I booked our flights for the first part of December thinking it would be the perfect mix of post-Thankgiving/pre-Christmas activities.  One of the activities at the top of my “Things To Do While In Utah” list was to take the kids to see the lights at Temple Square. The King mentioned to me that the Christmas Devotional for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (you know, the Mormons) was scheduled  for the weekend we would be in Utah.  According to the church’s website:

This devotional will include Christmas messages from the First Presidency and music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square.

This means that not only would those in attendance get to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but they’d get to see and hear the prophet IN REAL LIFE!

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (you know, the Mormons) I believe that we are led by a living prophet. The prophet has always lived out of Salt Lake City, Utah (for obvious reasons).  I spent the majority of my growing up years less then 100 miles from Salt Lake City, and yet, I never ever had seen a prophet in person.  Sure, I watched the prophet on TV during our twice yearly General Conferences and other televised events.  But never in person.  (I would say this is very atypical for a Utah Mormon.  The King grew up here in Seattle and he’s seen more then one of the prophets during his life!)

I knew this was a ticket-only event and while the tickets are free, they are still hard to come by.  I called Temple Square and asked how I could get my hands on some tickets and the sweet old lady on the phone pretty much laughed at me when she said; “Those tickets have been gone since October.  The Conference Center holds 21,000 people and we get requests for tickets from over 500,000!”

Oh man, how I wanted to attend the Christmas Devotional.

I thought about who I knew that could get me tickets.  Instantly Heidikins came to mind.  She gave a coworker and myself a private tour of Temple Square a few years back and I knew she had some connections.  (I’m not sure I can blog about what her connections are. But they are very impressive connections!)

I e-mailed Heidikins to see if she could do anything for me.  She replied by saying: “IF (and this is probably a big “if”) I happen to get some tix I’ll be sure to pass them along, but I’ll probably only get 2, and the chances are pretty slim in the first place.”

I thanked her for tying and then sort of gave up my dream to attend.

(I’m sure you can guess how this ends, right?)

A week or so later I heard back from Heidikins; “Ok, so I for sure have 2 tickets for you!” (emphasis added)

OMH (Oh My Heck), The King and were going to the Christmas Devotional.  (Only 8 and older can attend.  For obvious reasons.  My Sweet Babboo would have to wait to see the prophet some other time.)

Heidikins sweetened the pot by saying she got another set of tickets and she and her new fiance would be attending with us.

We met up with them on Sunday night and headed in.  Our seats weren’t by each other, but Heidikins was pretty confident that she could pull some strings and get one of us moved.

(Isn’t Heidikins so pretty?!  You can’t see it but she was wearing fuchsia leggings and a gorgeous new diamond ring.  Both were awesome.)

Just look at this picture.  That’s the famous organ in the background and the MoTab (as we in the know refer to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as) warming up before it started.

When the Prophet and his counselors walked out on the stage the entire conference center (which holds TWENTY ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE) became dead silent and we all stood up to show our love and respect to these three great men.

The MoTab sang some beautiful Christmas songs and all three of them spoke and shared uplifting stories and counsel for this Christmas season.  The Prophet said:

The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than in things.

They announced a new website devoted to videos about Bible stories.  They showed the videos of the story of Jesus’ birth taken from Luke.  AMAZING. (Go and watch it now.)

The service ended with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing “Silent Night”. The congregation was asked to join in and sing the fourth verse WITH THE CHOIR.  When the fourth verse rolled around I sat there and sang, with tears in my eyes, and consciously acknowledged that this was a very special moment in my life and one that would never be forgotten.

My parents watched the devotional live on TV at their house with the kids.  My mom said Babboo looked for us in the crowd.  But with 21,000 people there he never saw us.

Thanks again Heidikins for working your magic to allow The King and I to participate in such a wonderful event.

(You can go HERE to listen to me singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!!)

(You can go HERE to watch or listen to the entire Christmas Devotional.)

Upon returning home from our trip I remember having the specific thought that while the divorce rate is statistically high none of our friends have gotten divorced.* I was thinking about our closest couple friends I couldn’t even predict that any of them would divorce.  They all seem to be pretty solid in their marriages.

A few days after thinking about this The King called me at work to tell me he had just read an e-mail from his oldest friend, The Groom, informing him that he’d left his wife over the weekend.

