having problems.

Christmas Eve

Tyler went snowboarding with a friend this morning. I am glad he has the opportunity to go this year. This is the first year we have not purchased a season pass because he is working on Saturday's. They took the bus to Sundance which is so nice. I don't want him driving up there in this weather. There should be a lot of snow. The sun has come out now so it should be nice for a while before the next snow storm hits. He also wore his Christmas tie to church last Sunday. He got it last year for St. Nicholas Day. We didn't celebrate it this year because I was out of town.

We are looking forward to tonight when we have our German Christmas Eve meal of sausages, rolls, sauerkraut, rotkohl and potato salad. Mutter and Michael went to Salt Lake this morning to Vosen's Bakery and Siegfried's.

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Temple Square

I invited my mom to a weekend getaway in Salt Lake over the weekend. We were going to go for two nights but just didn't have enough time. We drove up on Saturday and checked in to the hotel and went shopping at the Gateway. We then went back to the hotel and rested for a couple of hours. We were on the 15th floor and a group of teenagers had checked in. Let's just say they acted like typical teens running, screaming and yelling down the hall with no adult supervision in sight. I did go out and yell at them once but in typical fashion they just ignored it. The purpose of our visit was for my mom to relax and recover after getting out of the hospital on Thanksgiving. Luckily she was able to tune the kids out. At about 2:00 a.m. they were singing Brittney Spears. I couldn't tune them out but what can you do.
That evening we walked around Temple Square and down to Siegfrieds for a German dinner and some treats. If you have never had Lebkuchen you have to try it. Plus they make the best sauerkraut there. Better than any we have had in Germany although not much comparison with Tante Magda's. She and Werner apparently stomped on it with their bare feet. Glad I missed that visit. We drove back Sunday through Park City and Midway. It was a fun getaway.

Ballroom Dance

Tyler had his Ballroom Dance recital on Friday, Dec. 5th in the Mountain View High School auditorium. The majority of the program was made up of Orchesis. We suffered through the "cheap ballet" until Tyler's performance. His class only had one dance. They performed "the hustle" to Last Christmas. He does really well at ballroom dancing. My mom told him that is where his talent is. He is going to take it again next year. I have it on video but it always takes too long to download to the blog. The only challenge came when he had to lift his dance partner. Fortunately nobody dropped anyone. He donated blood for the first time that afternoon which couldn't have helped. Today he is home sick. I didn't get any pictures but we took one afterwards.

Cross Country Awards Dinner

Last night was the Cross Country Awards dinner at Mountain View. All players were given an assignment to bring something. All I can say is too many green salad. They served lasagne with it which isn't my favorite. I have never cared for tomato sauce or ranch dressing. Oh well, it wasn't about the food and we didn't starve. The cross crountry team came in second at state and had a pretty good year. Tyler received a participation award as he wasn't able to run most of the season. He is going to start up in January with lacrosse and track and we will see how it goes. I am hoping the time off from not exercising has allowed his body to heal and he will no longer have chest pains, epecially since they couldn't find what was wrong. He has decided that next year he wants to focus on doing triathlons again and so is going to start swimming again in the summer on the local team and then swim high school. Swimming is great for his training. He was able to run the St. George marathon a few years ago solely from swimming. The doctor said his lungs are big so he should be a great athlete. Plus, it is nice he can drive himself to the pool in the morning.

Gingerbread House

Grandma bought Tyler a Snoopy gingerbread house kit last week and he has been busy working on it in his spare time. I love the kits because I don't have time to bake, even if I could, or buy all the stuff. We are trying to get Tyler's math done. He is doing Algebra II online through the online high school. It is going really well but the challenge is finding the time to get online and do the lessons.

O Christmas Tree

I finally got the tree up on Sunday. Wow, what a lot of work. I purchased some nativity ornaments when I was in Jerusalem back in '99. I can't believe it has been that long but each year that is how I decorate the tree. I used to put it over by the balcony window but moved it this year to keep it more out of the way. We are probably going to spend the night at my parents and open presents there as we are not doing a big Christmas this year since we are leaving for Disneyland on the 30th. Yippee- We are so excited. I am trying to lose 10 lbs. by then so I can fit into my Disney clothes. Yes, I have an enitre Disney wardrobe thanks to Michael.

Missionary Splits

The missionaries were in our ward on Sunday and immediately after sacrament meeting Tyler got up and said he should ask them about doing splits. What an amazing kid! He went with them on Monday night for four hours and had a great job. Sunday night he got out Preach My Gospel and began studying the chapters the missionaries asked him to review. He stopped by the house and borrowed Michael's suit jacket as he doesn't have one. It drowns him a little but doesn't he look like a missionary? He only has a year and a half before he leaves on his mission. We always talk about where he is going to go and the food in that country. Of course that is from watching Bizarre Foods. I keep telling him he is going to China.

Thanksgiving

I called my mom on Tuesday. She hasn't been feeling well since April and I had invited her for a weekend getaway and wanted to check with her about hotels. It was a good thing I called. She was on her way to the doctor's office. The doctor had told her she could come in to see him or go to the emergency room. She doesn't like the staff at the emergency room so was going to see the doctor. I made her wait for me to drive her even though she didn't think she could wait that long but she was going to drive - CRAZY! At any rate the doctor had her admitted to ICU. This is the third time this year she has been admitted largely because of her blood pressure which has been too high and this time too high for three weeks and medication was not bringing it down. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning at the hospital. They were able to bring her blood pressure down but still do not know why she is so sick. They ran all kinds of tests but nothing. They released on her on Thanksgiving. Michael met me at the hospital so I could leave to cook dinner. We didn't eat until @ 3:30 and had a nice meal. Mutti was even able to eat a little which was good because she hadn't been able to eat for days. We didn't take any pictures. Ty and I left shortly thereafter as we were all working the next morning and had to get up at 3:00 a.m. Not the most relaxing Thanksgiving but we got through it.