Bam!

And just like that we were forced to think about the demise of this marriage.  The King has known The Groom since the second grade.  He was the best man at his wedding and left me and a week old Babboo home to attend the wedding in Arizona.  Needless to say the two of them are tight.

The Bride and Groom have lived in Arizona since before they met so we’ve only ever hung out with them as a couple a few times.  But those times I got a very positive vibe from them.  I would have never suspected anything was amiss in their marriage.  But that’s how it gets you, right?

I had hoped The King would have talked to him and tried to talk him out of getting a divorce.  He said he mentioned something about “some days you are more in love with your spouse then on other days” but not coming right out and telling him he’s an idiot to leave her.  The Groom called one evening and talked to The King for over an hour.  I didn’t hear what was said but when the call was over I asked, again, if he had tried to talk him out of it.  He said he didn’t give him any advice because he didn’t think that’s what The Groom wanted from him.  I figured since he called The King he was specifically looking for his advice.

Just knowing that someone we knew was getting a divorce scared me.  I got nervous that maybe this was the start of more of our friends splitting up.  Now I know The King isn’t leaving me but I got nervous that the demise of The Groom’s marriage would give him some ideas.  Seriously, I know he’s not leaving me. But the idea that he could leave me made me sick to my stomach.

Marriage is hard.  I’m just hoping The Groom isn’t starting a trend.  I know I couldn’t handle any other of our friends splitting up.

So tell me, have you had to deal with friends divorcing?  How has it affected you and your own relationship?

*Technically one of our good friends got divorced a few years ago. But her husband was a horrible, horrible, horrible person and her situation was totally the extreme.  Plus, they didn’t have any kids so once the divorce was final he fell off the face of the earth never to be spoken of again.

He’s not the only one.

Since The King and I have planned all along to take our kids on adventures like this we had to plan things a little differently then if it would have just been the two of us.  First off The King did a little internet research and found the roller bag most recommended for kids to use, at the best price.  As soon as it arrived in the mail we made a pretty big deal about it to Babboo and hyped him up to use it on our trip.  We loaded it for a test run and had him practice with it around the house.  Babboo was excited to be considered big enough to be in charge of his own suitcase.  The King and I were excited that he was finally old enough to help carry his own weight.

We knew the only time Babboo would actually have to pull his roller bag was when we went from hotel to airport/train station and vice versa.  When we packed we made sure to spread our stuff out between the roller bag I’d  be in charge of, the backpack The King would carry and the roller bag Babboo would have. That way if, Heaven forbid, something happened to one of the bags we’d all still have underwear and an outfit to get by.  We kept Babboo’s bag as light as possible.

It worked out perfectly.  Babboo was able to maneuver the bag over bumps and curbs and load into trains without too much assistance.  If he got tired of pulling it The King and I were always there to take it for him for a few blocks.  But overall Babboo was a trooper.

As always The King was in charge of carrying the brunt of the luggage.  And, as always, he was also in charge of all map reading.  He says he doesn’t like having all the directional pressure on him, but I believe differently.  I know he secretly thrives on navigation all subway and train rides.

This time around I was in charge of Rerun.  I too did some research on how best to navigate around Europe with a 11 month old.  After trying out a few of my friends carriers I settled on the Ergo carrier.  I saved up my birthday money and found one on craigslist.  It was in good shape and the right price.  Plus it and was black.  (Which, let’s be honest, is my number one requirement!)

I carried my (not so) little baby everywhere we went.  Including hiking in the Cinque Terre.

What I liked most about the Ergo (which is not paying me to say this) was that Rerun could take a nap while we went about our sightseeing.  We didn’t have to go back to our hotel room and we didn’t have to feel guilty for not going back to the hotel room.  He was perfectly happy sleeping all cozy up against me.

And while the temperature in Europe in August can get pretty high, I never got too hot.  If I did get a little tired, which didn’t happen very often, The King was always willing to carry him in the Ergo on his back.

Even though it may not appear so, Rerun loved the Ergo.

Babboo was only two the last time we took him to Europe and therefore doesn’t remember anything from that trip.  (He claims to remember that we let him pee on the beach, but I don’t know if I believe him.)  He didn’t remember the glorious food in Berlin.  Most notably the döner kebab.  When he saw his first döner at the shop at Yorkstraße, which according to the locals is the best one, he audible gasped.

I admit I did too.

While we didn’t actively seek it out, we stopped at a remaining section of The Berlin Wall during our week in Germany.  I told Babboo to stand by it so I could take his picture.  I figured it would be a picture he’d like to see as an adult.  He asked us both what it was he was standing by.  The King and I looked at each other and just shook our heads.  This was not the time or the place to get into the horror that is Hitler.

We spent some time inside Tacheles looking at all the cool art.  Since it’s an abandoned building there were no lights and the place stunk like a sewer.  The place made Babboo a little nervous and I thought about the juxtaposition of The Wall and the art at Tacheles and how it should have been the wall that made him nervous, not Tacheles.

While Tacheles is one of The King’s favorite things about Berlin, I personally love Tiergarten.  Tiergarten is like the Central Park of Berlin.  Babboo was disappointed with the park and made the comment, “how can they call it a park? It’s all just grass.  There aren’t even any toys to play on here!”

Touché.

Babboo’s old enough now that The King and I can use him as sort of a tripod and we can finally get pictures of he and I together.  Although, like his father, he prefers to be a little more artsy in his photo taking.

I reminded him time and time again that taking upside down pictures wasn’t as clever as he thought it was.

Sure the boys won’t remember details from this trip.  But we had fun while we were there.

Next stop, Italy.

I quickly realized it was our new blinds.  I knew The King was going to be so thrilled they finally came and would want to hang them up as soon as he got home from work.  Since he gets home about 20 minutes after I do I decided to leave the box out on the porch so that when he was walking home from the bus and turned the corner to our house he’s see the box and be excited.  In the mean time I got the boys out of the car and settled inside before going outside to bring in our trash cans from the sidewalk (along with our neighbors can too).   Just as I suspected The King was home in a few minutes.  He walked in the house and immediately asked me why I just left the package out on the porch.

“I thought it would be fun for you to see them waiting for you.”

“Don’t leave stuff outside.  Just finish the job and bring it in.”

He wasn’t being mean. He wasn’t mad.  He just truly didn’t understand why in the world I would chose to step over the box instead of just brining it inside.

This morning My Sweet Babboo came into the bathroom while I was getting ready for work to tell me that he heard Rerun crying.  I stopped what I was doing and went to pick him up so I could get him dressed and fed before The King took him to the nanny’s house.  Rerun was clearly very hungry and he wasn’t very patient as I quickly changed his diaper and tried to dress him.  Rerun’s little diaper was soaked through and I just didn’t want to leave him on the floor crying while I went and flushed his diaper and hung the cloth part up to dry.  I made a rash decision and left the diaper on the floor.  I’d clean it up as soon as I was done feeding him.

As luck would have it The King was getting out of the shower right about this same time.  While walking over to his closet to get his clothes he stepped his freshly showered foot smack dab in the middle of the pee filled diaper.

“Why would you leave a dirty diaper in the middle of the bedroom floor?  Just finish the job and put the diaper in the toilet.”

“I didn’t think anyone would want to hear the baby cry while I cleaned it up so I decided to wait until he was fed to flush it.”

Again, he wasn’t being mean. He just truly didn’t understand why in the world I would chose to leave a dirty diaper on the floor.  (Okay, he might have been a little made about stepping in a dirty diaper.  Especially after Babboo and I both laughed out loud at him.)

This is how things typically play out in our house.  I’ll make a conscious choice to do the thing that I think The King will most appreciate.  And in the end it will be the completely wrong choice.  We figured this out about six months ago and so The King started telling me to “do the opposite”.  Whatever I thought he would like the most, I would do the complete opposite.  For instance, if I thought he’d want to see the catalog that just came in the mail instead of me putting it directly in the recycling I would “do the opposite” and put it in the recycling.

The average man and woman think completely different from each other.  It’s a psychological fact that if a man and woman walk into the same room they’ll notice completely different things.  So it shouldn’t come as any surprise to me that The King and I don’t think alike.  And yet, it boggles my mind.  When I saw the blinds on our porch I sincerely and honestly thought that The King would love seeing them there waiting for him.  I didn’t, not for one second, think that he’d be frustrated I didn’t bring them inside.  Trying to “do the opposite” is so hard for me because it feels so wrong.  With every fiber in my being I feel like making that opposite choice will be the wrong one.  And yet, when I’ve tested out his theory, it’s worked.

I’m not sure if communication is a hard thing for everyone.  But I feel like it’s especially hard for me.  Ten years of marriage and I’m still trying to figure it out.  I just need to keep repeating to myself, “Do the opposite.  Do the opposite.  Do the opposite.”

So tell me, do you and your significant other struggle with communication or do you have another cross to bear?

• Christmas was good.  The King wanted this year to be “magical” for Babboo.  We figured we only have a few good years of him totally believing in Santa Claus and we’d better take advantage of it.  Needless to say Babboo was spoiled a little more then I’m totally comfortable with.

• For the first time in our ten year marriage The King and I sat down and wrote out actual goals for 2011.  One of them is to go out on a Date Night at least once a month (for a total of 15 times in the calendar year.)  We’re going out tonight and again next Monday.

• Speaking of next Monday….we’re going to see Rhett Miller and The Old 97’s!!!  Hooray.  We haven’t seen them since back when I was knocked up.  We’re both pretty excited.  The King’s already written up the songs he wants them to play.  And I’m trying to get up the courage to DM Rhett Miller to see if we can get back stage.  Gulp.

• One of my personal goals for the year is to post to my blog at least once a week.  Back in December I paid for my blog for the next year.  I want something to show for the money I paid.

• One of The King’s goals is to be more consistent in doing yoga.  He decided that he wanted to go off dairy to help him with his flexibility.   There are two things I don’t like about this:

• • He didn’t discuss this before hand with the rest of the family, so Babboo and I didn’t have a vote.
  • Dude, I DO NOT want to go off dairy.

• We’ve recently become obsessed with both Nick Kroll.  You must search the interweb and listen to him.  Our favoritea are El Cupacabra and the Ed Hardy Boys.  We can’t stop saying “que pasa baby” at our house. Even Babboo says it.

• And I know we’re about ten years behind on this, but we’ve also recently become obsessed with Tosh.0.  We DVR’d all of the old episodes and have been watching them the last few weeks.  Tosh.0 reminds me of why the internet is so awesome.  And for that, I thank him.

• Due to policy changes at the school district my dad has taught at for the last 24 years he was forced to retire over Christmas break.  It was either that or lose his pension.  He had two days to make the decision and once he submitted his paper work he couldn’t return to work.  No time to say good-bye to his students or prepare them for it.  They just came back after Christmas break to find that their favorite teacher was no longer there.  And so now my dad is retired and wasn’t mentally prepared to be retired yet.  He’s recently become even more obsessed with Facebook and his status updates are getting a little creepy.  I hope nobody tell him about Twitter.

• • Seriously, don’t tell him.

• While I was on maternity leave the company The King works for moved a block away from my office.  Again for the first time in our ten year marriage we’ve been meeting for lunch every now and again.  It’s pretty cool to spend time with him away from Babboo and Rerun and be reminded that we actually enjoy each others company and that we can still make each other laugh.  (I think we’re supposed to meet today. Which would mean we’re having lunch AND dinner together today.)

• I went back to Weight Watchers last week.  There is so much to say about this and yet, so little I want to say.

• We went to Vancouver, Canada last weekend.  We usually pay about $35 a day to park at the hotel.  (The hotel that we get on Priceline for less then $70.  Do the math.  We’re getting screwed on parking.)  Last weekend we tried just parking for free on the street.  Totally worked.  Saved us a ton of money.

(This is us in front of the 2010 Olympic Torch last weekend.  We’re a little late on this too.)

• The King gave me a new type of calendar for Christmas and I’ve had to learn a new way to keep track of my schedule.  It’s embarrassing how hard it’s been for me to change my way of thinking.  I guess us old people do get stuck in our ways.

• So tell me, is there something you’ve wanted to blog about for a while, but just could never seem to write an entire post about?

(I have no idea why when I use bullet points in a post my font gets all messed up.  Please forgive how lame this looks.  Unless you’re using a reader.  Then I’m sure it looks just fine.)